Teachers of science plan using the Virginia Standards of Learning, the school’s curriculum, effective strategies, resources, and data to meet the needs of all students.
The purpose of the instructional planning standard is to ensure that teachers are equipped to coordinate coherent, engaging lessons which foster student learning. The primary goal of the standard is to provide students with learning opportunities across curricula and encourage critical analysis of content for higher level comprehension. The central objective of the standard is to ensure that teachers work collaboratively to create lessons which meet students at their level of understanding and support mastery of content goals.
Beginning with the unit plan
Virginia Standards of Learning provide the framework from which lessons are built. To align those standards with local assessment schedules, school districts provide a curriculum guide which suggests timing, duration, and district-approved resources to support the content. Coordinating the district curriculum, district approved resources, and supporting materials gives meaning and interest to the lesson. By using the recommended materials and combining them with supporting videos, online activities, and alternative texts multidimensional lessons can be built that address varied learning styles and keep students engaged in the content.
What do they know already?
Collaboration with colleagues is essential to acknowledge learning experiences which have shaped student ideas. By working with teachers across academic levels within the content area and across curricula, I have drawn on prior understanding to help focus current learning goals through group discussions, graphic organizers, and paper assignments.
Meet students where they are
As a prelude to a unit on evolution and natural selection, students were asked to address a free writing prompt which allowed me to acknowledge their initial comprehension. Using students’ independent thoughts on the content prior to instruction allowed me to consider their perspectives and ideas as we began working through the unit. With this data, I was able to devise questioning strategies, classroom activities, and assessmen
ts which reflected preconceived associations with the content and provided opportunities to engage in material through different cognitive-level explorations.