Lesson structure

How do you determine what to teach?

Assessment starts before the lesson does. When a booking comes in, confirm the time, obtain the pupil's licence number, and ask about their prior experience and what they want from their lessons. Treat claimed experience as a starting point rather than a fact, and verify it firsthand once you are in the car.

Key skills to cover

• Moving off and stopping
• Forward bay park
• Reverse bay park
• Parallel park
• Park on the right
• Emergency stop
• Vehicle clearance
• Major to minor right turns
• Major to minor left turns
• Major to major right turns
• Major to major left turns
• Crossroads
• Pedestrian crossings
• Meeting oncoming traffic
• Anticipation and planning
• Mock tests

The order and focus vary with each learner's needs. What does not vary is that you must have excellent knowledge of every subject on the list.

Subjects versus skill sets

A subject is a broader topic or goal, such as forward bay parking, the emergency stop, or moving off and stopping. A skill set is the collection of specific skills that achieve the subject: finding the biting point, moving the car in a straight line, steering accurately into a bay.

The importance of structure and simplicity

Teach in clear, manageable steps. A learner who understands the why, the how and the when of a skill has gained more than one who merely completes the task. You may not complete an entire subject in one lesson, and that is absolutely okay.

So, how do you plan a lesson?

Start with one core question: what skills do I need to teach in order to cover this subject? The answer becomes the layers of your Lesson Plan Cake.

The Lesson Plan Cake

• Layer 1 (the base). The first step in teaching a subject: foundational skills, such as understanding the clutch and finding the biting point. No car movement is required.
• Layer 2. Responsibility increases. The learner moves the car in a straight line in first gear with straight steering, concentrating on control and stopping while you share responsibility for safety and observations.
• Layer 3. The learner confidently moves the car in a straight line, and you begin transferring responsibility for observations and safety management.
• Layer 4 (the top). The learner takes full responsibility for moving and stopping the car. With the core skills in place, they are ready to progress to steering.

When teaching, always focus on the whys, hows and whens of each skill. Use open questions and guided discovery; answers like "Because I said so" or "That's just what you have to do to pass the test" teach nothing. Remember too that not every learner will start at the bottom layer of your cake. Open questioning at the start of a lesson often reveals prior knowledge that lets them begin higher up.

Your task

Create your own Lesson Plan Cake for each driving topic. For every subject, ask: what specific skills are required to complete this subject? Then break the subject into progressive layers.