Teachers! Here's the easiest way to engage your most challening class.

"Makes Your Lessons More  Interactive , More Cooperative , More  Engaging and More  Fun ."

"Participation Will  Increase  , Incidents of Bad Behaviour Will Decrease  ,Your Students Will  Enjoy Learning And You Can Use These Strategies With  Any  Group In  Any  Lesson... Forever." 

From:  Rob Plevin, Behaviour Needs 

Re: Needs-focused Lessons™

Dear Colleague,

  Are you tired of trying to dream up and source activities to interest and engage your pupils?

Are you frustrated with their complaints and negative attitudes towards the work you prepare for them? 

If the answer to these questions is 'yes', you're definitely not alone. 

It's a common tale... it's hard to keep some pupils on-task. In fact, in some cases it's an uphill struggle just to get them to sit down and start work, let alone keep them working.    The under-achievement of pupils and bad behaviour in lessons is of concern to parents, teachers, educators and politicians alike and it's a situation that just seems to be getting worse. 

For you, as a teacher, and indeed for the pupils you teach, it is stressful, frustrating  and non-productive. 

What's the answer?

Teachers are constantly (and somewhat patronisingly) being told that the answer to all this negativity is to simply... 'make your lessons more fun' 

... as if this alone will prevent and solve many of the problems associated with boredom, negativity and apprehension of some pupils towards school work. 

While we know deep down there is some truth in this – studies have shown that the best learning takes place when information is presented in a fun, stimulating manner - we also know from experience that it is an incredibly difficult thing to do lesson after lesson, day after day. 

Besides, after 15 years of teaching in tough schools and three years of coaching and training I've come to the following conclusion... 

...providing 'FUN' alone in your lessons is  not going to solve behaviour problems and it  won't miraculously improve your students’ learning. 

In fact, with some groups and some individuals, focusing on 'having fun' can actually cause far more problems than it solves. 

When pupils come to see your lessons as little more than a 'free-for-all' or 'game playing session', you can forget trying to teach them anything. Their behaviour will grow steadily worse as their respect for you disappears.

I’m not saying Fun isn’t important.  It is. After all, it is one of our crucial psychological needs. But it is not the only thing we need to be providing. 

The principle behind our  Needs-focused™ Approach   to behaviour management is that there are three main psychological needs (of which ‘fun’ is just one) and that they are each incredible motivators. As humans we MUST have these needs satisfied in our lives (to a greater or lesser extents depending on the individual) and often go to great lengths to ensure this is so. 

Here’s the rub... If we, as teachers, don’t provide an appropriate means for our pupils to get these needs met, they will seek alternative ways to satisfy them – often to the detriment of the lesson. 

What I’m, saying is that if we don't provide fun, the pupils will set about finding their own fun – throwing things around, walking around the room to bother each other, making fun of the teacher etc. etc. You’ve seen it all before. 

Having really engaging, fun activities for them to do prevents this behaviour to a certain extent but it is only part of the story.

If you're spending a huge slice of your time trying to find fantastic worksheets, great video clips and whacky demonstrations in the name of giving them 'fun',  it's a fairly safe bet your most challenging students will still spend a large proportion of their time ‘switched off’ or presenting problems. 

If your students are switched off you’re probably missing two more  vital pieces of the 'successful lesson' jigsaw...

  ...and including them in your lessons is going to give you the very best chance of success with your most difficult, challenging and  disengaged pupils. 

As well as providing ‘fun’, you can make your lessons more engaging and successful if you...

1) Meet their need to ‘belong’ – feel connected, involved and valued, and 

2) Meet their need to feel ‘empowered’ – by enabling them to feel they have actually achieved something, accomplished something and had their successes recognized. 

Remember, many of the reasons for bad behaviour in lessons relate to the student's feelings at the time - they are often bored, frustrated, angry or in need of attention. By satisfying their needs you ELIMINATE a large proportion of behaviour problems.

Let me explain a little further because this is hugely important.. 

We are ‘pack animals’ – we need to ‘BELONG’ to, or be part of, something bigger than ourselves. In short, we need companionship. Try telling any gang member, hobby group enthusiast, dinner party host or ‘new kid’ in school that this isn’t true. By making sure all your pupils feel involved in the lesson you lessen their desire to ‘opt out’, ‘switch off’ and form their own negative ‘splinter groups’. 

We also needto succeed and achieve and to be recognised when we accomplish something or make the right choices. Would you give your all to a meaningless, pointless and boring job which offered no incentives, no chance of promotion, no relevance to your life and no sense of accomplishment and a boss who didn't even know you existed? 

