How to Make Explanations More Powerful

There are some obvious ways that we can make our explanation of complex ideas and concepts simpler:

Structuring what we say so that it has a logical order.

Identifying and making explicit the key points we want pupils to learn.

Hooking pupils’ interest with an attention-grabbing opening line (‘By the end of this lesson you’ll be an expert in knowing how mushrooms have sex’).

Linking the topic to pupils’ prior knowledge or experience.

Using connectives to clearly signpost the content (‘another’, ‘later’, ‘first’).

Using examples to illuminate a concept.

Using props or visual aids.

Using questions judiciously to test pupils’ understanding.

Being linguistically redundant - deliberately repeating some key concepts and vocabulary.

Using humour to keep pupils engaged.