Planning for Effective Instruction

During this weeks readings, I have found the information describing the necessary planning for effective instruction to be extremely critical to our success as teachers. I have always understood the importance of preparation since I was a young adult. One of my biggest fears is being unprepared for something important in my life. It is a terrible feeling knowing that you have a higher chance of failure because you did not properly prepare. I learned early in school, first in athletics, being "in-shape" for the start of whatever sport season I was getting into. I learned to prepare by running and training in the off season to be ready for the beginning of the season, and ready to give my best effort in practice. I carried that over in the classroom, to properly study for my exams, and be prepared to do my best on the assessment. You are always at a disadvantage when you come into a season out of shape, or going into a test without studying first. It is the same in the field of teaching, if you do not properly prepare for your instruction, you are not only putting yourself at a disadvantage, but also your students as well. Teachers have a very large responsibility, which is to prepare all of their students for the next level. Not only some of the students, but every single student that is taking their class. This is an incredible, sometime over-whelming, responsibility which places an enormous amount of pressure on the teacher. This pressure can be reduced greatly and calmed when a teacher understands how to effectively plan for a unit and lesson.

This is the most difficult part of teaching. Once you have all your planning properly accomplished, teaching is the easy part. All effective teachers have a specific detailed standard based curriculum that is designed for the their students age and skill level. Their planning ties the context, learning goals, learning activities, classroom management, and assessment within the specific model that they have chosen to engage their students in.

The first and most important aspect of effective planning is knowing your students. To be able to properly plan to maximize your students potential, you need to understand their specific needs, personalities, disabilities, and preferred learning processes. After you understand their general learning behaviors, you can then plan the specific instructional model and teaching strategies for high student learning!