By providing lesson activities that are specifically aimed at the abilities and interests of ALL your pupils, by creating a setting and structure that is sensitive to their innate needs, by giving some autonomy in the way work is completed and by ensuring successes and accomplishments are acknowledged by staff and peers alike, you will effectively ‘EMPOWER’your pupils and reduce the chances of them refusing to work, arguing against you or constantly trying to get your attention for the wrong reasons.  

There are certain activities you can include in your lessons which meet all three needs, reduce behaviour problems and improve engagement and learning –   AUTOMATICALLY

I know what you’re thinking... This all sounds like EVEN MORE WORK but I want to tell you that there are some very straightforward ways of ensuring these three needs are met automatically  , which you can now easily begin to implement within the next 24 hours and which will enable you to experience the following benefits... 

Your students will get on with each other better  – less bickering, fewer arguments and less fighting for you to sort out 

Your students will gain a sense of accomplishment from the work they do.  Rewards are frequently touted as being the way to motivate workers and change behaviour but they only provide temporary solutions at best. To bring about long-lasting changes in the way your students view your lessons and work they need to experience INTRINSIC REWARD. With certain strategies in place they will discover that learning has its own benefits beyond a sticker, praise slip, voucher or EMA. That is the route to real motivation.

You'll no longer have to MAKE them work or cajole them into starting or finishing tasks.  Once they derive the feeling of satisfaction from work they produce they will be NATURALLY MOTIVATED to do more of the same. 

Pupils will turn up to your lessons in a better, more positive state of mind – looking forward to the lesson!  I know that sounds far-fetched but it’s true. If they continually have good experiences in the lesson why wouldn’t they look forward to the next one? It’s human nature.  

Your lessons will be more enjoyable for everyone concerned.  It’s not just the pupils who will benefit from all this. You’re going to save time, have less stress and enjoy a much better working environment. No more spending the entire week dreading that certain class. 

Introducing "Needs-focused Lessons™": A  Complete Program For Improving Lesson Delivery And Content

The aim of  Needs-Focused Lessons™  is to improve ALL aspects of your lesson delivery and content. Yes, there will be FUN. But in addition to fun we’ll be making lessons RELEVANT, making them INTERACTIVE, making them MEMORABLE, making them more ENGAGING and doing our best to ensure ALL your learners are adequately catered for. 

I like to use the simple analogy of your pupils each carrying an ‘emotion rucksack’ on their backs as they enter your lessons. If they arrive with the feeling that the lesson (based on their previous experience) is something they will have to ENDURE for the next hour – something that is boring, irrelevant to their lives or perhaps embarrassing or difficult – their rucksack will be filled with NEGATIVE emotions before they even set foot through the door. 

Teaching pupils who have preconceived negativity towards your lessons is the HARD way to teach. It’s very difficult getting students to engage when they have already made up their minds that the lesson isn’t something they’re going to enjoy or get any benefit from.

The easy way to teach is to have them actually LOOKING FORWARD to the lesson and carrying a rucksack with a little bit of INTRIGUE, perhaps recollections of a few LAUGHS they had last lesson or a feeling of SUCCESS and ACHIEVEMENT having UNDERSTOOD a difficult concept for the first time. That’s what meeting needs is all about and you’ll be pleased to know that there are certain activities you can include in your lessons which do this automatically. 

Here's how Needs-Focused Lessons™ can help transform your lessons...

Each section consists of activities and strategies that will contribute to satisfying each of the three needs. If you’re looking for a batch of worksheets or lesson plans I’m afraid I can’t help you. Besides, even the best worksheet or the best pre-written lesson plan will only help in the short term. What happens next lesson? You have to go out and search for another terrific lesson plan or great worksheet right? Very time-consuming and not very reliable. 

What you really need is range of frameworks, structures, strategies and activities which you can apply to any topic or any subject. That way you build up long-lasting teaching ‘skills’ rather than one-off ‘sticking plaster’ solutions. 

