You have a long-term student–for six weeks or more. You start a lesson and there’s that face: something is wrong with the student and you can’t quite tell what it is. So you ask. And then she says, “We had that lesson the first week I came.”
Or you recognize a student at your language school.
“Remember me?” he asks. “I had you last year.”
You nod and smile politely.
“And guess what? I’m in your class again.”
Oh, G-d, the embarrassment of being told you’ve already given that lesson. Or trying to remember if you gave a lesson to a former student. And then the frustration. Should you teach another whole unprepared lesson because of one student? Should you ask the student if it’s okay to do the lesson again?
Keeping organized and regular records of your classes and lessons along with the names of your students can be the answer to this problem of unnecessary repetition. Here are some simple steps that have worked for me:
Use your PC to keep records. There are many programs which help you organize all kinds of things and you may have a favorite organizer. I myself just use a document from my word processing program. But you should use a computer to keep records because you will be adding and subtracting the names of lessons and students daily–and you wouldn’t want to keep writing and erasing or crossing out names as you would if you wrote the items out by hand. If you teach several levels of classes, use one document file for each level. For example, I have one file ( or “page”) for advanced and proficient lessons, another for upper intermediate lessons and still another for intermediate. Color code the types of lessons in each level. For example, I group all grammar lessons in red for the advanced level. I do the same–red for grammar–for the other levels I teach. I use blue for reading, green for lessons that stress vocabulary and so on. Of course, choose the color that has some meaning for you within your lessons. You might put an extra note or highlight to indicate which lessons are from a particular textbook and which lessons use authentic material. If you don’t already have a list of your lessons, start now. Then every time you create a new lesson, put its title in the appropriate colored section in your file. Remember, it will be easier for you to organize your lessons if you divide them up into language levels and then into language goals. I think this works better than arranging them alphabetically because you may not always remember the title of your lesson. After each lesson, put the names of the students (first names suffice) who you just gave the lesson to. Pick one text color for current student names. Except for students who I think may return next year to my language school in Malta, I delete the name of a student as soon as he/she leaves the school. This avoids cluttering up the lesson entry with unnecessary student names. Don’t delete the name of the student if the student transfers to another class in your school because that student may return–as you know–to your class another week. And this way, you can see if you already taught a particular lesson to that student. For students who you think may return to your school within the next few years, keep their names next to the particular lesson, but change the text color of their names so that you know they’ve been former students. For example, I use orange to indicate current students and purple to indicate former students who had a lesson.
Of course, this recording system is not foolproof; occasionally, a student whose name you didn’t record will return to take your classes and you may find yourself repeating some lessons. But for the most part, recording your lesson not only helps you keep track of which lessons you’ve already done with students, but it’s great for planning lessons when you have a new group.