How to prepare for a Topical Talk lesson
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1. Plan when to teach Topical Talk
1. Plan when to teach Topical Talk
Each Topical Talk lesson contains a wealth of cross-curricular links, essential critical-thinking and communication skill development and a focus on a Sustainable Development Goal.
From Headlines about the decline of democracy (perfect for politics or citizenship lessons) to global tariffs (great for economics and maths), Topical Talk brings your curriculum into the real world.
Simply consider when the lessons fit into your curriculum or extra-curricular provision.
Need some support? Check out "why teach Topical Talk".
2. Choose your resources
Every Friday we publish a new Topical Talk Headline for 60-90 minutes of lively classroom discussion and learning. Find them in the resource library and sign up to receive them to your inbox every week.
You'll also find Special Editions. These are longer schemes of work for a more in-depth look at a topic.
Finally, you can browse our teacher toolkit for additional supporting materials.
Either browse the library for lessons that suit your needs or teach that week's Headline to keep up with the latest news stories - it's up to you!
3. Prepare the lesson
Getting ready for a Topical Talk lesson is easy - we've done the hard work for you!
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You don't need to do your homework
It might seem daunting to teach a lesson on a topic you don't know much about, but Topical Talk is planned that way on purpose. The resources give your students, and you, enough information to have an informed and thought-provoking discussion there and then. As the teacher, you don't need to share your own opinion in these lessons and the focus should be on the students using the information they're presented with. If you want to do further reading afterwards, that's great!
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Follow the teacher instructions
These clearly set out which resources to print and how many of them you will need for that week's lesson. Adjust this according to your group size.
The instructions will give you ideas or activities you can use across the curriculum or new ways to hear from your students. You'll find some things stay the same to give consistency - for example, the start and end of each lesson and the inclusion of the Skills Builder framework.
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Set up your classroom
Depending on the lesson's activities, you might want to change your classroom layout to help students to move around the room for group discussions, or you might want to set out chairs in small groups.
We suggest different types of activities which aim to get all students up, out of their seats and actively participating in pairs, small groups and in whole-class discussions.
4. See how other teachers do it
Some teachers use our resources because they're a perfect match in the subjects they're teaching. For example, lessons on migration and liveable cities are great for Geography lessons. Other teachers choose a theme or skill that their students are working on and look for relevant lessons in our resource library. Other teachers have a slot they need to fill each week with student discussions, media literacy or global awareness - so each week's Topical Talk Headline is perfect, whatever the story.
Read our case studies to find out how Topical Talk works in different schools.
Bring Topical Talk into your classroom
Explore our resource library to find lessons to fit your curriculum