The purpose of instructional planning is to make sure that teachers are prepared for each lesson and that each lesson follows their state’s curricular fundamentals and pacing guides. The central objective is to ensure that each lesson is framed in a way that is appropriate for students, is differentiated to each student’s needs, and is engaging enough to keep the student’s attention and focus. The primary goal of instructional planning is to evaluate a teacher’s ability to create and present a lesson that is both effective and engaging.
Materials laid out on my desk, ready for the next lesson.
Student Learning Data
Student learning data, in collaboration with instructional planning, is an essential way to determine the effectiveness of a lesson or unit. Through the use of pre-tests and post-tests, a teacher can determine whether or not the lesson or unit they taught was effective towards student learning. A pre-test can determine what the student already knows of the subject, while a post-test will determine what the student learned after the lesson or unit. At the beginning of the unit on probability and patterns, I had the students come up with facts that they already knew about probability and patterns and then I had them take a pre-test to determine what they already knew about my unit and where they might have trouble. At the end of the unit, the students were given a formative assessment based on the topics covered during the unit. Here are the results of both the pre-test and the post-test of a unit that I taught in the third grade on probability and patterns.
Differentiation
Differentiation is vital to instructional planning, because a teacher cannot plan a lesson without taking each student’s developmental and educational levels into account. Lessons will not be effective for every student if there is no differentiation. It is also important to identify where and how a teacher has differentiated a lesson or unit, in order to ensure that each level of differentiation is applicable for each level of learning, so that no student falls through the cracks. During my student teaching experience, I worked with reading groups that were divided based on reading level. I followed this breakdown while in reading groups.
Curriculum Alignment
Curriculum alignment allows for pacing that is differentiated for every grade level and academic level. Teachers need to be sure that their lessons follow their state’s curricular guidelines, for example Virginia’s Standards of Learning or SOLs, to be sure that they cover the topics expected by the state. Here is a copy of a lesson I created on Continents and Oceans, that is aligned with Virginia Department of Education’s SOLs. This lesson aligns with the second grade SOL for Social Studies: 2.5- The student will develop map skills by:
a) locating the equator, the seven continents, and the five oceans on maps and globes;
b) locating selected rivers (James River, Mississippi River, Rio Grande, Huang He, and Nile River), mountain ranges (Appalachian Mountains and Rocky Mountains), and lakes (Great Lakes) in the United States and other countries.
Instructional planning allows for differentiated learning, applies student learning data, and promotes curriculum alignment. A teacher’s lessons plans that are effectively presented and received well by both students and fellow faculty show the value instructional planning.