Structuring Chess Lessons

Hello, everyone.

This is somewhat of a follow-up post where I sought advice for becoming a first-time chess coach. And the responses were awesome, I appreciate them.

I coach a few local kids in person. I have been doing it for a few weeks now, and we all have been having fun. 

I have five kids. I have two sets based on approximate skill level. One set has three kids rated between 200-500 roughly. Another has two kids rated 1100-1300. Given their levels, I'm wondering the best way to structure their future lessons. I've been heavily emphasizing on tactics and analyzing their games, though I wonder when is the time/rating to gear our sessions towards positional play, master games, etc.

Feel free to share your thoughts, as well as any other general advice on coaching. Thanks a lot! 

Tactics are number one, nothing else really matters if they hang rooks in won positions.

However, since you're already heavily emphasizing tactics, you can tell them what to do when there isn't a fork or mate in 2.

Tactics flow from good positions. Give them the basics of positional play (development, active pieces, king safety ,etc.) and point out which principles were broken/followed when you go over games. Make sure though that the first think they do is look for tactics. If you can teach them to look for their opponent's opportunities then you can tell yourself you did a good job. After tactics, they should be making sure they're developing and keeping their king safe. For the middlegame you have two options after they look for tactics, teach them to throw everything at the enemy king or have them ask themselves "Which is my worst piece and how can I improve it?" or "How can I fight for the center?" This may depend on the student. Endgames require a plan. You need to get your students to understand that they will lose endgames if they don't have a plan. King activity, blockading and how to create and push passed pawns are good. You can have them play against each other in a few endgames to test their knowledge and increase the "I just lost this draw position! I'd better learn this!". K+P vs K is a good place to start, maybe throwing in some rooks for the more advanced.

Make sure they play chess, not just study it. There's nothing like playing to cement everything they learned.

I agree wholeheartedly with pretty much everything said so far. I would just add that when it comes to playing over master games with them, show them the masters from the 19th century. Those games are generally exciting enough to keep their attention while having plenty of tactical motifs for them to absorb. Beyond that, maybe some highlighted games of Alekhine, Tal, Shirov and the like. The first "positional" player I would introduce them to is Capa as the majority of his games are easy enough to follow for just about anyone.

Thanks for all of the helpful suggestions!

@Stephen_Stanfield, I love your suggestions. I did give them a basic endgame session once or twice (King+pawn vs. King, some basic Rook endings, etc), though maybe I need to put more emphasis on that. Tactics have been my number one priority, which was partly why I sought advice on the next step.

@BobbyTalparov, chess-steps.com... interesting... I'll have to check it out! 

@BigitalStrike, good point. I did make the blunder to one or two students showing a Carlsen game  

Thank you all for the informative comments!