Instructional Planning:
In a regular school year a teacher has a responsibility to upwards of 130 kids. This responsibility is to make sure that the information that needs to be learned is planned out in a way that fosters quality learning. To develop complete instructional plans a teacher must be able to align mandated objectives with student needs and interests, understand and use data driven from students to guide planning, and use differentiated instructional methods.
Higher thinking
When it comes to helping students genuinely apply their knowledge, higher level thinking must be facilitated. One simple effective way to accomplish this in a history classroom is by having students connect the past to the present, as seen below. Students as a group had to decide whether each person or group belongs in the Northern, Middle, or Southern colonies. When students can apply the knowledge in different manners, then they are more likely to deeply understand and remember the information.
Student Data
Using data to guide instructional planning can happen in every step of the process. There can be long term planning by looking at students prior results in a field. Short term data can also provide valuable information. There are many ways to retrieve short term data from students, including exit slips, surveys, quizzes, and countless others. Conducting a “What I know Board” activity prior to starting a new unit is an excellent way to see what students already know and what needs to be covered in more detail. One conducted on the Revolutionary War is displayed below.
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Differentiated Instruction
All students learn differently. To address these needs it is important that teachers include different types of activities for the same concept to help reach as many students as possible. This can be implemented simply through lesson plans with activities that engage many of Gardner’s multiple intelligences. Lessons that use many of these approaches to learning are far more likely to reach more students than a lesson that only uses one method.
Students had to either construct a PowerPoint presentation or write a one to two page journal to teach an event from the time leading up to the Civil War through Reconstruction.
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