This is what you’ll get… 

	Cooperative & Active Learning Activities Cooperative Learning meets all three needs – pupils gain a sense of BELONGING from being part of a group, they find it EMPOWERING because they receive attention and recognition from their peers, they often have responsibilities within their group as well as having some choice in the tasks they complete. And because they actually enjoy working within this structure, they find it FUN. The hidden benefit to cooperative learning is that it SAVES YOU TIME because in many cases, once your pupils are used to the framework, they effectively teach themselves. Suddenly you are free from constant requests for attention and can actually enjoy giving quality support when it is required rather than when it’s demanded. Cooperative learning has been found to bost academic achievement dramatically, improve student relationships and create caring classrooms. Active learning helps you involve the bottom 20% of learners who tend to be exclusively ‘kinesthetic’ learners. Many people learn best by ‘DOING’ and you can’t afford not to include active learning in your lessons.
	Engaging Starters and Fun Energizers For effective learning to take place, body and mind must be focused and alert, and learners must be motivated to pursue the task at hand. Through the addition a range of starters and energizers you can increase the opportunities for active participation whilst developing positive relationships with pupils. Needs-focused lessons brings you a wide range of the best starters and energisers to use in your lessons.
	Engagement and Motivation Improvers Disengagement and lack of motivation are significant sources of behaviour problems in the classroom. A disinterested student is a ticking bomb – eventually he will find something that does interest him, and it’s a safe bet that the ‘something’ won’t be work-related. This section will present a range of strategies, tips and resources for improving lesson delivery, grabbing your students’ attention and ensuring they participate for the whole lesson.
	Engagement and Motivation Improvers Disengagement and lack of motivation are significant sources of behaviour problems in the classroom. A disinterested student is a ticking bomb – eventually he will find something that does interest him, and it’s a safe bet that the ‘something’ won’t be work-related. This section will present a range of strategies, tips and resources for improving lesson delivery, grabbing your students’ attention and ensuring they participate for the whole lesson.
	Engagement and Motivation Improvers Disengagement and lack of motivation are significant sources of behaviour problems in the classroom. A disinterested student is a ticking bomb – eventually he will find something that does interest him, and it’s a safe bet that the ‘something’ won’t be work-related. This section will present a range of strategies, tips and resources for improving lesson delivery, grabbing your students’ attention and ensuring they participate for the whole lesson.
	Plenary and Review Activities The plenary is not just a time for re-capping what has been covered in the lesson. It is a golden opportunity to end the lesson on a high! Remember the rucksack analogy? If we can get them leaving the lesson with a smile on their faces then we have less of a battle on our hands next time they return - they associate the lesson with good feelings. Use the activities in this section to review important points in a fun, engaging and memorable manner.
	Plenary and Review Activities The plenary is not just a time for re-capping what has been covered in the lesson. It is a golden opportunity to end the lesson on a high! Remember the rucksack analogy? If we can get them leaving the lesson with a smile on their faces then we have less of a battle on our hands next time they return - they associate the lesson with good feelings. Use the activities in this section to review important points in a fun, engaging and memorable manner.

Proven to make lessons ‘exemplary’

I must point out that these are the same strategies I have used in my own classroom and which resulted in my teaching being classed as ‘exemplary’ by Ofsted (The UK’s Office for Standards in Education), the same strategies that resulted in an Education Authority Advisor referring to me as an ‘extremely gifted and talented teacher’, the same strategies that had my lessons classed as 'outstanding' by an LEA learning consultant and the same strategies which result in our company receiving comments like these every day...

All delivered in a format guaranteed to ENSURE your success

I have thought long and hard about the best way to make the information in Needs-Focused Lessons™ available.

From personal experience I know that having everything all at once – e.g. in a book - does not make for the best results. Teaching is time consuming enough without having to plough through masses of written material to find something that might be useful.

I'm sure, like me, you've got books and resources sitting on your shelves or in cupboards that you intend reading but just can't find the time to do so. I don't want this resource to be like that.

There's no doubt that the best way to learn something is to actually ‘experience’ it. For example I personally have a 'repertoire' of about 40 standard games, starters and fill-ins which I rely on if I'm working with a group. I've read and know about hundreds more but I don't use them regularly because I'm simply not familiar with them - I haven't experienced them fully in action.

The idea behind the weekly program is to get you to EXPERIENCE and TRY OUT the ideas in your classroom as you go along.

If I just give you them all at once in the usual manner it will almost certainly be a case of ‘information overload’ and you might not ever get round to using any of them. That would be a waste of your money.

So, just like I do when I'm teaching pupils, I'm going to give you everything in 'bite-sized' chunks that you can test out as part of your normal working day.

Each week you'll get a selection of resources from each section. Every week you will receive some starters, games, cooperative activities, active learning ideas, plenary activities and a range of other strategies for increasing engagement which you will be able to integrate into any lesson topic throughout the week.

