What is a Plan, and who are our Learners?

"He who fails to plan is planning to fail" - Winston Churchill

How do we Plan for Instruction?

                The key to undertaking any task great or small is to have a plan. A plan needs to include what your goals are, how you will accomplish them, what you need to accomplish them, and in what time frame you plan to accomplish them. Planning for Instruction is no different. Teachers must identify their goals for their students and how/when those goals will be met.  When looking at mapping out your instruction fist start with your instructional area- specifically what your content will focus on. Next, you include your unit of instruction, which is typically framed as a situation or concern. For example, when teaching  poultry unit, a problem area to address could include “Establishing a Laying Flock.” Each lesson within this unit will be framed as questions that require answering, and when they can be answered, address the problem area. An example lesson might be “what are the characteristics of a productive hen?” Students will learn what makes a hen productive, which will be used to establish a laying flock.

                Planning allows for the teacher to focus on specific competencies and objectives they have for their learners. A thorough plan allows for a teacher and students to make sense of the information being presented and apply it to legitimate needs. Students need to have a felt-need—a cultivated desire to learn and understand the material. When teaching is planned accordingly, clarity and variability can be established. Teachers who plan their lessons can more clearly communicate what it is they expect from students, and students are able to comprehend why and how they will they can meet those expectations.

What are the similarities between Significant Learning; Understanding by Design and the Universal Design for Learning?

Understanding by Design framework is an approach to planning units of instruction starting with examining the competencies you want students to meet and working backwards from there. When using this approach, instructors must also establish how those competencies will be satisfactorily met. It is similar to the Significant Learning in as well as the Universal Design for learning in that these learning outcomes are determined before the methods to reach those outcomes are put into place. Variety and continual assessment are key in all three approaches to unit planning. When I read about these approaches, I was confused as to why the process was considered “backward planning”. Shouldn’t all instruction be planned with learning objectives in mind rather than a methods first approach? Unfortunately, the later can dominate the profession, and teachers tend to frame their learning objectives around a textbook or activity rather than the other way around. Having clearly defined and stated learning objectives are key regardless of the approach to planning.

How you will incorporate the three pillars of Universal Design for Learning: multiple means of representation, multiple means of action and expression, and multiple means of engagement?

            These pillars of the Universal Design for Learning are simply practices that allow a teacher to plan variance into their planning process—a key characteristic of effective teachers. Choosing multiple means of representation would include using a variety of approaches in presenting content to students. For example, when discussing the different types of milk product students can match pictures, watch a video on chocolate milk production in Pa, or do a cheese making lab. Each activity would allow for a different means of presenting the material and provide a variety of ways a student can make sense of that content and show what they know.

What is Scaffolding?

                Scaffolding is the approach by which teachers begin teaching at the students’ level of comprehension and build from there. Once a need or objective for the material is established, the teacher needs to make the material flow in a logical way. Using the poultry example above, I can’t expect students to select hens for egg production without first teaching them what makes a hen a better egg producer. I can’t teach them what those characteristics are until they understand what makes a chicken a chicken and not something else. I must start with the basics they understand and then proceed with lessons that require that fundamental knowledge to conceptualize.