Entry 7

Planning for Instruction

The teacher should plan instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous
learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, technology, curriculum, cross-
disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.
Through my education classes and University Band conducting, having to create lesson
plans that present goals and objectives is a very common thing in my undergrad that I have a lot
of experience on and have great professors to help develop them. One example specific is my
secondary unit plan which had me create a large-scale plan for a concert band piece, in which I
involved lessons that taught ideas like historical contexts and/or cross-curriculum learning.
During my student teaching I took over both the 2nd grade and 5th grade classrooms at my
elementary school, where I created and taught a 5th grade Ukulele unit and taught the students
how to play from the ground up. I made a lesson plan for every class and got continuous
feedback from my cooporating teacher. I learned how to be flexible as I had to stray from my
lesson plan many times to account for student learning and time-management. By the end of the
unit I had students going home and learning songs and chords on their own and coming to class
ready to perform for everyone, and the students who fell behind the rest of the class was still able
to come through in the end and be able to play any play-along video I play (which usually
involved the four main chords we learned, C, F, A minor, and G). Assignments and experiences
like this have helped me develop my ability to create and follow learning goals that help in
student success get to where I’m wanting my ensemble or classroom to grow to.