The pilot log book and associated check off lists are a record of the required training. Assuming a student is not flying with a new instructor all the time, there should not be much of a need for the student to brief the instructor on what he has accomplished.

Skyline Soaring Club in Virginia has a training syllabus that is free for any other club to use.
http://skylinesoaring.org/TRAINING/Syllabus/

In our club, you are pretty much guaranteed that you'll fly with (at least) 5 different instructors from first flight to solo. For us, having everything documented for 61.87 requirements in a centrally-located place is absolutely essential to make sure everything is covered.

If you are receiving flight training from an organization that doesn't have something like this, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have the instructor who is signing you off go through it with you.