Running head: Planning, Preparation, Instruction and Assessment 1

Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment of Learners

Sarah Zajac

Regent University
Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment of Learners 2

Introduction

As we end a unit and begin to start a new one, teachers must think about what needs to

be learned by the students from a big picture stand point. The first they need to do is look at the

Standard of Learning to see what it is that the students need to learn. Once they do that, they will

be able to gather what the students already know about the subject. Only then, after they know

these two things, can a teacher really begin planning their unit and begin pacing out the different

concepts in a way that allows the students to fully understand what they are learning.

Rationale for Selection of Artifacts

The unit that I worked on from start to finish a unit on elapsed time that corresponded

with the fourth grade Standards of Learning 4.9: The student will determine elapsed time in

hours and minutes within a 12-hour period. The Monday a week before we started elapsed time, I

gave the students a pretest that I made. The key to this pretest is used as one of my artifacts.

After I graded the pretest, I made a chart of the classes scores that was based off of the concept,

for example the first question asked about time before 30 minutes, the second question asked

about time after the 30 minute mark. Questions three and four dealt with time vocabulary. These

were all review questions from last year. The next six questions ask about elapsed time, which

would not be new content for them, but is harder than what they learned last year. In my data

analysis chart I wrote down the percentage of the questions they answered correctly and then

wrote the class average for that concept. Looking at the data from the pretest, the students did

okay with telling time on a clock, but needed to review vocabulary words like quarter til and

quarter past. They also did not do well on the elapsed time part of the pretest, but this was to be

expected, as they did not have exposure to elapsed time with minutes before.
Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment of Learners 3

Based of the data shown by the pretest, it was planned that the first two days of elapsed

time would be basic time review. The first day would include time to the hour and time to the

half hour. We did notes together and then they did a match worksheet independently. The second

day was time to the minute and a small reintroduction to quarter to. During instruction time, I

noticed that students were able to tell the time correctly by saying 7:15 or 4:45. It was when the

vocabulary terms quarter to and quarter after was asked that they had trouble with. The third day

was completely spent on vocab review. As a guided practice, the students and I drew a clock in

which we labeled quarter after/past, half past, and quarter to/til in different colors. This helped

the students see a visual of where the minute can be and the corresponding term. We also review

terms such as noon, midnight, am and pm. Throughout the rest of the week, I would have the

students look at the clock at random times and ask them vocabulary related questions just to keep

it fresh.

The fourth day and the whole next week was dedicated to elapsed time. We begin with

the easier concept of just elapsed time with hours and finding the elapsed time. After a day of

that, we moved into more challenging problems such as finding the end time of a story when

given the start time and the elapsed time or finding the start time when given the end time and

elapsed time. Seeing as this is more difficult then the content the previous week, it was important

that we spent most of our time working through these types of problems and showing multiple

examples of how to work through them before the test. This allows the students ample time to

mentally process the strategies used to complete problems and the time to practice the strategies

to master them. The data gained from the final assessment show that many of the students did

master the concept of elapsed time. There were a few students that will need some remediation

and some that will need heavy remediation and will retest during SOL review.
Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment of Learners 4

Reflection on Theory and Practice

When planning a unit, the teacher must look at the big picture first: what is it that

students need to learn? What are the learning goals? Once these goals are recognized, the teacher

should then make the post assessment. The assessment will reflect the learning goals of the

students and will help the teacher form an outline of what will be needed to teach (Rutherford,

2012). From there, the teacher can assess what the students already know. This allows the

teacher to organize her time reviewing concepts that her students understand for the most part

but also allows her to plan substantial time for the concepts that are new or they do not

understand at all.

Wiggins and McTighe (2005) reveal that many teachers do the opposite. They plan their

time and materials first without looking toward the end goals of what the students should be

learning. In this case, if the students do not understand a concept, they are in danger of being left

behind as the class is moving on to the next concept on the teacher’s timeline. Using this

backwards design permits educators to design their units in a way that is most benefiting to

student learning. Concepts that students struggled with on the pretest should be given sufficient

time for students to master it. Radford states, you as a teacher are “teaching for understanding

and student learning” (p.174) not just to check an item off of a plan.

Building in time to allow your students to absorb and process what they have learned will

not only impact their understanding of the content, but will also promote a positive community

within the classroom. They will know that they can stop and ask questions when they do not

understand something and they know the teacher will take the time to clarify any

misunderstanding they may have. If time is not given or planned to clearly address a concept, a

student might get the sense of being rushed through the unit. In this case, if they do not
Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment of Learners 5

understand something, instead of asking, they will keep it to themselves as to not upset the

teacher’s timeline. Pacing the unit that reflects the standards and the data of the pretests, gives

those students who need extra clarification to have it. When students know that their teacher will

take the time to answer questions, it gives the students a positive perception of the class. And

when one student is assured they can ask, it encourages other students to acknowledge any

misunderstanding they may have. This will foster a class filled with trust and confidence and will

encourage students to be themselves.

Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment of Learners 6

References

Radford, C. P. (2013). Strategies for successful student teaching: A guide to student teaching, the

job search and your first classroom (3rd ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education,

Inc.

Rutherfod, P. (2012). Instruction for all students (2nd ed). Alexandria, VA: Just ASK

Publications and Professional Development.

Wiggins, G. and McTighe, J. (2005).Understanding by design (2nd ed). Alexandria, VA:

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.