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
As I plan for instruction, I utilize culturally relevant pedagogy and my content knowledge to design lessons that are cross-disciplinary and rigorous. For me, it is of the utmost importance that all students can access the lesson and relate what they are learning to their lives. Creating lessons that are engaging and relevant to my students makes them more invested in my class which leads to better classroom management and higher student achievement. Throughout the school year, I engage in long-term planning, unit planning, and lesson planning.
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Effective planning leads to effective lessons being presented to students. I have observed and experienced the effects of an ill-planned lesson. During my first few months of teaching, I was developing my lesson planning skills. I noticed that the amount of effort I put into lesson planning correlated to my delivery of the lesson and my students' engagement. My lessons became more culturally relevant, delved deeper into content, and were more accessible for my students. This led to less classroom management issues because more students were engaged and focused on the activity. Proper planning better prepared my students to meet rigorous learning goals and maximize their learning in my class.
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Click on the images below to explore how I plan for instruction. The long-term plan image contains two long-term plans that I created. The unit plan image contains a Brain Targeted Teaching unit plan on photosynthesis and a bodies and systems unit plan with multiple student work artifacts. The lesson plan images contains several lesson plans and instructional activities that demonstrate how I draw upon my knowledge of scientific content, differentiation, and cross-disciplinary activities.
Conclusion
Planning for instruction is an important and critical component of every teacher's craft. Teachers can leverage planning for instruction to increase student engagement, student buy-in, and push students to meet rigorous learning goals. I have made it a personal goal to ensure all of my lessons are rich in scientific knowledge, culturally relevant, and accessible for all of my students.