Ashley Campbell

May 1, 2010

STANDARD 4 - Planning for Instruction 

The competent teacher understands instructional planning and designs instruction based

upon knowledge of the discipline, students, the community, and curriculum goals. 

My understanding of this standard is that a teacher must make sure that he or she is

planning out lessons carefully before instruction. The material within the lessons should follow

school and state wide goals and curriculums. The lessons taught within a class should be

differentiated to meet the needs of all students and individuals. The lessons should also include

learning objectives, prerequisite knowledge and behavior objectives for the students. This will

help the teacher plan carefully and stay on task while presenting information to the students.

The artifact I chose to incorporate into Illinois Professional Teaching Standards 4 is a

lesson plan that distinctly shows all the information that must be incorporated into a lesson plan.

While planning carefully there are many things that must be taking into consideration. These

things will include ways to connect with the students, information that they should be aware of

prior to the assignment, and what key points the students should learn as a result of the lesson.

This artifact shows how I was able to lay out how the lesson would take place. It also shows how

the students would have an opportunity to work both as whole group and individually.

I was able to use this lesson plan with the students. When lessons are well planned out

and all the materials that are required to do a lesson are readily available students are able to

work more productively. The students do have a difficult time working on projects where they
are unable to move about the classroom. The students also enjoy working with other classmates.

As I was able to get into the lesson and see how students were working productively I did make

it a point to allow them to have some sharing time to work and discuss with a classmate. Some

modifications generally take place while going over a lesson with the students. These

modifications typically enhance the lesson and allow the students to be more creative and think

constructively in a manner that I may not have thought about previously. When suggestions are

appropriate I do allow the students to share and possibly carry them out.

Differentiating the lessons and individual assignments are appropriate and necessary for

students to be able to work and have material that is challenging for them. I believe that the

students who require above level course work should be given the opportunity to have material

that challenges their understanding and has them put forth more effort. The students in the below

level group should be able to have individual assignments where they are challenged but they

may need an extra helping hand or incentive to help them get through the coursework.