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Planning for a Better Classroom

By Jacob Bowers
Introduction
As a student studying to be a teacher, I wanted to learn the proper way to prepare and maintain a
classroom. The information presented inside these chapters was a great resource for me. First, I will
reflect on important information from the "Planning for Learning" chapter, followed by why it is
important. Second, I will discuss the chapter titled "Effective Teaching". Lastly, I will talk about the
chapter titled "Increasing Learning Through Student Involvement".

Chapter Four: Planning for Learning


Competency Three mentioned that teachers must know about instructional design, delivery, and
assessment aligned with the Texas Statewide Assessment program. This chapter is all about the
foundation of every lesson. Effective planning is a multi-step process which begins broad and
specifies as the need arrives. Teachers should start planning for the school semester by using a long
term plan to plan for the entire year. Once that is finished teachers can begin planning units, which
specifies for a one to two month period of time. Once teachers actually begin teaching they can plan
for weekly and even daily lesson plans that take place inside the unit.
Models are always a great place to start and a typical planning model may look like this: first select
topics, second specify learning objectives, third prepare and organize learning activities, last prepare
assessment. This is not the only model for planning, for example, Backward Design is a model where
the objectives of the lesson is the starting place. When selecting topics the major factors are the
teacher personal philosophies, student's background knowledge, and intrests. Learning objectives are
a focus for the lesson. Without these the ending picture would look blurly . When writing learning
objectives identify which domain your objectives fall in: Cognitive(gaining knowledge),
Affective(development of values), or Psychomotor(coordination and physical skills). This provides

one more focus for your lesson. The planning process is answering the question: "what will I have
students do that will help them reach the learning objective?" A good model for this step is: First
specify the terminal or target behavior, second identify prerequisite skills, third sequence subskills,
lastly diagnose students. Even though assessment comes last on the model, it does not have to be last
when planning. Assessment has two goals: determine whether students understand the information,
and facilitate learning.
My teaching expierence is limited to sunday school lessons, where the majority of the planning
work was completed for me. Because of this, the information recorded in this chapter was essential.
I can use this information as a guide in writing future plans, until writing plans become second
nature, and reassurance that I have a proven method at my finger tips.

Chapter Five: Effective Teaching


Competency Four states that teachers must know learning processess and factors that impact
student learning. Effective teaching has many dimesions. First the classroom climate must be
considered. A classroom needs to be positive, accepting, safe, orderly, and focused on learning. This
is a prerequisite for learning.
At the core of effective teaching is the teacher's attitude. The attitude is composed of personal
teaching efficacy (the belief that they can make a positive impact on students' lives), teacher
expectations (notably of the expected future for thier students), teacher modeling, and enthusiasm.
The teacher's attitude will be sensed by the students which will set the tone of the class and how
much learning occurs in that classroom.
Teachers do not have a long time to teach so they must use that time effectivly. There are many
diffrent defintions of time: Allocated, instructional, engaged, and academic learning. Each of these is
successive and overcompassing of the other. Allocated time is the time you have set aside for a
subject. Instructional time is time that you are actually teaching the subject. Time lost is the time
spent on noninstructional material like taking roll, searching for supplies, and making
announcements. This can often take as much as a third of teachers allocated time! Organization can

help lessen this issue. Engaged time is the time where students are on task and focused. Allocated
time is not directly correlated to Engaged time. Lastly, Academic Learning time is the amount of time
students are successfully engaged. Every child needs to feel that the material being presented is
within thier grasps. That they can just reach up and take it. Success leads to building information like
a building: placing new information onto older information, reinforcing the building, and building
confidence in bigger and bolder building designs.
"If you have time to do something wrong, you have time to do it again." With this quote in mind,
and the fact that teachers do not have much excess time and student attention, it is important to
present the information in as good a quality as possible. This chapter gave me an excellent idea of
what that looks like.

Chapter Six: Increasing Learning Through Student


Involvement
Competency Eight asks that teachers know appropriate instructional techniques and strategies that
actively engage students in the learning process. The majority of students learn more from actively
interacting rather than passively recieveing information. Assignments cannot just be interactive or
fun, we must identify and establish the rationale and objective behind the lesson. Representations are
a great way to have students actively engage. This adds seeing, hearing, maybe touching, and
hopefully feeling into the lesson instead of just hearing about it.
There are many diffrent forms of representations, all of which should be used, and can teach a
diffrent subject more effectivly. Examples are used to understand the characteristics. Demonstrations
let students see the subject in action. Charts and Matrixes compare between two similar subjects.
Models are representations when students cannot directly observe something. Vignettes explain
subjects that would be difficult to otherwise.
The single most effective tool for student involvement in teacher's hands is teacher questioning.
Teacher questioning is used to assess the students current understanding, increase student
motivation, and guide new learning. When asking questions check yourself using a few questions:

"How often am I asking questions?", "How many students are being called upon?", and "can my
questions be answered with a yes or a no?". Teachers should also know how to give a student a little
nonverbal cue, or prompt and when to ask a repetition or clarification question.
Throughout my pre-college school life I was taught using a system almost completly void of my
interaction. As such it was a major shock to see assignments and quizes asking me to do more than
spit back memorized facts. As a teacher, I would like to prevent this story from being true for
another student. As such it is great to see the basic idea of how a student-involved program works.

Conclusion
One of my biggest weaknesses is that if I am unsure of how I can handle a situation I will typically
panic. While I am working on this issue, it is removes a big burden of my shoulders to have a vague
idea of what a day will look like. Chapters like these give me a great starting point on the topics of
Planning, Effective Teaching, and Student-Involved Instruction.

Refrences
Kauchak, D., & Eggen, P. (2012). Learning and Teaching: Research-Based Methods (Sixth ed.).
N.p.: Allyn and Bacon.

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