Let’s work on the next content Type – Theoretical Lessons and we will refer to them as simply Theoretical or Lessons going forward.

In this video, we will discuss the structure of the lesson and the elements that your lesson should have. So basically, we are covering the content of your Theoretical lessons starting with the Intro and Outro

Intro and Outro

What you have just witnessed at the beginning of the lesson was an Intro.

The lessons should have a specific structure to keep the student in the learning Flow and connect the dots through the process of learning the material. The intro helps with this flow.

§  What is the flow state

The flow state is known as the state of mind where the person has a high focus and is immersed in the process. In a flow state, we feel like we have more control over the process and the outcome.

You have experienced the flow state if you played a game, or watched a movie. At some point, your focus is so great that you might not realize what happens around you.

§  How to help students remain in the flow state

To help Students keep the flow we need to write our content as a conversation.

When we have a casual chat with a friend and we switch from topic to topic we usually try to connect it to the previous one saying something like: “Once you said that I have remembered something…”

This is the connection between what was said before to what the person is going to say.

Usually, jumping to the other topic without connection, even if it is connected in your mind looks weird the least. That is why we need to have connection phrases like intro and outro. It helps people to stay on track, to see the connection.

Let’s have a look at the simple intro we can have in any lesson.

§  Intro and Outro for a simple Lesson

Start and end every lesson (theoretical or practical) with a small intro and outro.

An intro is a phrase or paragraph that consists of a greeting, and a short description of the material it is planned to be covered in the lesson. Here is an example of the Intro:

Hello! In this lesson, we are going to work on gathering ideas for your book. I am going to share with you some techniques that will help you overcome writer’s block and gather as many ideas as possible.

You can see that this intro not only mentions the topic that is going to be covered but also encourages students to know more about it because it gives them benefits.

You can also just start with the phrase

Hello! In this lesson, we are going to work on gathering ideas for your book

I usually use this simple phrase if I have broken down one big topic into small lessons instead of jampacking one lesson with lots of information which is difficult to memorize.

For the outro you would say something like:

I hope that after this lesson you will be able to gather lots of ideas for your book, and in subsequent lessons, we will work on it together practically.

In the next lessons, I will share with you steps to organize the information you have gathered.

You can see that I summarize what has been covered and open the topic of the next lesson. The outro can also be simply

In the next lessons, I will share with you steps to organize the information you have gathered.

Now let’s see the different content for the intro you might need for the lessons that open a new module.

§  Intro and Outro for a Lesson opening the module

From the course structure we have covered in previous lessons you should have noticed that the Module does not have its own introduction. Sometimes it is ok, but in some cases when you start a new section, or new part of your course material you would like to emphasize that it belongs to one general topic.

In this case, you simply include one paragraph of introduction into a module in the first lesson that is opening the module. It will look like that.

Welcome back to the course. We have covered the techniques you can use to gather ideas for a book. In this part of the training, we are ready to work on the organization of our book content.
Let’s start with the structure that every book of the self-help genre should have.

You can see that I have two paragraphs: in one I greet people with “Welcome back” and I mention what has been covered in the previous lessons.

Then I say: “In this part of the training”..

And only after covering the module intro, I say that we start with the lesson about the book structure.

You can be creative and start your Module opening lesson like this:

Welcome back! We have finally got to this important module where we will work on the organization of the book content.

So far we just spoke about the Intro and Outro but the structure of the lesson includes also Chapters and Subchapters.

Chapters and Subchapters

After intro, you will usually have a Chapter title followed by the content of that Chapter. Not all lessons will be broken down into chapters. If the lesson is small and there is nothing to break down then it is fine. But if your lesson has a lot of information, you should think about how to divide it into Chapters.

The Chapter includes distinctive information related to a specific point you want to cover. The Chapter can include a thesis, an explanation of the thesis and examples related to the point you make.

To make the points clearer use lists.

§  Using lists

When the chapter has information that can be grouped into a bulleted and numbered list you should use every opportunity to organize the information like that.

Lists are easier to read, understand and memorize.

Here is an example of a Simple numbered list

Here is an example of a Simple bulleted list

A list with an explanation

§  Sub-Chapters

Use sub-chapters whenever each point in the list requires explanation and will take some time for you to cover it on camera. For people not to forget they are going through the list, it will be beneficial to show the title of the point from the list on screen as a subtitle.

Here is the example of the list that might need to be turned into a Sub-Chapters because of the amount of information it carries.

Whether to turn a list into Sub-Chapters or not depends mainly on the amount of information packed in each point.

Consider that during the editing we will show the titles of the Chapters and Subchapters on the screen as graphic elements that help people to differentiate the topics visually. The lists will be shown on the screen as simple text or visually represented as one diagram.

Explanation – A 5-year-old level

How deep should you dive into the topic and what should you explain? Very often students go to extremes:

• Either explaining things and the background of each point is unnecessary
• Or just shovelling the information without stopping and breaking it down

We need to ensure to have a balance.

If you would explain something to a 5-year-old child you would not assume he would figure out most of the things you are talking about, but at the same time, you would not share unnecessary details.

For example, explaining how to make a tea to the child requires you to show

• Where to take the tea bag
• Where to get the cup
• Explain that the tea bag should be put in the cup before the water because it will sink in water better
• Explain how to take the kettle carefully because the water is hot
• How to pure the water in the cup without spilling the water
• How much time to wait
• Teach them to get the tea bag out
• Put sugar and milk if necessary
• Team to stir with a spoon

You might not need to explain

• how useful is the tea,
• how many tea brands there are and
• what is the temperature of the boiled water

because this information is irrelevant to the purpose.

If the purpose is to make tea: what do I need to explain to the person who never made tea to have a result?

The purpose is what defines how deep do you go in your explanations.

§  The Why’s and How’s

It is important you explain why and how in each case without the assumption that people can logically come to conclusions on their own.

The reason people came to your course is because they don’t understand or what they understand is not enough for the result or it does not make sense to them. So explain everything thoroughly without falling into unrelated topics.

After stating that students should do something, explain:

• why they should do it and
• how it should be done to be effective

The last is the use of Examples.

Examples

The oldest books on the Earth are those full of examples.

Examples are easy to memorize because they draw pictures in our minds. People might not remember the recommendations you give, but they remember the examples.

What can be included in examples:

• Successful or Unsuccessful stories of other people
• Illustrations – Either visual or Description of imaginary life situations
• Your own experience

Examples are not the same with practical lessons and demonstrations of the screen.

That is all about the Structure and the Content of the Theoretical lessons in the next video we are going to talk about Practical lesson’s Structure and Content