The twenty-sixth book that I’ve finished reading this year is Anthony Hayes’ “The Complete Guide to Lesson Planning and Preparation”. Coining the four cornerstones of lesson planning as educational aims, needs analysis, context and structure of cognition, Hayes expands these concepts in detail through the 13 chapters of the book, progressing from curriculum planning to long- and short-term planning, then use of resources, time, space and language, and finally progression, differentiation and assessment.

At first glance, the comprehensive components may be overwhelming, especially for novice teachers. However, as Hayes put it, ”In teaching, one can’t do everything at once.” Hence the step by step progression from the basic building blocks to the more intricate designs of differentiation.

One of the revelations that I gained from reading this book is the often overlooked importance of language in learning. This not only concerns the additional languages that students may speak, but also the use of critical and creative language in every subject (in all four modes of language, too), which requires patience and confidence. Unfortunately, it is met by the challenge of the bureaucratic emphasis on short-term measurable outcomes. Under such stress, it is difficult to cultivate students’ long-term language proficiency through a series of activities that may culminate in multi-domain projects. Nonetheless, having higher awareness of this issue, teachers can attempt to plan their lessons to include such skills for student needs.

All in all, I would recommend this book to any teacher, whether a novice or one with experience, as the framework it provides can definitely spark some new thoughts that will help in lesson prepping.