#AEE412 Weekly Investment 2: Designing and Planning Instruction

Maximizing learning and planning instruction. Planning instruction was (and still kind of is) daunting to think about. But, after gaining some new insight through the readings this week, I think I'm beginning to get a better understanding of how these unit plans, assessments, and lesson plans are supposed to fit together. Here are some major takeaways!

You have to know where you want to end up if you want to develop an effective plan to get there. I believe this thought is essential to effectively planning instruction. This ensures that everything you are teaching in your class aligns together and thus promotes deeper learning for students. So before you start planning your first Soil Science class you need to stop and think, "What do I want my students to be able to do by the end of this class/unit?" Realizing this was very helpful because the other day I was staring at my computer at a loss of how to begin writing my first lesson plan for student teaching. According to the framework by Mctighe et al., first start by identifying desired results, then determine assessment evidence, and finally plan learning experiences and instruction. I really appreciated that the framework takes the time to discuss different types of assessment - performance tasks and other evidence such as traditional tests and quizzes. While I think there is a time and a place for both types, the most important thing is to make sure that everything aligns and nothing is slipping through the cracks. Now, I'm quite excited to try out what I've learned on the unit/lesson plans I'll be writing in the coming weeks!

I know I briefly mentioned this above, but this was a really important area of discussion in all of our readings for this week. When I was in high school, I never really took much thought into why we learned things in the order in which we learned them. All I knew is when I was learning and when I was completely lost/bored. But now as I'm working on writing unit plans, lesson plans, and assessments for my student teaching experience, my mind is a little overwhelmed. There are so many ways we must look for alignment and connection. Whether it's making sure the scaffolding is actually building up towards a specific skill to making sure the assessment is evaluating what we actually taught. But as Reardon et al. state in Strategies for Great Teaching, "Learning happens when brains are connecting in meaningful ways with the subject matter. It occurs when learners make patterns based on existing schema as they seek to understand new content".

References:

Fink, L.D. (2003) A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. Retrieved from http://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf

Mctighe, J. & Wiggins, G. (2012). Understanding by design framework. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/UbD_WhitePaper0312.pdf

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Reardon, M. & Derner, S. (2004) Strategies for great teaching. Chicago, Illinois: Zephyr Press

West Virginia University, (2010.). Bloom’s taxonomy. Retrieved from http://community.wvu.edu/~lsmong/Articulate%20Blooms%20Wheel/blooms_wheel.html