Fundamentals of Planning

Study Notes

Planning instruction is crucial for effective teaching.
Teacher planning significantly impacts what's taught in schools (Clark and Lampert, 1986).
Planning provides direction, confidence, and security (Freiberg and Driscoll, 2000).

Planning involves organizing content, familiarizing oneself with it, and gathering related instructional materials.
Teachers plan to use appropriate instructional media.
Teachers use a variety of teaching strategies and activities.
Preparing to interact with students during instruction is part of effective planning.
Incorporating motivational techniques into lessons is essential.
Planning needs to account for individual student differences.
Instructional plans must account for appropriate student performance evaluation procedures.
Teachers serve as reflective decision-makers concerning the curriculum and instruction.
Providing substitute teachers and teaching team members with specific plans in case of absences.
Meeting administrative requirements, like submitting weekly plans for review, is important.
Utilizing written plans as resources for planning is a crucial practice.

Instructional planning for a lesson is cyclical, following a learning continuum guiding teaching-learning tasks in the classroom.
Teacher planning involves three phases: before, during, and after instruction.

Before Instruction:
- Selecting content
- Choosing an instructional approach
- Allocating time and space
- Determining structure
- Establishing student motivation
During Instruction:
- Presenting materials
- Asking questions
- Providing assistance
- Supporting practice
- Managing transitions
- Addressing discipline
After Instruction:
- Checking for understanding
- Providing feedback
- Praising and critiquing
- Assessing
- Grading
- Reporting

Planning processes provide direction for both teachers and students.
Learning objectives focus students, which prompts teachers to communicate the objectives for lessons.
Planning results in a smoothly running classroom with fewer discipline issues.
Teachers can avoid the role of police officers, due to the smooth flow of lessons.

Understand desired student learning outcomes
Determine methods to measure student understanding
Decide on instructional practices to facilitate learning and application of information.