Running Head: PLANNING, PREPARATION, INSTRUCTION, AND ASSESMENT 1

Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment

Anne Corbitt

Regent University

In partial fulfilment pf UED 495 Field Experience ePortfolio, Spring 2018

Running Head: PLANNING, PREPARATION, INSTRUCTION, AND ASSESMENT 1

Introduction

Planning, preparation, instruction, and assessment are all basic components that go into

teaching. A teacher cannot do one without the other three aspects. The very first step is

planning. Any teacher will agree that planning is something that takes the longest and is the

foundation and pavement to preparation, instruction, and assessment. In the planning process,

teachers will identify and lay out the objectives, goals, and state standards of learning. After

identifying these, a teacher will then begin to find resources that can be used to teach these

objectives and ways to incorporate the standards into their lessons and sometimes real-life

scenarios that students can relate to. This is where the planning starts to transition into

preparation. The teacher will prepare the materials and content for each lesson and will continue

to prepare up until the moment the lesson is taught. Once the materials and all tools are put

together, the teacher will need to make sure to layout these items the day before or morning of

the lessons. I have found that many teachers have bins labeled with each day of the week where

they will keep the materials for that day in the designated bin. I have found this method to be

extremely useful and a great way for teachers to keep their materials organized and in order for

each day.

The third step is instruction where the teacher presents the lesson or a related activity in

either a whole or small group setting. This step is also just as important. The teacher will need

to verify that students are understanding the material, and if they do not, he or she will need to

reiterate and/or find ways to relate the content to the students for them to better understand.

Lastly is the assessment step. This is where the teacher will give the students a quiz, test, paper,

project, etc. to assess the students’ knowledge and comprehension of the content and materials

for each component of standard of learning. Many times, teachers will give students both a pre-
Running Head: PLANNING, PREPARATION, INSTRUCTION, AND ASSESMENT 1

and post-assessment. The pre-assessment is used to test students’ prior knowledge of content

and the post assessment is used to test the students’ knowledge after the material and content has

been presented to them. Former elementary teacher, Seth Wagner states: “Pre-assessments

allows us to see if what is being covered in the lesson or unit is already mastered. If all of our

students have a topic or skill mastered then we can skip that lesson. If only a couple of students

have a problem, then we can individualize our instruction to bring them up to speed” (Wagner,

2015). Pre-assessments allow for the opportunity to differentiate instruction and meet the needs

of each student in the classroom.

Rationale for Selection of Artifacts

The artifacts that I chose to present may seem not as traditional, but with the first-grade

class that I am currently in, pre-assessments are not commonly given and if they are, it’s

generally only a few times a year. Instead, I will discuss how I pre-assess and use Benchmark

testing to help students improve in areas they are weaker in. The first artifact I will discuss is a

Reading Running Record, which I am sure many teachers are quite familiar with. The Running

Record is marked by each word that is in the book. A checkmark means the student said the

word correctly. If the word was said wrong or they self-corrected, it will me noted. It is in a

sense, a grading chart to keep track of how they do with their reading. This can easily be used as

a pre-assessment, especially at the beginning of the school year, to assess the reading level a

student is on and where the areas of weakness are when it comes to fluency, reading rate,

comprehension, punctuation, and expression. The school that I am currently placed at puts a

huge emphasis on guided reading groups and taking Running Records daily. Each day, I do at

least three Running Records, regardless of a student’s reading level. Reading is crucial in the

early primary grades. Students are still learning the basics of phonics, phonemic awareness, and
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all-around reading. The Running Record allows me to see what the student already knows with

reading, how they have grown, where they are weak, where they are strong, and gives me an

overall idea of how I can help a student improve with their reading. I enjoy doing running

records because it gives me a few minutes to work with a student one-on-one and gives me the

opportunity to see how I can help them improve. An artifact listed with the Running Record is a

week of small group lessons for a lower reading group. With this group, I would have each

student read to me, have students work on their writing skills by responding to prompted

questions, have students work on retelling, compare and contrast, etc. Many times, I will also

assess students’ prior knowledge by asking them questions about the subject of a book before we

read it. This allows for me to see what they know for themselves, which can many times help

with their reading of that book.

The second artifact I chose is a Reading Benchmark Test students recently completed.

The Benchmark is a post-assessment that students take at the end of each unit. At this point,

students should do well on this assessment. Unfortunately, there are students who are lagging

behind who might need extra remediation on a particular set of content. The post-assessment

will allow me to see which students are still not understanding the material. At this point of the

game, students have had lessons in their guided reading groups, oral lessons in whole group, and

many worksheets and student made booklets to help them comprehend and retain the

information. The only thing that can be done after the post-assessment is given, is to remediate

the students in small group lessons who did not do well. Generally, the students who did not do

well on the Reading Benchmark are those that are in the same guided reading group. This is

when I will continue to remediate those students on the same content that they did not do well

with on their Benchmark. With the way the Benchmark is broken down, it has questions put into
Running Head: PLANNING, PREPARATION, INSTRUCTION, AND ASSESMENT 1

a section based on the content. I can easily look at the grading chart and see what the student

missed and where they need to be remediated. After looking at the results, I will make my

guided reading lessons based on the results.

Reflection on Theory and Practice

In my Curriculum Design and Assessment Tech course at Regent University, I learned

how to make unit plans as well as a daily one subject lesson plan. I can apply what I learned in

this course to help me create, plan, prepare, and implement lessons and assessments. By

planning my lessons, I can create and prepare them around the needs of my students and focus on

content that they need remediation in. I can also plan ahead to pre- and post-assess the students

on the material of each unit. This not only makes it easier for me and keeps my lessons more

organized, but it also helps me pace accordingly to keep up with the content and make sure I

allow enough time for each subject. In their book, Understanding by Design, Grant Wiggins and

Jay McTighe state; “…too many teachers focus on the teaching and not the learning…all the

methods and materials we use are shaped by a clear conception of the vision of desired results.

That means that we must be able to state with clarity what the student should understand and be

able to do as a result of any plan and irrespective of any constraints we face (Wiggins &

McTighe, p. 14-15).

As part of the planning concept, we must also learn and make sure as teachers we

understand the material. That way, when we go to teach the material to our students, we have a

firm and confident understanding of the meaning and process of the content. Secondly, we must

also have a clear delivery of the material and relate it to the students. We must also use terms

and definitions that the students understand. The material must be able to be understood by the

students. It is also important to have an effective lesson plan that students can get into. Ellen
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Ullman of Education Update states, “An effective lesson gets students thinking and allows them

to interact and ask questions, tap into their background knowledge, and build new skills…

Effective lesson planning requires the teacher to determine three essential components: the

objective, the body, and a reflection” (Ullman, 2011). Engaging lessons not only gets the

students involved, but it can be exciting and fun as the teacher. If students see that the teacher is

excited and interested in a topic, then the students will then get involved and also be engaged in

the lesson. The teacher sets the mood for the classroom, therefore, it is important that the mood

is energetic, positive, and a ready to learn atmosphere.

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Resources

Ullman, E. (2011, October). How to Plan Effective Lessons. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from

http://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/education-update/oct11/vol53/num10/How-

To-Plan-Effective-Lessons.aspx

Wagner, S. (2015, March 3). Importance of Pre-Assessment. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from

http://www.naiku.net/naiku-coach/importance-of-pre-assessment/

Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2008). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association

for Supervision and Curriculum Development.