1 Running head: PLANNING, PREPARATION,INSTRUCTION,AND ASSESSMENT

Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment

Renae Alston
Regent University

Planning, Assessments, Instruction, and Assessment

In partial fulfillment of UED 495 Field Experience ePortfolio, Spring 2015

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The fundamental task of every teacher is the ability to impart knowledge to the pupils
assigned to them. Stronge (2002) states that teaching is a complex activity requiring careful
preparation and the planning of objectives and activities on an hourly, daily and weekly basis" (p.
33). In order to complete the task the teacher must be adequately equipped to perform the task.
Adequately planning and preparing allows a teacher to anticipate difficulties, approximate
timing, and improve delivery quality. In order to properly plan and prepare for instruction, a
teacher must consider some, if not all, of the following: content, learning goals, background
knowledge, student abilities, appropriate resources, technology, variety of instructional
strategies, and how the content fits together to transition fluidly from one area of content to the
next. Assessments, whether pre assessments or post assessments, play an invaluable role in the
instruction process. Assessments are two fold, they will tell a teacher what a student already
knows, what they need to learn, and whether the student learned it; assessments will also tell the
teacher where he/she needs to direct or redirect their instruction.
Unit Plans, Assessments, Lessons, Materials,
It is imperative when starting a new unit of study that the teacher plans out the unit as a
whole. The sobering fact about planning is that teachers will spend hours doing it; gathering
materials, and reformatting to better suite the needs of their students for a lesson that will be
taught in under an hour. Artifact one, the unit plan, allowed for me to break down the unit and
focus on what was essential for the students to know, understand, and be able to do. The
standards of learning that the state requires, the essential understandings, and essential questions
were all considered. I chose this artifacts to represent the planning that went into preparing unit
four of mathematics: numeration and rational numbers. Having a unit plan gave me direction
and kept the learning on track. When planning lessons, teachers understand that well developed

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lesson plans are the direct connection between what students need to know and what students
will know when they disperse from the lesson. Gathering available and useful materials to
prepare for the lessons took organization and ample preparation time. Additionally, a variety of
instructional strategies and materials need to be used in lessons so that the lesson caters to a
variety of different learning styles in order to maximize retention for all students. Preassessments are critical to the teaching process because there is never enough time to get all o0f
the things done that are required. Giving pre-assessments allows one to gauge what the students
already know from the unit; providing teachers extra time to focus on things that the students
need to learn.
Reflection
Planning was one of the most difficult challenges that I faced in my placement. The
ability to transfer what was in my head to a well thought out, detailed, and fluid lesson was far
more difficult than I had anticipated. Following the plan also proved to be more difficult in that
student mastery and district pacing were not cohesive. Prior to the implantation of unit four, we
were already behind district pacing by two weeks and the unit proved to be more difficult for the
students than anticipated, causing further lag in pacing. The use of pre assessments offered some
relief, pre assessments given on mixed numbers and fractions provided evidence that majority of
the class did not need instruction on those areas; buying us three days of instruction to focus on
other areas of concern and to catch up on pacing. Those students who still needed that
instruction were pulled for small group instruction allowing for continuation of lessons to the
class as a whole. At the conclusion of the unit, post assessments proved that the majority of the
students grasped the concepts at a proficient level, but few at an advanced proficient level. It
gave me the real feeling that as teachers we will plan, prepare, instruct, and assess our students to

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the best of our ability, but the fact of the matter is there will always be an outside factor beyond
our control that will hinder our vision of mastery or what mastery looks like.

References

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Stronge, J.H. (2002). Qualities of Effective Teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.ASCD.org