Scripting Explanations - why bother?

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Over Easter I set myself the mammoth task of clearing my To-Read list. It's now the second Thursday, and I'm on my fifth T&L book (I also read three non-T&L books and have a fourth lined up for Shabbat). Basically I consumed a lot of media and it gave me lots of thoughts and lots to reflect on.
One of those reflections was on this quote from Willigham's Why Don't Students Like School:
"It's interesting to note that novice teachers often script their lessons, planning exactly what they will say. Expert teachers typically do not." (2009, p.136)
Now, Willingham goes on to say:
"[Expert teachers] plan different ways that they will discuss or demonstrate a concept, but they don't write out scripts"
and I don't think what I'm about to say disagrees with him in concept - it is about planning different ways that [we] will discuss or demonstrate a concept - but I wanted to share (what I perceive) as the value in writing out scripts.

When I walk into a classroom, this is what my lesson looks like:

or, alternatively, historically, the same concept but on lined paper under a visualiser. That's it. I don't really use PowerPoints or Slides any more. I sure used to. When I was fresh to the career. I had really jazzy PowerPoints (I think they're still available on TES). Over time though, I found it much easier to get the students to know what I want them to know if I just told them what it was. And I found it easier to get them to focus on what I was telling them if that was the only thing in the lesson to focus on. Initially I'd do this on the whiteboard, but then I found I had my back to the kids and that's not ideal, so I switched it up to the visualiser. I stuck with the visualiser for a fair while, but those of you who've read my stuff before will know I've switched to using a graphics tablet. 

This style of teaching has its drawbacks. Without a presentation, it's hard to remember what it is you want to say. Which is when I started writing myself little scripts.

It is and has always been vital that you get your explanations right. As Tom Sherrington so neatly put it in his 2013 blog Great Lessons 6: Explaining: "At the core of a great teacher’s skill-set is the ability to explain the concepts, theories and techniques that make up their subject." That's sort of a fundamental of teaching really - explaining things, ideally well enough to make sense. Even if you hate the idea of a knowledge-rich curriculum, or you're a die-hard advocate of enquiry-based learning only, at some point, you're going to have to explain something. And wouldn't it be a good idea if when you're explaining it, you weren't wasting everyone time? 
When we start an explanation, we generally know where we're going, but if we don't know how we're going to get there we risk waffling. Too much waffle and the kids tune out. There's a reason TikToks are only like 50 seconds. [Yes I realise I waffle a lot when I blog, don't @ me.] Second, if you're not accurate with your explanations, what you're trying to get across gets lost - they might remember what you said (great) but what you said might not have been particularly on the money (not great). So I script. Now, I'm not saying you need to have a full document with stage directions etc etc, but you do need to know exactly how you're going to say what you need to say.

So, without further ado, in no particular order, scripting is useful (important?) because...
  • ...it helps you cover everything out loud:
    Sometimes in the heat of the moment we forget a little nugget of detail that will really help the class understand what we're on about. Maybe you forget to verbalise the units when you give an answer, or you skip saying all the steps in a problem. I've found, when I've scripted it, I'm less likely to do that.

  • ...you can check what you're saying actually makes sense:
    Can you follow your train of thought from the start of your lesson to the end? Is it clear where each "bit" comes from? Is your explanation good? If you've use an analogy, is it a good one? [For some reason when I try to think of an analogy on the fly, they always involve eggs] If you haven't used an analogy, should you have? [The answer is probably yes].

  • ...having the bits in the right order is important:
    I'm not talking about making sure students know what an ion is before you talk about ionic bonding, I'm talking small scale. Sometimes I've found that an example I've saved for later in a lesson works better nearer the beginning - maybe it's a better worked example than a practice question - or vice versa. When you have the idea of what you're going to say clear you can move things around much more easily than when you just have vague bullet points that you're planning to wing it off of in front of 30 children.

  • ...it's useful to look back on when you plan the next lesson(s):
    We all know we should be planning in sequences of lessons so we can make sure we interleave appropriately and make the relevant links and in practice does anyone even do this other than those on light timetables? If you know (roughly) what you said, you know (roughly) what the students heard. You don't have to guess "wait, did I mention X?". It also means you can tailor your use of language accordingly - if they're struggling it might be an idea to use similar or even simplified language, if they're excelling, maybe crank it up a notch. 

  • ...it helps you remember everything you want to say.
    This is a separate point to the above because it's not about prepping the script. It's not about making sure you give a good explanation or that the explanation is good - it's just remembering said explanations


Yes, scripting lessons does take time and time is the most valuable commodity in a teachers life. As Fran Miller Warran put it, "it was [winging it] or rarely see friends/family"
I've been relatively lucky - I've managed to resist the curse of being TLRd [although I am currently Enrichment Lead for free because I am a schmuck] - so I've been able to (and going forward will be able to) focus more on my teaching and not so much on any additional responsibilities. That being said, I think my style of teaching lends itself well to being scripted. That's all I write. I write a sketch of what I'm going to say and what questions I'll probably ask. If necessary I'll make sheet with some practice questions on it, but I'd have to do that anyway whether I scripted or not. I don't make PowerPoints and muck around with fonts. And I don't actually write it. I say it. I open Google Docs, I turn on their speech to text function, and I narrate my way through the "lesson". If I'm planning at home, I've been known to wander around my room, gesticulating as if I'm actually teaching the class. But at the end, there's an accurate representation of what I think I should say. I can then look back at what I've said and move things and change things and delete things. It's great. By the time I've finished, I will have what I want in my head pretty solidly but I'll have a copy on my screen or printed out and on my desk. And usually, like an actor running lines, by the time for the performance, I know what I'm saying, and don't actually need the script.

(I'd also argue that being solid on what you're going to say limits the amount of re-planning you have to do because the class hasn't quite understood what you're on about).

Like always, the above is my personal view and you don't have to agree. And if you're looking for what to say, check out CogSciSci's Library of Explanations

Willingham, Daniel T. (2009). Why Don't Students Like School?, First Edition, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Sherrington, Tom (2013) Great Lessons 6: Explaining, https://teacherhead.com/2013/02/13/great-lessons-6-explaining/ [Accessed: 15 April, 2021]