Running Head: PLANNING/PREP/INSTRUCT/ASSESS 1

Planning/Prep/Instruct/Assess

Emily Simmons

Regent University

In partial fulfillments of requirements for UED 495

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Planning/Prep/Instruct/Assess

Introduction

As a teacher, you always want to be ahead of the eight ball. Developing lesson plans and

unit plans are crucial for teaching. It is always great knowing where you are supposed to working

towards and what goals you want to achieve. Steve Jobs once said “Let’s go invent tomorrow

instead of worrying about what happened yesterday. (A quote by Steve Jobs) As a teacher you

need to always be looking ahead and not dwelling in the stress of the days past. Planning helps

with this and is also a key part of teaching, you always want to be ready for the day and be able

to role with the punches. Preparation also is very important to teaching, you always want to be

prepared for the day before it starts so that you can instruct in a way that is not disorganized and

so that you can assess and make sure that you had taught everything that the students needed to

know.

Rationale for Selection of Artifacts

Throughout the past few weeks I have learned a lot about planning, preparing,

instructing, and assessing. There have been very few days that we have not gone to a planning

meeting or are not making materials to use in the next week. This is a skill that I think all

teachers need to have is to set goals and work towards having everything prepared on time. “The

victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting and achieving goals.” (A quote

by Og Mandino) I learned this in the first week by observing the way my cooperating teacher

was always planning and setting up what she wanted her students to achieve each week. My

cooperating teacher and I have worked at having all our materials ready the week before we are

using them. It is always great to be ahead so that you are not rushing to get ready the day that
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you are teaching. Planning, preparing, instructing, and assessing are all things that as a teacher

you need to master.

The first and second artifact that I want to delve into is the pre and post assessment that I

gave for my content unit on ecosystems and the data that I was able to collect. This allowed for a

wonderful way for the starting of our ecosystem content unit because it allowed me and Mrs.

Simeone to gauge where each student was at and what they already knew prior to us teaching.

The students who did excellent on the pre-assessment where students that we pulled and did an

extension project with. They worked with the gifted resource teacher, with their group, and with

us and created their own research project on bees and their ecosystem and impact on our world.

The post assessment allowed for us to see how the students grasped the content that they didn’t

understand at the beginning. There were a few outliers who didn’t do better on the post

assessment and me and Mrs. Simeone discussed this, and we think it was because they didn’t

take it seriously. A few of our students have a problem not reading the questions thoroughly

which then leads them to picking the wrong answer choice. Either way the pre and post

assessment data allowed for me to reflect on ways I taught the unit well and ways that I can

improve it for next time. In Matthew 9 Jesus is having dinner at one of his disciples houses and

tax collectors and sinners were there, and the Pharisees ask why Jesus is eating with the sinners.

(New International Version) What Jesus showed us in that passage was that we are supposed to

meet people where they are at, this is what the pre-assessment helped me do. I was able to gauge

where my students were at and work at helping them with what they needed.

The third artifact that I want to include is a photo of one of my students from my high

group that were in my high group along with a photo of one of my students working on one of

the in-class assignments we completed to work on physical adaptations and social adaptations.
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The first photo is of one of my gifted students who scored high on the pre-assessment who was

working on their individual project on bees. This helped with the differentiation for this unit

because my higher kids were able to do some of their own research. The second photo is of one

of my students who were able to create a monster and had to write a paragraph describing the

adaptations their monster had. I included this photo because this was part of my lesson where the

students were working on applying what they had learned on adaptations.

The fourth artifact I want to include is a week of my lesson planning for this unit. This

shows the growth and learning targets that my students had to work through to have the students

progress to the end of the unit. “Every minute spent in planning will save you two in execution.

You never regain lost time, so make the most of every moment” (Maxwell, 2000) While working

through the whole unit of ecosystems, by planning ahead I could see as the days went on that the

more time I spent planning before teaching, the better my lessons flowed and went.

Reflection on Theory and Practice

While studying at Regent University I had to take a whole class called curriculum and

design. At the end of the course we each had created a month-long unit plan for two different

subjects. Each student was assigned an SOL based on the grade level they were working towards

teaching, we then had the whole semester to gather tasks and tools that would in the end create

our unit plan. While working through this class, it was overwhelming at times but in the end was

so beneficial. I was able to work towards goal setting and making sure that what I was teaching

would build my students knowledge to the place it needed to be for an assessment. In a book I

read recently the dad of the author had told his son “Larry, you are smaller than most kids. But

that just means you are going to have to try a little harder than the next guy. It doesn’t mean you

are any less of a person –you’ll just have to work more” (Winters, 2012) I remember while
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working through this class, I sat down with my professor a few times to go over my unit plan and

even though it was overwhelming and hard, with that extra work and time that I put in I was able

to create a great unit plan. I might have had to try a little harder than the other student’s, but it

was worth it in the end.

I also loved that regent had a lot of their classes online, this really helped every student

become better at time management. Everyone had to decide on their own and create their own

times to work on projects and make sure that things were turned in on time. This is what it is like

in the real world, and it truly helped you develop a sense for time management and prioritizing.

When you are planning for things in your classroom it is always good to be thinking ahead and

this is what regent taught me. You also must make sure you are prepared when the time comes,

you cannot just wing it and throw things together last minute. That is not doing your best work

and might work sometimes but a lot of the time people will be able to tell when you just threw

things together last minute Colossians 3:23 states “Whatever you do, work at it with all your

heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters” (New International Version) By planning

ahead and preparing you are creating an atmosphere where you can instruct and assess to the best

of your ability. We should always be working towards excellence and Regent taught me that

from day one.

As a teacher, you will need to learn to plan, prepare, instruct, and assess. These are all

things you will need to master at some point. By becoming a teacher, you are taking on the

responsibility of your students learning. This should be taken seriously, and not something that

you take lightly. With each of those steps they will all require time and energy, Regent taught me

to work at things to the best of my ability and to not rush through things. Some things may take

time and that is okay, the most important thing is to take your job seriously and do everything
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you can do so that your students can be successful. This all entails planning out your lessons a

head of time, preparing the materials you will need, instructing with clarity and grace, and

assessing in a way to make sure you know exactly where your students are at.

In conclusion, as a teacher you need to always be planning and looking ahead. Robert

Kiyosaki states, “Action always beats inaction…the important words are “have done” and “do”

…you must take action before you can receive” (Kiyosaki, 2012) You must plan and act and

responsibility for your students learning. Think about what you have done that worked and then

plan what you can do to make it better. You must plan and prepare before you can receive the

satisfaction teaching well and having your students perform well; it all starts with you. There

should be a road map that you can follow throughout the week and month that lays out what you

are teaching. You must be planning as you go because you need to be prepared for whatever is

thrown your way. As a teacher you need to be ready and on at the beginning of the day. This

means to that you had planned, prepared, and are ready to instruct and assess your students at the

given time. These are all traits that a great teacher will have to work on and master.
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References

A quote by Steve Jobs. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2018

A quote by Og Mandino. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2018

Kiyosaki, R. T. (2017). Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That

the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! Perseus Distribution Services.

Maxwell, John. C. (2000) Success One Day at a Time. Norcross, GA: Maxwell Motivation

The Holy Bible

Winters, Larry. (2012) Live the Dream: no more excuses. New York, NY: Hachette Book Group

Artifact 1 and 2

Included in external link

Pre and Post Assessment and Data Gathered from results

Artifact 3

Included in external link

Photo of student working on extension project, student working on in class assignment

Artifact 4

Included in external link

Lesson plans for one of the weeks Feb 5-9