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
Planning for instruction is one of the most vital actions a teacher must take. A teacher must use their knowledge on pedagogy, their district's curriculum, and the learning habits of their scholars. Planning effectively can increase student growth, engagement and effort. In addition, I use three methods of planning: Long-Term planning, Unit Planning and Lesson Planning. While planning, I implement cross-curricular methods to give my students a diverse outlook. For an example, when using the standard RI 3.2, determine the main idea of a text, I require that students grasp evidence from a text Malcolm X. include math in this lesson because students often think that the civil rights movement and slavery occurred during the same time. Although slavery and the civil rights movement have a correlation, students must understand that the civil rights act was 99 years after the abolishment of slavery. In addition, I taught about history because students need background information on the civil rights movement to understand why Malcolm X acted the way he did. Using cross-curricular methods helps widen the window of mastery of a common core state standard.
I adjust my planning to address the needs of my students. For instance, my students struggles with writing because they struggle citing from the text. I plan to using the curriculum and standards however, I always require that they cite from the text to strengthen that skill. Every year and every class is different. A great teacher must adjust to their students and the students will eventually adjust to the teacher.
Long range planning is essential to organizing the direction a class goes within common core standards and the curriculum. I create my long range plan over the summer so that it guides me throughout the year to stay on track with mastering standards. During long range planning, I do not include differentiation because I have yet to meet my students and learn their styles of grasping knowledge.
I usually unit plan during the summer time as well. My unit plans usually are guide to an overall goal during that unit. For an example, during unit two students must be able to determine the theme, write opinion pieces and master point of view. All of these skills are aligned with a standard throughout an unit. At the end of each unit is an assessment. I backwards plan so that students will be able to have success on the unit assessment. I incorporate daily activities, read alouds, and formative assessments that will prepare my students for the unit assessment.
In my opinion, lesson planning is the difference between a half of year of growth and a year and a half of growth. Daily lesson plans align with unit plans with one key detail; differentiation and re-teaching. Differentiation is included in lesson planning because certain exit tickets and activities must come with accommodations and modifications for some students. In addition, re-teaching is vital because moving beyond an incomprehensible standard will harm students in the long run when they take state tests that align with the common core.
Below are links to how I use each type of planning in my third grade Language Arts class. In addition, you will see evidence of me using and creating these lesson plans for my classroom.
While long-range planning, I incorporate standards and yearly expectations in the plan. This is unique to language art because students are being tracked by the standard and reading level.
Unit plans are incorporated with summative assessments aligned with language arts standards. In addition, weekly goals are aligned with unit expectations.
Lesson planning is the final stage in planning. Daily planning is key in language arts because differentiation and re-teaching is a reality with a rigorous text.
Conclusion
Planning is vital to the success of a classroom. Using the curriculum as a guide and using that information to properly plan can promote growth in a student. If planning is not exceptional, behaviors contrary to a healthy environment will occur. In addition, planning is the first step to mastering standards, exploring topics beyond our imagination and teaching students far beyond their limits. With this method, I will strengthen my teaching and learning strategies.
Reference
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