Running head: PLANNING, PREPARATION, INSTRUCTION, AND ASSESSMENT 1

Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment

Esther Boner

Regent University
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Introduction

One quote always comes to mind when I think of planning. This happens to be one that

is often used in the military and was said many times while growing up in a military household.

Fail to plan, and plan to fail. This can’t be truer in teaching as well. Without proper planning

the key parts of a student’s growth might be missed and that would be a huge disservice to our

youth. Planning is where it all starts and from there, we can prepare lessons that are engaging,

excited and filled with depth. Furthermore, as a teacher I am able to check how well I am

teaching as well as how much the students are retaining through assessment. This all links right

back into planning. Planning for the month, or week ahead and being flexible in changing plans

day to day to fit what the students are needing.

Rationale

Two very important artifacts in this competency are my pre and post assessment. Both of

these were given in an online format through quizizz. I chose to use this technological resource

because I find that the students respond well to the competitiveness of it and seem to be having

fun while testing which takes the edge off of them. The students in this class did very well on

the assessments with a few students needing extra guidance throughout the week. I gave the pre-

assessment the first day I introduced main idea and supporting details. I used the data from this

assessment to modify the lessons I had made for the week. I added small group practice time for

my students whom showed that they needed extra guidance. When in small group I had task

cards that we worked on as a group. These cards are also provided in this competency as an

artifact. The task cards were different each day but gave the students the opportunity to break

down main idea and supporting details and truly understand the topics. The post assessment was

given at the end of the week. The students had a few minutes to gather their thoughts and go
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over definitions of main idea and supporting details if they needed to. This was taken

independently, and the results were put into a spreadsheet.

I have also provided the lesson plans as well as a spreadsheet with data taken throughout

the unit. The lessons are detailed and include plans for use of specific data in the following day.

Each plan has careful consideration of SOL’s for fifth grade and are adapted from the curriculum

guide Virginia Beach Public Schools provided during collaboration. These are the SOL’s that

needed to be focused on in Non-fiction text. The spreadsheet includes data taken over the unit.

This included the pre and post assessment as well as an informal assessment in the middle of the

week. The highlighted scores are ones that I kept an eye on and gave small group instruction to.

The green scores are the scores that showed growth from the first assessment to the final

assessment.

Reflection

Teaching is a roller coaster with many highs and equally there are lows. With careful

planning, continuous change in instruction and relevant assessment the highs can absolutely

outweigh the lows and bring a sense of peace to a classroom environment as well as less stress

on the teacher. In a book review in NATE Classroom teacher, Rachel Yarrow, professed that

while reading she came to understand that when we plan, we also need to take into consideration

learning styles, seating plans and classroom displays. (Yarrow, 2011) These are the things we

often leave out that could save both the students and us as teachers a lot of stress.

Assessment is important in driving forward plans. “An Essential act of our profession is

the crafting of curriculum and learning experiences to meet specified purposes. We are also

designers of assessments to diagnose student needs to guide out teaching and to enable us, our
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students and others to determine whether we have achieved our goals.” (Wiggins & McTighe,

2005) As teachers it is a no brainer that part of our job is to be creative and craft plans and ideas

to help our students. In our careful planning and consideration of creativity we are always

looking to a goal. With assessment we can find the definition of our goal and test to see if we

have achieved it. We can also use assessment to check what the student already knows. This is

important for showing growth as well as making lessons as relevant as possible to all students. If

ninety percent of the class has background knowledge of a topic they are likely going to be bored

if it is presented to them again in depth.

Preparation and instruction is simply driven from planning and assessment. The plans are

made with standards in mind the assessments are created to collect data on whether the standards

were taught well and understood by the masses and the preparation and instruction that happens

in between assessments are the moments when lightbulbs are lit, excited happens, and aha

moments can occur. Instruction should be flexible, and change based on the needs of the

students. It should not be one size fits all. Students need to be engaged through platforms that

excite them and knowing their strengths and what drives them and adapting lessons to this

format with all the more produce exceptional results.

Students and teachers need planning and preparation for different reasons but in the end it

all leads to less stress for the teacher, and a learning environment that is the best for student

success. Goals, assessment, and flexibility are large parts of the planning and implementation

process that should be considered while creating or crafting engaging lesson plans. Teachers

have the means to create students whom are world leaders as long as we can plan and prepare

their days to lead them in that direction.

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Bibliography

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design. Upper Saddle River: Pearson

Education Inc.

Yarrow, R. (2011). The Complete Guide to Lesson Planning and Preparation. NATE Classroom,

79.