Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment

Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment

Riley “Caden” Arendt

Regent University

In partial fulfillment of UED 495 Field Experience ePortfolio, Spring 2020

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Introduction

This competency paper discuses how I implemented planning, preparation, instruction,

and assessment during my student teaching experience and how my philosophy of teaching

impacted that process. Planning and preparation are essential elements to teaching. I have found

that the time it takes to prepare for a lesson is equal or more than the amount it takes to teach it.

When this is not true, the quality of the lesson is diminished. Lesson planning begins with the

teachers’ knowledge of the students’ relationship to the content. This means teachers must have

mastery of what they teach and must implement assessments to evaluate their students’ needs.

Effective teachers will analyze this data and plan lessons with each student in mind. They will

know their students’ strengths and weaknesses and will provide differentiation accordingly. My

experience has affirmed that effective instruction is achieved by teachers who are well-prepared,

make time to plan, and are in tune with where their students are at through formal and informal

assessments.

Rationale of Artifacts

The artifacts chosen for this paper correspond to a mathematics unit on mean, median,

mode, and range. It was a five-day unit which began with a pre-assessment assigned for

homework at the end of a lesson on graphs. The unit consisted of a post-assessment that was

assigned on Friday, three days before the test. The pre-assessment provided prior knowledge I

would need for differentiation throughout my unit. It showed me my students’ prior knowledge

of the vocabulary associated with mean, median, mode, and range, their ability to find mean,

median, mode, and range, and their understanding of the mathematical processes. The post-

assessment gave me a scope of my students’ improvement with the content and showed me their

readiness for the test. Both assessments were recorded on a Google spreadsheet for ease of
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viewing and interpreting. The final artifact is the two lesson plans where the assessments were

assigned.

Reflection of Practice

This data was primarily used to understand what extension work I could provide

for my students who already had mastery of some of the skills. As anticipated, most of my

students struggled with the skills. Because we were not allowed to hold math groups due to

COVID-19, I taught each math lesson to the class as a whole. At times, this would lead to my

higher-level students getting bored and tuning out. Having an understanding of which students

had more prior knowledge about the information taught in this unit enabled me find other ways

for them to bring the content to higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy while I continued to teach

the class as a whole. This was primarily conducted through discussion questions that tied the

learning to real life examples. Not only would my higher-level students try to solve these real-

world problems, but it also kept my lower-level students engaged and interested.

The pre-assessment also showed which students would need additional help or

accommodations after I provided instruction for the class as a whole. The differentiation

provided for these students consisted of one-on-one assistance during independent practice, small

group work at lunch time for kids who wanted additional help, and different activity pages that

had smaller sets of data with smaller values. These activity pages helped the students to get a

grasp on the mathematical processes without getting overwhelmed by the data sets.

After this differentiation was provided throughout the lessons on Tuesday through Friday,

the students took a post-assessment similar to the pre-assessment. This data allowed me to see

my students’ levels of improvement and brought to my attention areas that I should review
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before the test. Overall, the students performed very well on the post assessment other than a few

students who were absent for much of the week.

This process of assessing, planning, implementing, and reassessing allowed me to know

my students’ needs and prepare accordingly. Katy Hisrich and Megan McCaffrey state that,

“Developing and implementing strong lesson planning rests at the core of effective teaching.”

They note that, “Strategizing lessons allows an instructor to synthesize their knowledge of

pedagogy, curriculum, content, and students; it begins when the instructor is able to visualize the

outcomes or learning desired and then develop the plans for the most effective way to make that

vision a reality” (Hisrich & McCaffrey, 2021).

Proper lesson planning keeps teachers organized and on track and helps students more

easily achieve the learning objectives established. One way that I saw this was with the

vocabulary of this unit. My pre-assessment showed my what vocabulary would need to be

highlighted throughout the unit. According to Superfine, vocabulary should be deliberately and

thoughtfully placed in lessons during preparation (Superfine, 2008). A final way that I saw

preparation and planning improve my instruction was with classroom management. In my

student teaching experience, lessons that were better planned and I felt more prepared for led to

more time on task. Students were more engaged which led to less behavioral issues. It is clear

that thoughtful lesson planning and teacher-preparedness leads to countless instructional

benefits.
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References

Hisrich, K. E., & McCaffrey, M. (2021). Planning and preparing for read-alouds. Illinois

Reading Council Journal, 49(2), 12–20. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.regent.edu/10.33600/ircj.49.2.2021.12

Superfine, A. C. (2008). Planning for mathematics instruction: a model of experienced teachers’

planning. Illinois Reading Council Journal, 49(2) 4-21, 18(2), 11-22.

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Artifact 1: Assessments

Google Slides MMMR Pre-assessment:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13SkPvLRAwQoTOx8rV0azAA2feem3eM68nH17yJxfp

m8/copy

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1syDxuOwEtgGe1hIYK7rJjLem9fDa_fvBxSUFctR7wv

Y/copy

Artifact 2:

Assessment Data:
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Artifact 3:

Lesson plan where pre-assessment was assigned:

Lesson plan where post-assessment was assigned: