While it may seem obvious, there are reasons why teachers plan. The book notes that teachers may plan for conceptual, organizational, emotional, and reflective reasons (p. 84.) Conceptual reasons for planning include presenting the lesson material and ideas in a �coherent and connected way (p. 84.) Organizational reasons for planning include things such as time management, where the teacher decides how much time he or she will allot to each activity in the lesson. Emotional reasons for planning include planning simply so that the teacher will feel prepared to teach the lesson (in the case of many new teachers) or to teach new or difficult material (in the case of experienced teachers.) Reflective reasons for planning allow teachers to see what goals they have for their students and why these goals are important, in addition to deciding how to go about achieving these goals.
Planning can be divided into three main levels: long-term, unit, and lesson planning. Long-term planning provides an overview of what will be taught in the class. In long-term planning, the teacher considers such factors as including national, state, and local standards into his or her curriculum as well as planning goals with the students, society, and academic knowledge as a source of those goals (p. 86). As a college student, I can see a professor�s long-term goals for the class when he or she hands out a syllabus for the semester. For example, in this class, Dr. Hirtle created a section in the syllabus entitled, �Course Calendar, Goals, Objectives, and TexES� that discusses what her goals are for us in this course and the competencies that we will have met upon completion of the course.
Unit planning is more focused than long-term planning. The book describes unit planning as �the intermediate step between long-term planning and the process of constructing specific lesson plans. In general, most units consist of a unit title, unit goal, a rationale for the unit, an outline of the content to be covered in that unit (including unit objectives), and specific lessons that will be covered. In coming up with the rationale for the unit, teachers have to decide what pieces of information to cover and what pieces to skip. For example, history is being made every day and thus, it would be impossible for a world history teacher to cover world history from the dawn of civilization to modern times. Rather he or she has to decide which events are most important for students to know. In many cases, the teacher may decide to skip topics that are not required by the state or local governments simply because there is not enough time in the school year to include it.
Teachers can help students connect what they are learning in their class with what they are learning in other classes by integrated units so that they connect with topics from other subject areas. While the book did not use this term, I believe that this is what many schools refer to as �teaching across the curriculum.� Three main ways to integrate units are through combining disciplines, identifying themes, and exploring issues. An example of combining disciplines might include a history teacher teaching a unit on Native Americans asking his or her students about the types of art or music these people might have engaged in. An example of identifying themes would be a school that has a thematic unit on the civil war, where the history teachers teach about the war itself, the math teachers include problems that have students estimate percentage of people coming from different states who fought in the war, and English teachers have students write a letter from the perspective of either a Union or Confederate soldier. An example of exploring issues would be biology students studying the issue of pollution, where the teacher explains the causes/effects of pollution (science), discusses pollution in terms of history (i.e. pollution before and after the Industrial Revolution), and has students write an essay on how to reduce the effects of pollution (English). While integrated instructional units require significant planning and thought compared to single-topic units, they are much more beneficial to students because they help them to see how all subject areas interrelate to one another.
Lesson planning is the most specific level of planning. It is when the teacher plans how he or she will spend the time teaching his or her class. Lesson plans should not be thought of as topics that connect with what was learned the day before and what will be learned the following day. Additionally, they should be related to the unit title. The general components of a lesson plan are the objectives (what will students know/be able to do and how does this relate to the unit being studied?), the rationale (why are you teaching this?), the content (what are you teaching?), the procedures (how you intend to teach this?), the materials required for the lesson (i.e. special equipment needed), and the assessment (how you will evaluate student learning.) Beginning teachers will generally have more detailed written lesson plans, but as teaching experience is gained, some of the steps in the lesson planning process will become internalized.
The book states that, according to research, such students benefit from participation in regular classrooms more so than in special education classrooms. As a result teachers need to be able to customize their lesson plans for students with special needs. Examples of lesson plan adaptations might include having foreign language students write an essay first in their native language and then translate to English (as opposed to composing in English first) or incorporating strategies for diverse populations and different learning styles. Adjusting lesson plans in this way helps to ensure that all students have an equal chance at succeeding in the class. This chapter was helpful in getting me to start thinking about how I will go about planning my lessons, both for this class and in my future classroom. While it does some like a lot of work, I hope that lesson planning will be as easy and straightforward as it appears to be in the book.