Before we dive into the lesson components, let's familiarize ourselves with the key elements you'll encounter:

All lessons in Math & English have Openers. This is directly related to research showing that engaging students within the first 5-10 minutes of class is essential to maintain attention and support learning. Openers include interactive questions, previous knowledge recall, conversational topics, and more! Openers are not required to be used in the lessons, we understand sometimes time is short! Yet, we do strongly suggest incorporating some type of opener in your lesson when possible, even if it’s an entirely non-curriculum-related question. This will enhance your teaching by warming up your students' thinking skills and inviting them to be active participants in the class. It also allows you the time to do the typical teaching tasks at the beginning of class, such as taking attendance, while students are still engaged.

Lessons now include Sections in the learning targets to support organization and fluidity throughout the lesson. Each section name will appear at the top of the instructional visual aids and it will be paired with the name of the granular sub-skill/subtopic covered in that instructional visual aid to make things more explicit. All question and answer slides will include a section (e.g. Section 1: Order of Operations) and subtopic number (e.g. 1.1. PEMDAS) to help students and teachers navigate back and forth between notes and examples easily.

Icon Keys have been added to lessons in the top-right corner of each slide to show the type of slide that you will be using. Our four icons are an opener, turn & talk, notes, and examples. The first lesson of every topic will show an icon key as a reminder for teachers and students. The turn & talk icon can be alone or paired with any of the three other icons as a supplement. The addition of turn & talk questions helps teachers engage their students with each other, encourage discussion and investigation and provide leading questions to support student learning.

All lessons include a practical example to demonstrate the application of concepts. These examples are essential for reinforcing your understanding. In lessons that involve problem-solving or exercises, you'll find detailed explanations of the solutions to help you grasp the thought process behind each step.

Our content specialists quality audited all lessons to ensure our curriculum is optimally organized and that both the design and language are consistent across units and subjects. You will see the same theme, fonts, and style throughout all lessons to create a standardized teaching process. This is also helpful for students who are learning to take better notes or struggle with paying attention. Having the same format of lessons every day will eliminate any surprises and allow students to know exactly what to expect in your class. This way, they can focus on truly learning and understanding the topics that our lessons teach. This consistency also extends to the language being used to avoid student confusion and aid learning.

Now that you are familiar with the components of our lessons at ChalkTalk, you'll be able to make the most of your learning journey. The combination of theory, examples, and practice exercises ensures a comprehensive and effective learning experience.

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