Why every lesson needs a good lead-in
You’ve probably had one of those teachers who begins each lesson by announcing, “Ok, class, today we’re going to learn about (insert topic here).” Or who waltzes in, and, without any preamble, says, “Open your books to page 16 and let’s get started.” Unless you’re really, really into the material in that book, you’re probably not feeling terribly excited about the class. And even if you are really into the material, “open your book” is something you could just as easily do at home from your couch, right?
This is not the experience you want your students to have.
Don’t worry- there’s a better way.
Now imagine you’re a student learning English in a Monday/Wednesday class. It’s Monday, and you haven’t really spoken English since last Wednesday’s lesson. You’re feeling a little rusty. The teacher walks into the room and starts the lesson by announcing, “Hi everyone. Today we’re going to learn some grammar.” Uh-oh. Grammar isn’t really your strong suit. In fact, you’re still struggling to wrap your head around last week’s lesson on the present perfect. There was a lot of terminology—you start scrambling to remember it all—and it was a little dry. You took detailed notes on everything the teacher wrote on the board, but you still don’t really understand why to use the present perfect—like, in which situations do you need it? Why can’t you just use the simple past? And now more grammar? Yep. The teacher tells everyone to open their books to page 16 and starts going through the first exercise. Oh man. You check your phone. How much more time is left in this class?
I’m guessing this is not the experience you want your students to have. But if you’ve been one of those teachers, don’t worry. There’s a better way.
“I answered confidently, “I’d start the lesson with a lead-in.”
”Ah,” my interviewer said. “I can see you’ve had some good training.” ”
True story: this is the first question I was asked in my first-ever ESL job interview: “So tell me, how would you start a lesson?” Thankfully, I had just finished my CELTA and I was able to answer confidently, “I’d start the lesson with a lead-in.” As I talked through a couple of lead-in activity ideas, my interviewer visibly relaxed. “Ah,” she said. “I can see you’ve had some good training.”
So what’s a lead-in?
At the risk of stating the obvious, a lead-in is how you lead in to the material you’re planning to cover in your lesson. It’s a way to engage your students in the topic and motivate them to participate in the class. Ideally, it’s also a chance to let your students warm up and get back into “English mode” as they may not have used English at all since the last class. Finally, it’s a way to set the context for whatever you’re going to cover in that day’s class. Context is basically just a fancy way of saying the lesson’s topic. But more about that in a minute.
General Lead-in Guidelines
Keep your lead-in to five minutes or less
in a 60-min lesson.
Lead-ins always happen at the beginning of the lesson; this is how you start each lesson.
In a 60-minute lesson, a lead-in should be about 5 mins max. This means you’ll have time for one quick activity, but not more than one.
The aim of a lead-in is: to set the context of the lesson; to engage students in the topic; to let students warm up; and to activate students’ knowledge/ language knowledge on the topic. If effective, a lead-in can do this as easily in 5 mins as it can in 20. Remember that you’ll want to save time for everything that’s coming later in the lesson!
A lead-in should not focus on specific grammar or vocabulary. The purpose here is just to get students engaged in the topic.
How to design a lead-in
Let’s say I’m teaching a lesson on the present perfect. By now it should be clear that starting the lesson by saying, “Today we’re going to learn the present perfect” is not an effective lead-in. As we saw in the example of our poor, grammar-averse student above, this risks alienating our students and stressing them out in the first two seconds of class. You don’t want to lose them before you’ve even started teaching! So what to do instead? Obviously, if I’m teaching the present perfect, my goal is that the students learn the present perfect. But they don’t have to know that! Instead, I want to “trick” them into being interested in the grammar before they even realize what’s happening. And to do that, I need to determine…
““Today we’re going to learn the present perfect” is NOT an effective lead-in.”
Context
The present perfect is not the context. The present perfect is the target language. To determine the context, I need to think about situations in which using the present perfect is appropriate. For example, we use the present perfect to talk about general life experiences or events that occurred at an unspecified time in the past.
I have been to Budapest.
I’ve never tried kimchi.
Have you seen that new movie?
There are a lot of directions in which I could go with this, but traveling jumps out as a theme in which there are a lot of opportunities for the present perfect to come up.
I’ve been to Budapest.
You have? I haven’t! I’ve been to Prague, though.
So the topic I’ll set for the lesson is “travel experience.” That’s my context.
“Who likes to travel?”
Make your lead-in about the students.
Make it student-centered
Now that you’ve determined your context, get your students engaged in it right away. One way to do this is by letting them relate to it in a personal way. Remember- make it about the students, not the lesson. Instead of saying, “Today we’re going to talk about traveling,” start the lesson by asking, “Who likes to travel? (raise your hand). Have you traveled a lot? Which countries or cities have you visited?” Assuming the students’ English level is high enough to have at least a short conversation, put them in pairs and let them discuss their travel experiences for a few minutes.
This works because…
It’s interesting. It’s safe to say that most people would prefer to talk about their trip to London or their classmate’s adventures in Thailand over auxiliary verbs and past participles. The ins and out of the grammar will come later in the lesson, once you’ve hooked your students with something more fun first.
It’s personalized. Never underestimate people’s desire to talk about themselves. And that’s fair, isn’t it? Honestly, if I’m a student, why should I pay attention to this lesson if I can’t see how it relates to my life and my language needs?
It’s invigorating. Just try it and see what happens. Within 60 seconds, your students will most likely be swapping stories with their partner, chuckling, and asking each other for more information. When it’s time to come back together as a class, they’ll be smiling, engaged, and energized to continue with the lesson.
It’s contextualized. Remember our student from above, who’d gone through a whole lesson on the present perfect, but still wasn’t sure when to use it? A lead-in like this solves that problem. By starting the lesson with context, we’ve immediately established a situation in which it’s common to use the grammar we’ll be introducing later on.
It creates a need for what you’re teaching. Think about it- we’ve just established that the present perfect often comes up when talking about traveling. And now you’re asking the students to talk about traveling. So won’t they need that grammar to have the conversation? Probably! There’s a good chance you’ll hear students say things like, “Yes, I go to London before.” Congratulations—what you’re about to teach just became super relevant. Now it’s an easy transition from the lead-in to putting some sentences up on the board like “I’ve been to London before” and examining the rules. And the students should now be especially motivated to pay attention because it’s grammar they’ve just realized they need.
It provides immediate positive feedback. If I start with the old “today we’re going to learn about…” strategy, I’m met with blank stares from my class. I have no real gauge of how my students are feeling. By letting them talk in pairs, I can walk around the room and listen in, finding out what they know about the topic, how interested they are, which vocabulary words they may or may not know, etc.
It takes the pressure off. If I’m a student, I get to warm up my English with a comfortable chat with a partner, rather than having to speak in front of the whole class right away. As the teacher, if I’m feeling a little nervous about the lesson, I get an immediate breather. While the students are happily chatting away, I can take a deep breath, shuffle my papers, and mentally prepare for the next stages. Plus, I can look around the room and realize that we’re only a few minutes into the lesson— and the students are already loving it.