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Planning for Instruction: The teacher plans instruction that supports every student in meeting
rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-
disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.
Instructional Strategies: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies
to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and
to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.

Planning unique and out of the box learning opportunities for students has been one of

the highlights of the MAT program for me. In my early classes, I was always trying to do

something different than everyone else. Looking back at those first lesson plans, I realize I’ve

come a long way in recognizing and applying appropriate grade level subject matter. But I

remember being so excited about my “new ideas” and unique lesson plans that I had created. I

felt I was being so original, and I was just excited to be in classrooms teaching my own lesson

plans. Since then, I’ve learned that uniqueness and originality don’t necessarily equal a

successful lesson plan. Best practice is to actually plan backwards, with a clear focus on the

learning targets from the beginning.

The idea of backward design for planning instruction was popularized by Wiggins and

McTighe in Understanding by Design (2005). Their focus on identifying learning outcomes and

assessments before planning instruction has helped me create some really cool lessons and map

out a general plan for the year. In the same way, I’ve learned how to prioritize my lesson

planning with the help of Maria Nielsen’s (2024) coined terms: “boulders, rocks, and

butterflies.” The big idea is all about sitting down with standards and deciding what students

need to know (boulders), what is nice to know (rocks), and what is fun to know (butterflies).

Identifying boulders, or essential standards first, helps me manage my time and plan instruction

accordingly. Boulders are the highest-priority foundational skills that require more time to reach

mastery. Rocks are less urgent, but still grade-level standards that should be taught and assessed.
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Finally, butterflies are standards that have already been taught or will be covered more in depth

the following year; they often don’t require a lot of time. Our 4th grade team sat down early in

the year to identify the building blocks, or boulders, of our grade level standards and we put a lot

of time and effort into teaching those to mastery.

Similarly, our school district is bringing a huge focus to Teacher Clarity by Fisher et al.

(2019) this year. Like backward design, Teacher Clarity leads me to plan instruction with a clear

focus. The big idea is to discuss and display learning targets and success criteria, so students

know what they’re learning. Learning goals shouldn’t be a secret from students. Rather, kids

should know what they are learning about, why it’s relevant, and how they will know they’ve

successfully learned it. My students have an active role when we discuss why our learning

targets are important. I often use their own language when writing expected learning outcomes

on the board each week. Students are gaining clarity by knowing what success looks like for

each learning target, because it's posted in the classroom at the beginning of each new unit.

A few years ago, I designed a unit around government, elections, and debate. It covered

content areas from social studies, science, art, and language arts. My original idea was a mock

election and debate in which students chose a candy representative for the class. I thought the

kids would be really excited to research, debate, and vote for their favorite candy candidate:

chocolate or sour gummies. The students would form two groups, mimicking the main political

parties in the U.S. My professor at the time suggested I incorporate a health element and change

the lesson to fruit vs. vegetables, but what elementary kid would get excited to vote for greens?

So, for the assignment, I landed on a fruit election: Berry Party vs. Citrus Party. In the end, the

class actually still debated the candy, and it was really fun to be a part of! I think the lesson was

successful because it was academically relevant to what was going on in the world and
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incorporated non-political topics students cared about. It resonates with Crumpton & Gregory’s

study that delved into intrinsic motivation and its connection to low-achieving students. The

research highlighted the significance of academic relevancy and intrinsic motivation in

promoting classroom engagement. The findings underscored the importance of connecting

classroom activities with students' everyday lives and personal preferences (Crumpton &

Gregory, 2011). The students certainly engaged with the topic of debate between chocolate and

sour gummies.

The unit included plenty of time for students to talk, debate, and research their chosen

party representative. There were artistic elements in creating the ballot box as well as the

campaign posters. The campaign slogans and posters contained persuasive writing elements.

Then students wrote and edited speeches as they prepared for the culminating performance task:

the debate. Students were expected to come prepared for the debate, having done research and

offering factual evidence of why they believed their candidate was the best choice.

Differentiation was evidenced in final roles during the debate. The more advanced students took

on the bigger roles of research and presenting arguments during the debate, while other students

fulfilled the roles of moderator, timekeeper, and audience members. I don’t recall which party

won the election that year, but being part of that experience was very special. The learning

targets centered around the election and debate processes, and backwards planning allowed me to

really hone in on the specific criteria I wanted students to walk away knowing about the election

and debate process.

Like the government unit, which was designed to explore the process of elections and

debate in a hands-on way, the best lessons I teach include plenty of team time and collaboration.

Teaching in an inclusive classroom with 25 students calls for planning differentiation every day.
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Garguilo & Metcalf posit that meeting the needs of individual students means adapting content,

process, and product to accommodate their needs and abilities (2017). This can be a challenging

task in a typical general education classroom. I am now in my second year of teaching 4th grade.

I often get bogged down with lessons from the same textbooks day in and day out. The “canned

curricula” routine seems difficult to differentiate properly. I still find the lessons I enjoy

teaching the most don’t come from textbooks. They stem from the unique interests and abilities

of my students. They include relevant topics that kids are excited to learn about. They include

time to collaborate and learn from one another. Planning time for these types of projects renews

my love of teaching.
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References

Crumpton, H. E., & Gregory, A. (2011). “I’m not learning”: The role of academic relevancy for

low-achieving students. The Journal of Educational Research, 104(1), 42–53.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26505662

Fisher, D., Frey, N., Amador, O., & Assof, J. (2019) The teacher clarity playbook: A hands-on

guide to creating learning intentions and success criteria for organized, effective

instruction; grades K-12. Corwin.

Gargiulo, R. & Metcalf, D. (2017). Teaching in today’s inclusive classrooms: A universal design

for learning approach. Cengage Learning.

Nielsen, M. (2024). The 15-day challenge: Simplify and energize your PLC at work process.

Solution Tree Press.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Pearson.