The Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Standard 7: 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.

The artifact that best encapsulates InTASC Standard 7 is my Unit Plan and Lesson Series.

Rationale

The InTASC standards that best exemplify the included artifact are:

7(b) The teacher plans how to achieve each student’s learning goals, choosing appropriate strategies and accommodations, resources, and materials to differentiate instruction for individuals and groups of learners.

7(c) The teacher develops appropriate sequencing of learning experiences and provides multiple ways to demonstrate knowledge and skill.

7(h) The teacher understands how integrating cross-disciplinary skills in instruction engages learners purposefully in applying content knowledge.

7(i) The teacher understands learning theory, human development, cultural diversity, and individual differences and how these impact ongoing planning.

7(j) The teacher understands the strengths and needs of individual learners and how to plan instruction that is responsive to these strengths and needs.

7(k) The teacher knows a range of evidence-based instructional strategies, resources, and technological tools and how to use them effectively to plan instruction that meets diverse learning needs.

A description of the artifact, when it was created, the purpose and process of its creation:

The included artifact was created as an assignment for Foundation of Teaching: the first course I took on the road to achieving my Masters Degree with University of Maryland University College. This assignment challenged me to create a series of lessons that linked together, before completing any of said lessons. t my current school of employment, we have a lot of freedom in terms of how we plan for our classes. I had never been tasked with creating a lesson series, but I very much enjoyed it and believe it would be very useful to plan in this manner for future classes. In depth preparation allows the teacher to plan for every possibility that could occur when teaching the lesson, and I feel this is necessary to provide students with a proactive learning environment.

How does this artifact demonstrate achievement of Standard 7: Planning for Instruction?

In completing the Unit plan and Lesson Series assignment, I was able to learn how to effectively plan to achieve each student’s learning goals, choose appropriate strategies and accommodations, resources, and materials to differentiate instruction for individuals and groups of learners. I spent a great deal of time considering which resources to use for my class and how to modify them for students who needed notes, or were in the process of learning English as a second language.

I was also able to choose a variety of different materials to engage students in the content. Choosing many different materials ahead of time, opposed to choosing two or three to use here and there helps to expose students to many types of activities. I feel as though students must be exposed to all sorts of tasks so they become well rounded learners.

How has my understanding of the standard been affected by the creation of this artifact?

My understanding of this standard has changed, in the sense that I have a new found respect and admiration for well organized Unit Plans. It takes a lot of time and dedication to master the art of planning all sorts of different activities to promote learning in a humanities class. The activities must fall in a certain order, so students can essentially climb a metaphorical mountain of information. In the future, I will create a Unit plan for all of my classes even if it is not required for me to do so, because even though the lesson being created is meant to teach the students, as a teacher, I learned a great deal about what I was going to teach while I was making my plan!

What are my strengths related to this standard? What do I need to improve on?

I need to improve on managing my time correctly in order to efficiently plan for future classes. Making an effective Unit Plan takes time and patience. I need to set aside time during my day to create plans that have more direction and are time managed.

I believe my strengths, when it comes to planning, are present and able. I love creating scenarios in which students engage in group work. I also try my best to give students a platform to discuss or present. While I have not spent as much time as I should have on planning in the past, I am confident my lessons will reach a new level of excellence now that I am set on creating a more diligent time management plan for creating lessons.

Artifacts

Unit Plan/ Lesson Series:

Unit Plan: Beowulf, Grade 9

Students Share Answers on Whiteboard: