Proficient Instructional Plan Analysis

I believe assessment is important and is the basis of planning for instruction, whether it is diagnostic prior to learning, formative during units or lessons, or summative to evaluate student learning. Rowan’s quote in Every Teacher’s Guide to Assessment, "After all, in the end, the problem is less the idea of testing itself, but how we design them, apply, them, and make use of their data." definitely has an impact on my assessment practices. I feel it is necessary to make sure the student acquires all aspects of the learning. Assessment should be used to bring a value for students. Within my instruction, I implement daily formative assessments which may include turn and share, quick writes, graphic organizers, online discussion responses, KahootIt, and other forms. Designing the appropriate formative assessment to match the lesson is important to assess how the learning is taught and whether the students are showing progress. In addition, I have worked on building blocks of formative assessments in checklist style leading up to the point of reviewing for a summative test. Each of these are checked off as completed and instant feedback is given. Feedback from an assessment is essential to student learning and how a teacher will ensure the content is being acquired.

Standards 7 and 8 of the InTASC Model Core Teacher Standards address the Instructional Practice of planning for instruction and instructional strategies. Standard 7 states: “ 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.” Standard 8 states: “The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.” As I read Standards 7 and 8, I think about the importance of planning for each

Teaching demands a lot of creativity and being able to adapt to different situations and environments. However, in order to experience lasting success, more than pot luck, charisma and spontaneity are required. Planning is essential. Planning and preparation gives a certain level of confidence. Whether it is a single lesson or a whole course, planning allows you to design the learning journey you wish to take your students on. In designing, you can make sure that you are catering for all your learners’ needs. This includes sufficient differentiation; for SEN needs as well as your gifted and talented students. In planning you can ensure that your lessons have a definite beginning, middle and end and have clear aims and targets. At this stage you will also prepare and plan resources. Also, you must plan your assessments. How will you know when the students have learned what you set out to teach? How will they know? How are you going to prove that learning has taken place at the end of the course? All these points will be addressed in the planning stage of the teacher training cycle.

The learning plans starts with identifying the student’s needs, determining what adjustments need to be made, completing and implementing any changes, and monitoring and evaluating the learning throughout.

In order to create the lesson plan, the objectives had to be planned first. As per the requirements for the course, I based my learning objectives off of Bloom’s taxonomy with my learning objectives falling under the categories of remembering, understanding,

The use of formative assessment practices with ELL students are observational checklists, peer assessment, and performance skills. By having students writing a lesson plan, the roles between the teacher and the students will be changed. This is a formative assessment that engages students in distinctive ways. Students are focused on goals and objectives. It gives them confidence. They are creating a lesson. For ELLs, this is a tremendous accomplishment when done correctly, as well as when done in a collaborative classroom environment. It promotes constructive feedback. Students play an active role in formative assessment. They not only perform the task given, providing evidence of their current learning, but they are also involved in self-assessment (and sometimes peer assessment); therefore, developing and enhancing autonomy.

Detailed, step-by-step lesson plan (this section should be very detailed – the bulk of each lesson plan. Make sure lessons are as student-driven/active as possible).

The teacher plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, the community, and curriculum goals.

When planing assessments you need to be aware of some key factors so you're assessment is relevant and fair to your students. Be aware of what your assessing weather final assessment or ongoing assessment, details which have to be perfect verses details that are not as important, be fully aware of what your looking for the students to achieve throughout assessment. Conformation of relevant policies, requirements and qualifications for your particular subject. You will need the knowledge of the topic you are assessing, you will also need knowledge of assessment procedures. This is so assessments are fair and there is consistency across all students which hold said qualification.

When I am developing units plans, I ensure that all my lessons are deeply infused with the Common Core learning standards. I am also a firm believer in incorporating differentiated instruction. I am able to differentiate through analyzing test results. From those results, I design tiered assignments to give students the appropriate level of material to complete. I deem it is important to know all of my students as individuals. When planning, my students interest and learning styles are taken into consideration. I have also enhanced the phonics based reading program, by infusing whole language learning. I enjoy creating hands on centers such as sensory bin dig, book box, and egg addition. When I find that students are having difficulty, I reach out to my colleagues for ideas. I especially do so for my students with IEP's. I regularly communicate with the speech, SETTs, and OT teachers. By taking these steps, I can execute lessons that are curriculum driven and

To begin the planning, teaching and assessment process, it must start with discovering what children know and understand, this can be done through assessment and, therefore, is where to initiate the cycle according to Webster (2009). However, some practitioners start the cycle by planning for lessons based on the curriculum content of the previous year (Fisher, 2013). The practitioner may then start teaching according to the predicted lack or extended knowledge, and, therefore, confuse and fail to progress their learning stated by Fisher (2013). An example of this would be presuming that the children had completed and felt confident in using halves and quarters, and, therefore, starting an activity on writing fractions or using bigger fractions. Completing an activity like the example would only cause more confusion and could end up being a more difficult task than it had originally begun. Therefore teachers should start with assessment, and plans should remain flexible until the information of all the learners is collected (Fisher, 2013). One way of assessing children is through formative assessment, this is by obtaining information within a teaching unit that is then adjusted for future educational scenarios (Antoniou and James, 2014). Formative assessment can help to identify both weaknesses, strengths and help enhance the student’s motivation (Yan and Cheng, 2015).

When reading about assessment, the image of a KWL chart kept coming to mind. Before instruction, a teacher needs to find out what is known. What do the students know? What are they capable of doing? This is essential in order to plan instruction. So, before instruction, tests to evaluate readiness and discern whether or not learning outcomes have already been achieved are in order. Pen and pencil pretests or performance tasks can be utilized for this purpose. After evaluating what is known, a teacher can plan what she wants the students to learn. As the lessons are taught and students are engaged in activities, the teacher participates in the process of formative and diagnostic assessment. These types of assessment are designed to discern whether

As an instructor it is important to always be flexible in regards to the learning objectives and the teaching plan in an effort to meet the individual needs of each learner.

Reece and Walker (2000) discuss, there are several building blocks to be considered when planning for effective learning. I will discuss the sections of the planning process that need to be considered planning for a lesson.

As proposed by Dymoke and Harrison, good lesson planning is essential to successful teaching in so far as stating, `It is often the case that poor teaching, classroom management and behaviour stem from lack of explicit planning` (2008, p.122) It is suggested then, that thorough planning is fundamental to the successful learning of pupils in many ways. Whilst allowing the teacher to follow a process of thinking, providing a mental practice session if you like, the act of planning therefore becomes an imperative aid for both student and teacher.