1. Levels of Planning

2. Table of Contents Levels of Planning Long-Term Planning Procedures
Curriculum
Short-Term Planning
Weekly Structure
Daily Plans
Challenges to Lesson Planning

3. Teachers . . .”need to have a sense of where they are going, why they want their students to go there, and how they and their students are going to get there” (National Academy of Education, 2005, p.16).
Long-term planning

4. Long-Term Planning: Procedures
Help classrooms run smoothly and support students’ independence
Should be intentionally determined by the teacher
Should be established at the beginning of the year
Can be traditional or creative—find what works for you (and your students)

5. Areas in Need of Classroom Procedures
When/how to sharpen pencils
How to transition to a group area
Lunch preferences
How to walk in the hall
How to turn in papers
What information to include at the top of papers

6. Long-Term Planning: Curriculum
Year-Long Planning—Outlining and organizing all of the information expected to be taught in a given school year; remains relatively stable from year to year
Curriculum maps
Pacing guides
Standards frameworks
Grade-level benchmarks
Scope and sequence

7. Long-Term Planning: Curriculum
Unit Planning—Organizing standards into manageable pieces of related material
Lasts 2 to 9 weeks
May or may not integrate subject areas
Often missing from classroom instruction

8. Unit Planning “Big Idea” and Thematic Instruction
Identify related themes/generalizations in the standards
Select appropriate associated resources
Plan instructional activities to support the content
Big Idea planning typically remains focused in a content area (the Revolutionary War, our solar system, folk tales)
Thematic Instruction is focused on integrating content areas around a broader theme (adaptation, courage, community)

9. Unit Planning Backwards Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005)
The student will be able to ______.
Identify Desired Results
As shown on _____ assessment.
Determine Acceptable Results
Learning will occur through ___.
Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

10. Unit Planning: Warnings!
Activity Focus: Putting together lots of fun activities around a topic and calling it a unit, despite the lack of focus on particular learning goals/standards
Coverage Focus: Moving through instruction in almost lockstep fashion in order to ensure that everything is “covered”

11. Unit Plan Template

12. Short-Term Planning

13. Short-Term Planning: Weekly Schedule
“Out of classroom” time generally dictated at the school level
Largest blocks of time generally dedicated to literacy and math instruction
Science and social studies fit in smaller spaces and/or are taught on alternate days or alternating units
Be flexible

14. Short-Term Planning: Instructional Routines
Routines are recurring events within a schedule designed specifically to:
Decrease complexity
Minimize confusion
Prevent loss of instructional time
(Ryan & Cooper, 2012)

15. Instructional Routine Comparison
Monday
Whole Group Story Share and Vocabulary Work
Reader’s Workshop
Tuesday
Guided Reading and Work Station Rotations
Wednesday
Classroom 1
Classroom 2

16. Short-Term Planning: Daily Plans
Lessons should be structured around a specific objective or two
Some lessons last 5 to 10 minutes, whereas others last 3 days (or more!)
Should always include means of assessing student progress toward the objective

17. Short-Term Planning : Objectives
Observable behavior (think of Bloom’s Taxonomy)
Which one is an appropriate objective?
After reading Memoirs of a Goldfish, students will be able to independently identify the setting, main character, and problem of the story in writing.
Students will understand the parts of a story after reading Memoirs of a Goldfish.

18. Short-Term Planning: Assessment
Group assessment is not enough; assessing individual performance is key.
Assessment should be directly related to the objective.
Assessment should be formatted in a way that matches the expectations of the objective.

19. Short-Term Planning: Resources and Materials
Not all have equivalent instructional value.
Useful resources and materials are most easily found after the objectives have been determined and assessments have been developed. (Remember the principles of backwards design?)
Resources and materials should be designed and selected with your particular students in mind.

20. Short-Term Planning: Lesson Structure
Modeling (“I Do”)
Guided Practice (“We Do”)
Small-Group Guided Practice (“You all Do”)
Partnered Guided Practice (“You Two Do”)
Independent Practice (“You Do”)

21. TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY
“I do it”
Focus Lesson
Guided Instruction
“We do it”
“You all do it/
You two do it ”
Collaborative
“You do it
alone”
Independent
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY
Gradual Release of Responsibility Model (based on Pearson & Gallagher, 1983)

22. Sample Lesson Plan Template

23. Challenges to Effective Lesson Planning
Balancing breadth and depth
Incorporating both cognitive and affective goals for learning
Avoiding fragmentation
Striving for both relevance and rigor
(The National Academy for Education, 2005)

24. More Challenges to Effective Lesson Planning
Use of instructional time
Textbooks
Conformity vs. Collaboration

25. Summary
Year-long planning, unit planning, and daily planning are each critical.
Planning never ends; it is an essential part of the instructional cycle.
Planning forces teachers to think about what needs to be accomplished and how to most effectively use time to make that happen.
Planning is not the same as finding activities.
Lesson plans are works in progress that must be adapted based on students’ needs and reactions to instruction.

26. References
National Academy of Education. (2005). A good teacher in every classroom: Preparing the highly qualified teachers our children deserve. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Pearson, P. D., & Gallagher, M. C. (1983). The instruction of reading comprehension. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8, 317–344. Ryan, K., & Cooper, J. M. (2012). Those who can, teach (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.