Introduction

​

To move student achievement, I plan for instruction through a variety of formalized and informal methods. While planning for instruction offers teachers the opportunity to reflect metacognitive reflection to adapt pedagogy for student growth, it also allows the teacher to develop a depth of instructional structures that allow for seamless planning and evaluation. To meet rigorous learning goals of each student, I utilize three pillars of planning to synthesize my knowledge of content, curriculum, and cross-disciplinary skills: Long-term planning, unit planning, and lesson planning. While long-term planning provides the rigid overview of broad standard skills and curriculum to be covered, I incorporate unit planning and lesson planning to allow for fluid personalized and adaptive planning. In addition to planning for instruction through long-term, unit, and lesson plans, I intentionally plan for instruction through a lens that builds from the knowledge of my students and their community context. As a native of my school's community, I consciously plan and design instruction that is anchored in drawing upon historical and cultural knowledge of my students and our community. 

​

To support the three pillars of planning, I work individually and collaboratively throughout the year to evaluate, select, and design instructional plans that produce rigorous learning experiences for all students. First, during the summer, when I am informed about what grade-levels I will teach, I create a long-term plan in consideration of the district-wide curriculum plan. Through long-term planning, I am able to observe the trajectory of the course and overview how assessments will build towards standards mastery throughout the year.

​

Secondly, I create unit plans from the district-mandated curriculum. Each unit plan provides a deep dive into the relationship between the core text, essential question, content standards, and culminating assessments within the unit. A unit plan allows teachers to become aware of potential gaps in content knowledge, identify rigorous learning goals, and evaluate areas of cross-disciplinary content and skills. Since my school does adopt the district's curriculum, the unit plan allows me to access prior knowledge about my learners and develop a backwards planning approach to guide instruction throughout the unit. The unit planning provides practical expertise for my teacher development growth as I think through which content skills and formative assessments throughout the unit are essential to meeting students' learning goals tied to standards mastery, college and career readiness, and the broader classroom vision and goals. 

​

Lastly, as lesson planning brings the long-term and unit planning to life, I contend this is the most significant component of how I plan for instruction. On a weekly basis, I produce 2-3 full-length lesson plans as many of my students do not complete all components of a rigorous lesson during one class time. However, through my school's lesson plan template, I am able to evaluate a lesson plan mid-week, adjust accordingly, and continue with instruction. Even though lesson plans extend beyond the intended length, every day reflects a new standards-based objective and formative assessment to measure student progress towards an end-of-week learning outcome. Again, I apply a backwards planning model, on a weekly basis to ensure students receive the scaffolds necessary to assess learning goals across each lesson plan. Ultimately, since the district's curriculum does not reflect cultural proficiency, lesson plans allow me to draw upon knowledge of learners and the community context through lesson content. 

​

Since all methods of planning for instruction highlighted are utilized for my seventh and eighth grade students, the evidence reflects both grade-level student work. 

​

Below, you can click each image to explore how I plan for instruction to  meet the needs of all students to reach rigorous learning goals:  

​

Long-Term Planning