The following practical hints will be helpful for the beginning teacher to make his lesson effective

The giving of a lesson is well planned and systematic action designed to achieve a set of defined objectives. It is to put the lesson plan into action. The following practical hints will be helpful for the beginning teacher to make his lesson effective:

(i) The contents of the lesson should be well-selected, planned and remembered. The teacher should bear in mind the children’s level, their interests and needs, aims of teaching and the time at his disposal.

(ii) The teacher must be clear about the general as well as specific aims of the lesson. He should always keep these in mind while teaching. This will give a definite direction to his teaching; (m) Arrangement of the illustrative material should be made before hand. The teacher should keep the apparatus, aids etc.

He should also be clear as to when, where and how these aids are to be used. He should also see that there is proper place in the class-room for displaying these aids.

(iv) On entering the class-room, the teacher should see that the physical conditions of the room are satisfactory. The windows and ventilators should be open. The black-board should be clean. The students should be properly seated.

(v) The relevant previous knowledge and experience of the pupils should be made use of while introducing the new lesson. The introductory step should be brief, to the point and straightforward leading to the heart of the new lesson. These steps should not take more than six or seven minutes in period of 40 minutes.

(vi) The teacher should not forget to announce the aim of the lesson when beginning to start the lesson. It should be written on the black-board also.

(vii) The contents of the lesson should be systematically presented. The different parts of the lesson should be so arranged that each part leads to the next and so on. The various parts of the lesson should be well integrated.

(viii) Wherever possible, the lesson should be correlated with various topics, subjects, crafts and life-situations. This will make it more meaningful to the pupils.

(ix) The adequate pupil-participation should be sought during the development of the lesson. The pupils are not simply to listen to the teacher passively. Let them put and answer questions, solve problems, performs experiments, give opinions and suggestions.

(x) The teacher must not forget to give individual attention to the pupils. He is to see that all the students take part in the development of the lesson. Individual doubts and difficulties should be removed.

(xi) The questions to be put by the teacher must be brief, clear and properly worded. He should observe the general precautions while putting questions. The back-benchers and the students sitting in the remote corner of the class should be especially kept alert and active by the use of questions.

(xii) The answers of the pupils should also be properly dealt with. The collective answer should be discouraged. The mistakes in an answer should be corrected by the pupils themselves.

(xiii) There should be no rigidity and monotony in teaching. The teacher must modify his teaching according to the class-room situations, even if he is to depart from his original lesson plan. He must never ignore the correct responses, suggestions etc. of the pupils. He should never get the impression that he is not prepared to tackle anything new that has crept into the lesson.

(xiv) The teacher’s movements while teaching should be timely and appropriate. He should avoid such movements as rolling a piece of chalk in the hands, playing with duster, leaning over the chair, a table etc. He should also not stand at one place like a statue.

(xv) Attitude of the teacher towards his pupils should be encouraging and sympathetic. He should encourage the pupils to ask questions, give suggestions and opinions, and express their doubts and difficulties freely without any hesitation. He should avoid ridiculing them in the class.

(xvi) The teacher should also take care of the work-habits of the pupils also. Faulty postures and habits of reading, working, standing, etc should be checked. Habits of neat, clean and systematic work should be insisted upon. (xvii) The teacher should not forget to do sectional recapitulation if the lesson is divided into sections. At the end of the lesson, final recapitulation should be done. (xviii) The formulation of generalizations, if any, should be done with the help of the pupils. The teacher should not give ready- made generalizations.

(xix) There should be proper division of time to be developed to the various parts of the lesson, for, otherwise that teacher may spend too much time on certain arts and rush through the renaming parts.