“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” –Sydney J. Harris

The standard of instructional planning exists in order for teachers to pace their lessons so that they can best assist and guide their students’ learning. Mastery of instructional planning can be demonstrated by the inclusion of SOLs within lesson plans, plans for differentiation of lessons to include varying learning abilities or styles, as well as plans to utilize classroom resources, such as technology, to their highest potential. Administration of a pre-test in order to guide student learning is evidence of instructional planning, as well as detailed long and short term plans.

During my student teaching, I taught two novel units: one on the murder mystery And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and one on The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde.  For both novel units my students answered comprehension questions as well as analyzed deeper themes of the novels.  My two week unit for The Picture of Dorian Grey shows that I have considered students’ needs and both long term and short term goals when it comes to what I want my students to learn.

Before beginning The Picture of Dorian Grey, I conducted a pre-test but also held group discussion which allowed me gauge existing knowledge about the time period. The Powerpoint slides below helped me to conduct this discussion.

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Throughout my two week unit I used student assessment and assignments to guide my planning process. I would make adjustments as needed in order to continue a lesson or add additional information which students needed. Below is one such assignment which guided my planning process. Students were asked to work in groups and brainstorm about the themes of the novel The Picture of Dorian Grey. From these papers I concluded that students had a good grasp of the novel’s themes and that no additional time needed to be added to discuss them further.

I created my lessons and assessments with students’ final project in mind. For the final assignment for the novel unit The Picture of Dorian Grey, students were asked to write a literary analysis paper. Having the final project in mind ensured that class discussions as well as study guide questions were geared towards addressing the themes or characters which students were going to be asked to write about. In this way I demonstrated long-term planning and goals.

 

For further discussion about this standard, please see PPS Instructional Planning.