Planning for Instruction
InTASC Standard #7: The teacher plans instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.
Introduction:
Without planning, there is not the possibility of being a successful teacher. Along with that, I have found that if I do not know why I'm teaching certain skills or daily lessons, I am lost in what I am teaching. With self reflection and practice, I have changed how I have lesson planned from a first year teacher to a third year teacher.
First, I being by looking at the overview of what I am teaching throughout the year. Where am I starting, what are the middle point (assessment stopping points or learning tasks) and what is the end goal (where should they be for the beginning of the following school year). Not only this, but how this information aligns with other content modules and their long term goals and tasks that are going to be assessed within the school building and for state based testing.
After that, I am able to follow up with the actual unit planning. This allows me to dive deeper into the unit goals that will lead into those bigger task that align to long term planning and the students long term learning goals. By long term planning first, I am able to dive in and plan in more meaning through the units to pick with tasks and activities would be most beneficial to those students.
Finally, I am able to plan for day to day learning. I am able to use the tasks and knowledge of the unit goals to show which activities need more emphasis to make sure that students are mastering skills to pass the assessments and use the Fundations skills throughout all the learning blocks in a day.
In each of the sections below, you can see how each different section of planning plays a role for the benefit and learning of students.
First, I being by looking at the overview of what I am teaching throughout the year. Where am I starting, what are the middle point (assessment stopping points or learning tasks) and what is the end goal (where should they be for the beginning of the following school year). Not only this, but how this information aligns with other content modules and their long term goals and tasks that are going to be assessed within the school building and for state based testing.
After that, I am able to follow up with the actual unit planning. This allows me to dive deeper into the unit goals that will lead into those bigger task that align to long term planning and the students long term learning goals. By long term planning first, I am able to dive in and plan in more meaning through the units to pick with tasks and activities would be most beneficial to those students.
Finally, I am able to plan for day to day learning. I am able to use the tasks and knowledge of the unit goals to show which activities need more emphasis to make sure that students are mastering skills to pass the assessments and use the Fundations skills throughout all the learning blocks in a day.
In each of the sections below, you can see how each different section of planning plays a role for the benefit and learning of students.
Long Term Planning:
Long term planning for Fundations allows the exploration of how this teaching area overlaps and leads into other sections of the day. Fundations covers many different strategies that lead to the concept development that is needed for independent reading, writing, decoding and close reading/annotation concepts. Within the long term planning range, this allows me to develop other ways to include Fundations skills throughout the entire day of teaching and not just in the one focused block.
Unit Planning:
Within unit planning, I am able to dive deeper into the tasks that are supposed to be mastered during the time plan. It also allows me to reflect upon skills that were not mastered by students in the classroom to see how those skills can be looped into the new unit. Not only this, but it allows me to review the activities that are going to be used in this unit and make changes that are more appropriate for the needs of the students in my classroom.
Daily Lesson Planning:
Day to day lesson planning is crucial for the success and mastery of skills during Fundations (and any other instructional block). Planning for the day to day learning allows me to create different ways to present the content to students. Throughout a unit, there will be several different activities and presentation styles used to make sure that the content is being taught thoroughly and planning for everyday makes sure that I am familiar and comfortable delivering that information so that students are learning in the best way for them to retain the information.
Conclusion:
As a first year teacher, I struggled to understand why it was important to look at the unit instead of what I was teaching everyday. Maybe this was because I was overwhelmed with the concept of lesson planning and making sure students were getting what they need, but after the first semester of teaching, my philosophy changed greatly. When I was introduced to backwards planning through a long term planning calendar and unit planning, I was able to create activities that were transferred through, not only through a unit, but that could be carried from unit to unit throughout the entire year. I have not only found unit and long term planning to be helpful for my comfort in what I am teaching, but also for the success and understanding for the benefit of the students.