Instructional planning

2. Interview an experienced teacher to find out how he or she plans.

a.Where do you begin, when you want to plan for a long term, unit and lesson planning?
At our school, we usually follow the curriculum planning for the long term as well as for the unit planning! However, lesson planning is subjected to modification based on the teacher’s comfort, the teacher is free to do his/her own lesson planning in the way he/ she finds appropriate and approachable to the students’ needs. For the lesson planning we (teachers) start first with the general planning, already done in the beginning of the year, afterwards we set the goal(s) as well as the objectives we want to achieve in the lesson. Once we set the objectives, we have to think about how to support students in reaching those objectives. In this part each teacher uses his\ her own methods of teaching to be able to actively engage the students in the learning process.

b.Do you use the official curriculum, different textbooks, and internet?
We usually follow the American curriculum, however we do reflect upon the official curriculum! The textbooks we follow are mainly American textbooks however; we are free to choose the textbooks we find more appropriate to be used with our students. Whereas for the internet usage, we might use some relied resources for more practice and for further activities.

c.Do you coordinate your planning activities with other teachers?
Definitely, we have coordination hours during the week, where we discuss the lessons prepared, and coordinate the activities to be made. In this way, all the classes (sections) receive the same ideas, same activities… but what differs in these cases is the approach each teacher has.



d.What do the coordinator and administrator expect of you in terms of lesson plans?
At our school we are not asked to submit a lesson plan to the administrator or the coordinator. At the beginning of the year we are asked to set the main (long term) planning with our colleagues and coordinator. Therefore, putting a lesson plan for a period is optional, the teacher is free to do one if he/she feels more secure and prepared that way.

e.What do the products of the planning process look like ? (Include samples in your portfolio). How many goals and objectives are listed for a particular course of study? What types of learning (domain and level) are targeted?

Most of the time when planning a lesson, we have to try to visualize the lesson from beginning to end:
what materials will be needed
how much time does the lesson take
is the lesson appropriate for the students' level of comprehension
are we addressing a variety of learning styles and teaching at more than the basic level of recall
Are we comfortable with the content…?
Mainly our lesson plans follow the following format:
Lesson Title:
Purpose / Goal:
Objective:
Process / Procedures for Students:
(to write directions)
Process / Procedures for Teachers:
(preperation)
Materials List:
Assessment:
Work collected / observed:
Criteria used:
Accommodation:
Support Accommodation:
Challenge Accommodation:
The lesson plan usually has 1 main goal. Whereas for the objectives, they vary between a lesson and another, they might be 3 and the number of objectives increases with the toughness of the lesson.
During a lesson, we try to vary our methods of teaching thus including all three domains; cognitive, affective as well as psychomotor! We believe that each student has his\her own way of acquiring the knowledge. Some would feel more comfortable and more at ease when the material is being supplied to them as a form of lecture others prefer when the material is accompanied with some emotions while there are others that learn best when they perform the task by themselves.