By Aimee Poisson
Lesson plans, the weapons of choice for organized teachers and professors, are also indispensable tools for coaches and instructors in all sports, but especially sailing. Having a plan is absolutely necessary for all classes and borrowing the structured lesson plans from teachers can be a great way to structure your practices and clinics. Sailors (particularly kids) come to a sailing practice or clinic in order to learn new concepts and build upon skills. As their coach, it is your responsibility to instill the message in a way that will help them achieve their goals and increase their understanding of the sport.
Writing a lesson plan for your class or practice will help you prepare to teach, coordinate with coworkers, organize students, and declare the intent of your class. When you are working with a junior program or a summer camp, lesson plans are particularly useful. Children are accustomed to the learning structure that is found in schools, and parents appreciate the preparation. If you are working within the framework of a larger camp or yacht club program, consider posting your lesson plans in a public place. This can demystify the class for parents who are stuck onshore and help harmonize your plans with your coworkers, with whom you might need to share resources.
The options for creating a lesson plan are limitless and can be custom fit to your teaching style and program needs. The common threads see in a ll quality plans are the objective of the lesson, a discussion or lecture (in our world we call it a chalk talk), an activity, and reflection. Consider the unit, objective, chalk talk, and on the water before the class begins, and leave time for debriefing and reflection after sailing ends.
View/Download Lesson Plan Templates and Sample Lesson Plans:
Units–
Lessons can be organized into thematic units to link individual activities overtime. Short term programs and clinics may consist of a single unit such as “Learn to Sail”, “Opti Boat Handling”, or “Teen Racing Introduction”. Sequencing the lessons within these units will lend continuity to your overall curriculum while allowing you to build upon and further develop lessons learned in previous classes. In a longer term program length lessons can help you to define the area of focus at a given time. Programs that last over a summer or a semester might include a sequence of units that will define the pace of the activities and clarify the desired outcome of the collective lessons. Thematic units strung together into a curriculum might look like this.
Summer Program Units
Week One-Learning the boat
Week Two- Improved Boat Handling
Week Three-An introduction to racing
Week Four- Gaining confidence
Week Fiver- Upping our game
Week Six – Preparing for Championship
While individual lessons within a unit will fill in the various aspects of a broad topic. A week’s worth of lessons plans within a single unit might look like this.
Unit One- Learn the Boat lesson plans
Lesson 1- Rigging and parts
Lesson 2- Boat part functions
Lesson 3- How the boat works
Lesson 4- How wind affects my sails
Lesson 5- I can control my boat
Objectives–
All lesson plans should begin with a clear objective as a declaration of the lesson’s intended outcomes. It is essential that these objectives be measurable and student focused. As instructors, we often approach a sailing lesson with the goal of teaching a specific skill or concept (such as gybing). A typical objective for such a lesson might be “To teach the students to gybe.” But how can you tell if you lesson is effective? Did you reach the desired outcome? Did they learn to gybe? You may think that you taught the class will gusto and perfection but the true test of your teaching aptitude is based on a student centered outcome. Did your sailor get it? We look to the students to demonstrate the skill in order to determine if the coaching took hold.
So the real objective is “The students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of gybing through the effective demonstration of the skill.” Once you have established your desired outcome you can design the rest of the lesson to meet that end.
Classroom/Chalk Talk–
With every sailing lesson there is time spent off the boat and in a classroom. On the beach, by the dock, under a pavilion, at the clubhouse. We all have classrooms and it is important that we use them effectively. Simply lecturing and scribbling on a marker board may kill time until the breeze fills but it will not be the most beneficial time for your students. We coach all types of learners who will respond to all types of instruction and most will really benefit from a strong classroom presentation. This is the time to engage the visual and auditory learners through the use of diagrams, boat models, written explanations, and engaging discussion. Your lesson plans should reflect your strategies for engaging these learners. Record your materials, key concepts, and visual aids, and attach any diagrams or handouts that you might use.
