PLANNING FOR INSTRUCTION
Thoughtful planning is important and helps me be a creative, organized, and focused teacher. When planning for instruction I always think about the learning that I want to occur in my class first. I think about all the moving parts of the learning experience and how they have to fit together to make my vision happen for my students. I favor the backward planning method of planning for long-term, unit, and lesson plans. I think about where my students need to be at the end of a lesson, of a unit, or of the year before I plan the way they will get there.
To plan for a year of teaching and creating a long-term plan I have to consider all the skills, concepts, and knowledge that my students will process at the beginning of the year and what my students will need to learn before going onto the next grade. I spend the summer preparing a long-term plan that will keep my students on that learning track. I must consider standards, assessments, and projects that students will need to complete; to be considered proficient is a skill. I must determine the amount of time we will focus on each concept and the appropriate instruction I should group curriculum into, to make learning accessible to all students.
When planning for a unit I look closely at standards. I often plan a unit to be organized thematic units. I believe that my students learn best when the curriculum is holistic. I work hard to make sure learning is for them to connect to with real-world examples. This makes it easier for them to internalize. My instructions while teaching a unit organized around a single theme integrating literacy, math, and science through the study of broad ideas like “my five senses” or “Taking Care of the Earth”. I have seen students’ interest and engagement increase when using a thematic approach.
The last major component of lesson planning is creating a successful daily lesson plan. When creating a daily lesson plan I first consider the assessment. I then plan backward making sure that I have a well-framed objective to define the goal at the end of the lesson. Next, I plan for the learning activities in which students will learn concrete concepts and strategies that they will use to complete the assessment. Finally, I make sure that I place many checks for understanding to ensure that all students have access to my lesson through scaffolding and differentiation.
Long-Term Planning
Teaching in an early childhood classroom is a large responsibility. I must build a long-term plan that introduces students to age-appropriate lessons and familiarizes them with standards that they must become proficient in. My long-term framework provides me to understand the entire scope of learning my students must achieve by the end of the school year.
Unit Planning
Organizing curriculum around a central theme that integrates subjects across curriculum helps my students understand connections between subjects. Keeping students engaged throughout a unit and helping them draw connections from the real world is one of the major benefits of thematic unit plans. I create assessments that are given at the beginning of a unit, the middle of a unit, and the end of a unit. This helps me plan for student learning and ensure that concepts are rigorous and accessible to students. Finally, I plan activities that will help me explicitly teach daily learning targets in a coherent order.
Lesson Planning
Having a comprehensive lesson plan increases the likelihood that lessons run smoothly and my students receive quality instruction. By planning ahead, I make sure that students have differentiated work and scaffolding. I take time to consider misconceptions that were exposed during a pre-unit test. I consider all the learning styles my students have and try to plan activities that would be engaging for those styles.
Conclusion
It takes time and thought to be an effective lesson planner. I must provide a strong outline of my teaching goals and learning objectives and what it looks like for a student to accomplish them. Long-term and unit plans are reminders of what I want to teach my students and how I want to teach them. A productive daily lesson plan is one in which I think about my individual students and plan for their learning. Taking a cross-disciplinary approach to planning lessons and units for the year allows me to incorporate curriculum content from various subject areas to create an engaging experience for my students.