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.”
Planning for Instruction is something that has become necessary in public education. Teachers must ensure that their students will pass the SOLs, in order to keep their jobs and to make sure all their students can continue on the education path. In Virginia, teachers are held to the Standards of Learning, but should also keep in mind the national standards.
I noticed very early in my field study that my cooperating teacher was very aware of the SOLs and while he taught what he wanted, he was sure to stress the things that he knew the students would be tested on. He had a checklist of everything that would be on the SOL and as the students learned things they would pull out the checklist and mark what they had learned.
In the spring I did not see the same thing from my new cooperating teacher. The main reason for this was the fact that she did not have an SOL. I actually found the experience a little bizarre. I was teaching US/VA Government and the standards are arranged in such a way that in teaching the Legislative Branch and the groups that exert influence on politics I was pulling from standards 1, 4, 6, 7, and 9. I am also fairly sure the students were never taught some of the standards. This was a big switch from my original experience. Still I tried to plan for instruction as much as possible. I had the US/VA Government SOL Framework and NCSS themes printed out and in my binder to see everyday. I also utilized them on my curriculum map and unit plan. You can see the strong relationship between the National Standards and my ten themed lessons. I also had a lesson in the spring that pulled directly from the SOL Framework. I lectured on Political Parties and the groupings and information that I used was pulled straight from the Framework.
I think that I did as well as could be expected considering my placement and the lack of a test. In the future I will need to improve on this standard to ensure that students learn the material on the test.