PLANNING, PREPERATION, INSTRUCTION AND ASSESSMENT 1

Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment

Nicholas Kowalski

Regent University

In partial fulfillment of UED 495 Field Experience ePortfolio, Fall 2018

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Introduction

Perhaps the most essential and most used skills in the teaching professing are the

quartet of planning, preparation, instruction and assessment. No matter what the content,

subject, or skill being taught these four processes will be present and they will be used by

the teacher to construct lessons. Perhaps the best use of these is through enrichment,

differentiation, and specialized lesson planning. Each group of students (and each

individual) is different; the way they learn is different, knowledge and skill-set they have

going into a class is different. It’s up to a teacher, not only to find out what these

differences are, but also how to approach classes and students differently. That means

determining what needs to be worked on and reviewed more heavily, what can be

brushed over quickly, and how to organize and present lessons.

Rationale

The first artifact presented is a collection of pre and post assessments that were

given to students at the beginning of the Reconstruction unit and then again at the end.

This assessment was checking not only their content knowledge in the area of

Reconstruction but also skills such as thinking maps, historical thinking, etc. The pre-

assessment showed that these students had a long way to go in both areas. It would

appear as though not only was this the first time that they had engaged with this content,

but it was also the first time that they were ever asked to perform these certain skills.

Some students in additional to drawing a blank on questions on the pre-assessment

simply chose not to answer anything and turn in a blank assessment. The pre-assessment

asked a control question at the end, trying to gauge their confidence level when it came to

the reconstruction era. When students left not only the other questions blank, but this one
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as well, it became clear that there was a general unwillingness to complete the

assessment. This information is quite important as well. It shows that students in this

class in particular were having motivation issues. They struggled to start assignments that

were given to them if they felt that there was no consequence for ignoring it (i.e. bad

grades).

Because of this pre-assessment my cooperating teacher and I were able to work

together to plan lessons that helped to teach not only the content of Reconstruction but

also historical thinking skills and the creation of thinking maps to help students organize

broad analysis patterns (such as comparing and contrasting, cause/effect, analogies, etc.)

This plays into the second artifact which is a lesson (and the materials therein) that asked

students to analyze a document and use their historical thinking skills to understand the

context of the time in which it was in, as well as close reading the content. They had to

then take the content that they learned from the reading (Presidential and Congressional

Reconstruction) and create thinking maps based on this information. This lesson helped

them to learn how to analyze documents and how to organize their thoughts of that

analysis; two skills that were lacking from the pre-assessment.

This finally ties into the final assessment. Content-wise, as well as skill-wise, the

students did significantly better on this compared to the pre-assessment (where many

were unable to answer a single question correctly). They showed that they were able to

use historical thinking skills and understand how to use thinking maps. One problem

arose from this however. We quickly noticed that students were regularly missing

questions that asked them to “check all that apply.” This was a new form of test-taking to

them, and it was a skill that in hindsight we realized was not properly taught.
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Reflection

Perhaps the most important idea that unites the four concepts of planning,

preparation, instruction, and assessment, is objectives. Objectives drive the basic

understandings and skills that student are going to be asked to come to grips with in

future lessons. It is these objectives that will eventually be assessed and it is these

objectives that will be prodded on in a pre-assessment. All instruction, including lessons

should tie in to these objectives. Objectives are often seen by many instructors as

pointless bureaucracy that is sent down by administrators in order force instructors to

teach to an objective based test (like the SOL), but this simply is not the case. Objectives

help teachers to determine what is important and needs to be understood by students and

what is not vital (Mitchell & Manzo, 2018, p. 459)

Understanding by design is a vital tool when crafting lessons and units to reflect

the objectives that need to be taught, both in content and skills. Understanding by design

works by first identifying the objectives and goals of the proposed learning, then plan

assessments that properly assess the objectives that are supposed to be met, then activities

that will assist them on the way to completing these assessments. They essentially put

establishing objectives and teaching toward them as the central theme of instruction and

planning (Sumrall & Sumrall, 2018, p. 48).

Proper assessments are the final vital step in creating an effective classroom

where students are making their way forward in their quest to master skills and

knowledge that align with their objectives. When crafting an assessment it is vital to

make sure that the assessment is not simply a test of general knowledge and skill but that

it intricately ties into the specific objectives that are unique the discipline being taught.
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Historical thinking skills are an example of this. While students should be able to

comprehend what they read in any class, in history they not only need to understand what

is being said but also who said it, the context around it and what their objective was.

These skills are tied to history and are certainly a good basis for assessment (Drake

Brown, 2013, p. 170).

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References

Drake Brown, S. (2013). Preparing effective history teachers: The assessment gap.

Journal of Social Studies Research , 37 (3), 167-177.

Mitchell, K. M., & Manzo, W. R. (2018). The Purpose and Perception of Learning

Objectives. . Journal of Political Science Education , 14 (4), 456-472.

Sumrall, W., & Sumrall, K. (2018). Using the Understanding By Design Model and

NGSS in Concert to Plan and Instruct in Science. Science & Children , 56 (1),

48-54.