What Happens in a First Online Quran Lesson

Before the lesson starts

You get one Google Meet link. It is the same link for every lesson after this one, so save it rather than waiting for a new one each time.

A supervisor joins about two minutes early, before the teacher and before your child. All of our supervisors are women. She is there for the whole lesson, not to observe the teacher's technique but so that no child is ever alone on a call with an adult.

All your child needs is a phone, tablet or laptop with a working microphone, and somewhere reasonably quiet. Nothing to buy and nothing to print — the book is read together on screen.

The first ten minutes

Introductions, and then the part that matters: the teacher finds out what your child can already do. This is usually done by asking them to read rather than by asking what level they are on, because children and parents both tend to guess wrong in opposite directions.

1. 1

   A short conversation

   Name, age, and what they have learned before. This is also the teacher listening to how confident your child sounds in English or Urdu.

2. 2

   Something to read aloud

   A few letters for a beginner, a line of Qaida or a short passage for a child who has read before. What the teacher is listening for is not speed but which sounds are guessed at.

3. 3

   A small correction, taught

   The teacher picks one thing and teaches it properly rather than listing five faults. A first lesson that ends with your child able to do one thing they could not do before has done its job.

4. 4

   Where to start

   The teacher says which book and which page next week begins on, and why.

What your child actually does

Reads aloud, mostly. If your child spent the lesson listening to an adult talk, that is worth noticing — the child should be doing more of the talking than the teacher by the end of the first ten minutes.

Younger children find thirty minutes long. A good teacher of a five-year-old changes what is happening every few minutes and does not expect stillness. If your child fidgets, looks away, or needs repeating to, none of that means the lesson has gone badly.

What a good first lesson tells you

Good signs

• Your child read aloud more than the teacher spoke.
• One thing was taught properly rather than five things mentioned.
• The teacher named the book and page to start from next week.
• Your child could tell you afterwards what they had learned.
• The teacher asked you something about your child before the end.

Worth asking about

• The whole lesson was explanation with no reading aloud.
• Your child was put several levels below where you expected without a reason being given.
• The teacher spent the time selling the academy rather than teaching.
• Nothing was said about what happens next.
• The lesson ran badly late or started badly late without a word.

After the lesson

Ask your child one question: what did you learn today? A child who can answer that had a lesson. A child who says "nothing" or "I don't know" had a conversation, which is a different thing, and worth mentioning to us.

You get up to three of these free, and you are welcome to use all three before deciding anything. No card is taken at signup, so there is nothing to cancel if you decide against it.

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