The Lecturer's Re-entry Plan: Designing an Encouraging First Week of Teaching

<p>This is the period most lecturers plan poorly, because they plan the content and not the sequence of recovery. The plan below assumes you have taught before and are returning, that the class meets 1 to 2 times a week, and that the term has 12 teaching weeks plus reading weeks.</p> <table><thead><tr> <th>Week</th><th>Teaching</th><th>Assessment</th><th>Student support</th><th>Your work</th><th>The one thing to get right</th> </tr></thead><tbody> <tr><td>Before</td><td>None</td><td>Publish the deadline map</td><td>Post the pre-term survey</td><td>Days 14 to 1 of the prep plan</td><td>The course promise, the deadline map, the diagnostic</td></tr> <tr><td>1</td><td>Sessions 1-2: context, diagnostic, worked example</td><td>Ungraded diagnostic</td><td>Post-term survey closed; opening the question channel</td><td>Teach less than prepared</td><td>Nobody leaves thinking they have failed</td></tr> <tr><td>2</td><td>Sessions 3-4: first core concept, group task</td><td>Draft due (5% of grade), feedback in 7 days</td><td>15-minute check-ins with anyone flagged in week 1</td><td>Publish the week 3 warm-up bank</td><td>The draft is genuinely formative, not a formality</td></tr> <tr><td>3</td><td>Sessions 5-6: second concept, application</td><td>Draft feedback returned; sample answer published</td><td>Pair check-in: every flagged student has had contact</td><td>Week 3 feedback survey; one change out loud</td><td>Feedback lands before the next submission, not after</td></tr> <tr><td>4</td><td>Sessions 7-8: consolidation, mid-term walkthrough</td><td>Mid-term returned with per-question method comments</td><td>Clinic format; visible tracker updated</td><td>Restructure the mid-term for weak areas</td><td>The mid-term result is used to change the teaching, not just the grade</td></tr> <tr><td>5</td><td>Sessions 9-10: application and case work</td><td>Group task, individual reflection returned</td><td>Three-way meetings for anyone with two flags</td><td>Trough management: cut one task</td><td>You still have energy on the Thursday of week 5</td></tr> <tr><td>6</td><td>Sessions 11-12: synthesis, guest or case session</td><td>Re-run the week 1 diagnostic, compare</td><td>Mid-term remediation plan for the bottom quartile</td><td>Prepare the half-term consolidation</td><td>The diagnostic comparison is used to show growth, publicly and kindly</td></tr> <tr><td>7</td><td>Sessions 13-14: new material with the corrected pace</td><td>Individual project brief published with rubric and sample</td><td>Week 8 survey: five questions</td><td>Reprioritise the marking queue</td><td>The brief is unambiguous: artefact, standard, length, deadline</td></tr> <tr><td>8</td><td>Sessions 15-16: project clinic, guest session</td><td>Peer review pairs assigned</td><td>Peer feedback published as a resource</td><td>Peer review moderation</td><td>Peer review is structured, not an open comment box</td></tr> <tr><td>9</td><td>Sessions 17-18: project clinic, project work</td><td>Individual project due in 2 weeks</td><td>Late-care contact: anyone who has gone quiet since week 6</td><td>Mid-term-grade project feedback drafted</td><td>Silence in week 9 is caught, not discovered in week 12</td></tr> <tr><td>10</td><td>Sessions 19-20: final synthesis</td><td>Peer feedback returned</td><td>Escalations closed out</td><td>Full marking sprint, scheduled in blocks</td><td>Feedback out before the exam revision period starts</td></tr> <tr><td>11</td><td>Sessions 21-22: revision, exam walkthrough</td><td>Peer feedback returned; project feedback returned</td><td>Exam anxiety drop-in, one hour</td><td>Second marking sprint</td><td>Students can use the feedback on a second attempt</td></tr> <tr><td>12</td><td>Sessions 23-24: exam, close</td><td>Exam marked by week 13</td><td>Exit survey with three questions</td><td>Exit task: what worked, what to change</td><td>You write the changes for next year while it is still fresh</td></tr> </tbody></table> <h3>What to have ready at each weekly boundary</h3> <p>Prepare these on the Friday before, not on the Monday morning:</p> <ul> <li>The next session, in the shape of the 10-minute skeleton.</li> <li>The three warm-up questions.</li> <li>The one-line purpose of the session.</li> <li>The deadline map updated if anything moved.</li> <li>One question you intend to ask, and the patient silence that follows it.</li> </ul>