This way, by trying the ideas out as we go along, you will gradually build up your own huge repertoire of tried and tested ideas which you can draw on at will and use with any group whenever you want – without having to waste your precious time hunting round for resources at the last minute. They will be embedded in your memory because you will have had experience in using them.

How it works and who it is suitable for

There are 7 main sections (plus an overview/intro) and you receive content for every section, every week for 12 weeks. Each week you'll gradually build up a huge range of resources - it's basically like having 7 massive resources for the price of one.

Needs-focused Lessons™ is suitable for teachers and lecturers of all experience levels and in all areas of education. In particular, the activities and resources will be of use to those working at primary level (ages 5-10), secondary level (ages 11-18) and those working in colleges with the 16+ age-range. Those working in Special Edcuation settings with particularly challening and vulnerable pupils will also benefit.

This is a small selection of what you'll receive in your FIRST WEEK ALONE...

• 10 reasons why you MUST use Cooperative & Active Learning formats. When you lecture, they quickly forget. When they discover for themselves, they remember. You MUST use Cooperative and Active Learning
• Fantastic Cooperative/Active working arrangements and structures to get your pupils INVOLVED in the learning process and enliven your lessons
• 6 tasks to give learning partners and get the most from pair work. Pair work is powerful - nobody feels left out and nobody can opt-out! But you need interesting and stimulating tasks to give each partner. This will show you how.
• 6 reasons why you MUST use games in the classroom. There's so much more to a classroom game than a bit of fun. You may be surprised just how important they are.
• Your first classroom games. You can use them straight away in any subject
• The importance of fill-in activities as skill-builders. A highly enjoyable fill-in that will teach your students vital speaking and listening skills. If they interrupt and shout out without listening to you they will benefit hugely from this.
• The wrong way and the right way to start a lesson. If you get this questioning technique right you'll have your students actively engaged and WANTING to learn straight away. Get it wrong and you'll lose them from the start.
• 3 fun energisers to wake up reluctant learners and boost participation
• 10 surefire attention grabbers to get even the most challenging group involved from the start. It is surprisingly easy to get the attention of any group with these but you'll also learn something very important
• Relationship and community-building activities.
• 3 ways to make your lessons unforgettable. A rushed 'what did we learn today?' as pupils pack their bags or stand to leave does not constitute an effective plenary activity. If you want to make information 'stick' and have your students leaving the lesson in a positive frame of mind (essential if they are to return to your next lesson in a similar frame of mind), an engaging review activity must form part of your planned lesson.

And you can try it all out for just $1 !!!

I have been a teacher for 15 years and believe me I know what it's like to live on a tight budget. I've done everything I can to make this as affordable as possible for any teacher regardless of salary grade.

I've looked around the education section of my local bookstore and searched online for similar resources and found that the average price for such an item (if it existed) would be at least £160 ($260). I want to make this affordable for every budget - even student teachers so I'm not going to charge that much.

The price for a subscription to the Needs-Focused Lessons™ program is just £17 ($27) per month - which works out less than a cup of coffee at 75p/$1 per day. While the program is three months in length you can cancel any time you wish and still have a fantastic resource. There is absolutely no obligation to remain subscribed for the whole three months so if you're not seeing the results you want, it doesn't cost you anything. Plus, if you act fast, I've arranged a special nearly-FREE trial so you can judge if it's for you or not...

For a limited time only Needs-focused lessons™ is available on A $1 TRIAL BASIS

If you sign up today, you'll be able to try out the first edition of Needs-focused Lessons™ at the 'nearly-FREE' charge of just $1 - so that you can try the activities and ideas without risk.

You can get all the files, you can print them out, try them in your classroom tomorrow and see if they're for you - and it's all yours to keep even if you decide to cancel. Can I be any fairer?

We both know that's a very reasonable offer but I have to tell you, I'm afraid, there is a catch...

I only have LIMITED places available for 'Needs-focused Lessons™'

Due to the constraints of answering emails and dealing with enquiries I have placed a cap on Needs-focused lessons™ at 700 members. Once these initial places have been sold I will close the doors and no more memberships will be available.

Bear in mind that I have nearly 15,000 teachers on my list, (many of whom are probably also reading this right now) and I have affiliate partners with similar-sized customer lists who will also be promoting this offer. There are around 500,000 teachers in the UK alone, more than 3 million in the US and millions more in the rest of the world. It is not going to take long for these places to go.

If you do want to join please don't leave it too long to make your decision. The time to do it is right now, before the big SOLD OUT sign goes up in the box below.