Outlines or bullet points definitely constitute planning but don’t try to just “wing it”. Planning out the spoken part of your lessons will help you to focus and articulate in your delivery. Some coaches like to have notecards, others may write bullet points down the side of the marker board at the beginning of class and use the list as an introduction. Having these plans written down before the start of the class will assist you in organizing your thoughts and the record will allow you to deliver a similar lesson at a later date.
The class room/chalk talk time is also an appropriate time to discuss the plan for your on-the-water activity. Before you break to hit the water, make sure that everyone knows what the sailing plans are and what is expected of them.
On-the-Water Activity–
When planning your sailing activity, remember your original objective and plan an exercise that will contribute to the overall goal of the class. Your on the water sailing activities should be used to reinforce the original intent of your lesson and to give your students time to practice and demonstrate the new skill. Sailing activities do does not necessarily have to consist of exclusively drills. Games, exercises, and even joyrides can be used as teaching methods for kinesthetic learners and can be employed to develop skills. Be sure to tailor your activities to allow all for growth at all skill levels and to challenge all students equally. Try to break up your sailing time with several different activities, drills, and courses.
Note the number of course marks and their orientation on the water as well as the conditions and direction of the wind. Consider including a simple chart of your sail area to record these notes. Overtime these collected charts will help you develop an exceptional local knowledge of the area.
Debriefing and Reflection–
After sailing is done and the students are off the water, take time to do a follow up conversation. From my expe
rience, the best time to do this is as soon as everyone comes off the water and before derigging and cleaning up. Once the boats are derigged, the students tend to lose focus. This especially true in afterschool programs or summer camps when the kids are waiting to be picked up by parents or move on with their day.
Ask your sailors for feedback about the activity. Did they feel confident about their performance? Could they perceive any improvement in their sailing? How might today’s lessons and activities apply in racing scenario? Review the key concepts from your classroom lecture with a reflective tone drawing from the experience on the water using phrasing like “Remember when your boat rounded up? Can you remember from our discussion what caused that to happen?” Guide your students towards their own understanding of the lesson by helping them to fit together the pieces of the chalk talk and on the water sailing.
Finally, after the lesson is complete (and usually after your sailors have dispersed), task some time to reflect on the lesson. Record your thoughts and observations with your original lesson plan. Ask yourself the following questions.
How did it go? Was the lesson effective?
Did I achieve my objective? Why or why not?
What might I have done differently?
How does this affect how I am coaching next time?
Use the lesson plan as a tool to improve your coaching methods for forthcoming classes and clinics. You have planned and executed, and recorded a methodology of learning in a specific sport. This will help you to evaluate the needs of your students and to improve your approach to coaching in the future. This written plan and evaluation is a crucial tool is your educational arsenal so use it to present the best possible programs.
In case you are uncomfortable making your own lesson plans. We’ve included a lesson plan template that you can print off an use and a sample lesson plan to give you an idea what the finished product will look like. Good Luck!!
About Aimee:
Born to a sailing family in Annapolis, Maryland Aimee Poisson grew up sailing the Chesapeake Bay in Cal25’s and Flying Scots. While attending Bowling Green State University, she became a more active sailor by teaching sailing at summer camps and scouting programs and racing casually. After graduating from BGSU with a degree in Education, Aimee returned to the Chesapeake and began full time instruction at the Annapolis Sailing School. Following the sailing season across a broad geographical stretch Aimee has worked as an instructor and program director in St Croix, New Hampshire, Long Beach, Cabrillo Beach, Baltimore, and Annapolis.
Currently living back in Maryland Aimee is a sailing instructor, coach, program consultant, and freelance writer. She races as often as possible in the comet and laser classes.
Hi Aimee,
Thank you for this post. I’m a Waterfront Director at an overnight camp in NH. The last few years our Sailing Program has become less organized and the Instructors have not been as experienced. I’m not a sailor, but I’m in process of creating specific daily lessons for the staff to follow. They are all attending a “sailing clinic” before camp begins where they will review ALL their skills and be given “instructor skills” to teaching sailing. My hope is by providing them a “plan” to follow they will have specific goals and expectations for their sailors.