Strategy # 3: Instructional Planning
Introduction
Planning for instruction is vital for effective teaching and learning. Teachers must plan out every minute of instructional time to ensure scholars remain on task. Mr. Benjamin Franklin said it well, “failure to plan, is planning to fail.” This famous saying should be the cornerstone of every teacher’s pedagogy. Planning the different areas of classroom instruction produces successful outcomes for both teachers and scholars. Effective planning begins with an instructional planning tool, such a plan book or planning template (See Image 2). There are five key areas that should be included in well-planned classroom instruction: the standards, learning objectives, learning activities (class agenda), assessment of and for learning, and the closing. Each of these components are vital to successful classroom instruction. (I am a science teacher, so most of the content will connect to a science topic as example but all the information shared can be used across content.)
Standards
The standards are the roadmap for classroom instruction; they provide a guide to teachers as they plan other ares of instruction. Whether the standards are Common Core State Standards (CCSS) (ELA and Math), Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), or standards for Social Studies the standards are the first thing teachers should review.
Standards are considered skills to be mastered by the end of a particular grade level. For example the standard in Image 1 shows a middle school Earth Science Standard. Students who demonstrate understanding should be able to do the actions on the right side of image 1. Standards like the one shown have to be “unpacked” because there are more than one skill in each standard. Unpacking standards requires teachers to determine what students should be able to do once they demonstrate an understanding of the standard; students should be able to analyze and interpret data that focuses on catastrophic events that inform the development of technologies that will prevent such events. Once the standards are unpacked, learning objectives can be created based on the skills of the standards. Reviewing the standards should be the first stop for every teacher who is planning for instruction. Look at the verbs in the standards to better understand what scholars should be able to do once the standard is mastered.
Image 1
| MS-ESS3-2. | Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects |
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Image 2
Learning Objectives
Once the standards are unpacked, learning objectives can be created based on the skills of the standards. The learning objective tells the learner what he or she will be learning in class. The objective also tells scholars what they can expect to learn and be able to do by the end of a lesson; a lesson can take place in one day or up to three days. The length of the lesson depends on the cognitive abilities of the scholars and the types learning activities, which will be discussed in the next section. A learning objective for the standard in image 1 could be: We will be able to analyze and describe the geographic locations of volcanic eruptions in the world with 80% accuracy. Notice the verbs? “Analyze” and “describe” are the verbs that scholars should be able to do by the end of the lesson. The standard has the same verb “analyze”, but “describe” replaces interpret in the learning objective. The learning objective tells scholars what they will learn and be able to do by the end of the lesson; it should also be aligned to the standard of focused; so far the learning objective is aligned to the standard.
Learning Activities
The learning activities should be aligned to the standards and objectives. The learning activities will help students comprehend the standard through manipulating material and information that will help the learner “do” the verbs found in the standards and learning objectives. Let’s focus on the following learning objective: We will be able to analyze and describe the geographic locations of volcanic eruptions in the world with 80% accuracy. There could be several ways scholars could analyze and describe the geographic locations of volcanic eruptions. Scholars could either look at a physical map of volcanic activity in the world or they could look at a virtual/digital map of volcanic activity in the world (See image 3). The learning activities should be designed to help scholars master specific skills and learn content associated to those skills. As scholars are analyzing the volcanic-activity map, they should be answering questions that will help them analyze and describe features on the map and be able to explain what they are thinking about volcanic activity in the world (interpret). Learning activities should be fun and engaging, allowing students to be inquisitive and excited about learning new information; this means that productive conversations should be expected with learning activities and scholars should not be expected to be quiet.
Image 3 Volcanic Report and Map (https://volcano.si.edu/reports_weekly.cfm)
The Closing and Checking for Understanding
So now, the end of instruction has approached and it is almost time for class to end. How should classroom instruction effectively end? Instruction should end with a brief review of things learned. For example, have scholars to share one or two new things they have learned. Once scholars have shared out, then the teachers should recap the main takeaways from the lesson, such as locations of volcanic activity and some volcanoes are more recent than others. Then, the teacher should check for understanding with a short “exit ticket” that is one of the analysis questions from the learning activity. Checking for understanding should help the teacher gauge their next learning session with scholars; if most of the scholars mastered analyzing the volcanic-activity map, then the teacher can move on to the next standard and learning objective. Teachers can also determine if a small group of scholars need additional time with the learning activity to master the skill. Checking for understanding helps teachers to pace their classroom instruction and increase student achievement.