Plans, Plans and More Plans!

Perhaps no other job in the world requires as much planning and preparation as that of a teacher. Curriculum plans, course plans, unit plans, lesson plans and daily plans are all elements that a teacher must consider before getting up in front of a classroom to teach.

While all of this planning seems overwhelming and intimidating, approaching this with a “backwards design” can help. The Understanding by Design Framework and the Significant Learning readings both referenced backwards design.

When we first began discussing planning in class, I immediately thought of a pyramid, with curriculum plans at the bottom and daily plans at the top. Curriculum plans are broad, and set the foundation for the rest of planning. Daily plans, on the other hand, are extremely specific to a certain day, and are based off of all other plans. “Backwards design” suggests that teachers should work from the bottom of this pyramid towards the top. Doing so will help create more concrete plans that will encourage student learning.

To further my understanding of a backwards design, I researched what this type of lesson plan would look like, and came up with a template created by the University of Hawaii (FYI- it is a Word document!). I really like it, because it clearly shows the steps of this type of planning, and shows you what to include in every section.

While planning is important, as we learned in AEE412 this week, effective teaching strategies also aid in providing high quality instruction. The two go hand-in-hand; without effective teaching, a great plan can take a turn for the worst and without a plan, even the most effective teacher will not be able to maximize student learning. Rosenshine & Furst’s five elements of effective teaching that we discussed in class (clarity, variability, enthusiasm, business-like behavior and opportunity to learn) can help ensure that lesson plans are up to par and that students will benefit from them.

Although lesson plans still seem intimidating to me, I am feeling more and more confident each class in my ability to create them. I think that utilizing this “backwards design” will be beneficial to me, and I am looking forward to the teaching end of things, where Rosenshine and Furst’s elements of effective teaching come into play!