Empower Youth

"Planning may be broadly defined as a concept of executive action that embodies the skill of anticipating, influencing, and controlling the nature and direction of change".
McFarland

Planning

Planning is an important skill that is beneficial for every aspect of life and goes hand in hand with being organised. No matter what career path you choose to follow, planning and organisation will most likely be at the top of the list of professional skills employers are searching for. One of the most important attributes that excellent teachers have is the ability to plan not only engaging lessons but assessment tasks that are insightful for the teacher and interesting for the students. Far from compromising spontaneity, planning provides a structure and context for both teacher and students, as well as a framework for reflection and evaluation (Spencer, 2003, p.25). Planning provides the foundations of organisation which is essential if you want to reach your goals and help students to reach theirs. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership outlines a number of graduate attributes in Standard 3 of the National Professional Standards for Teachers (2011).

Planning skills are an important part of the teaching profession and as seen in the standard 3 table, planning links to a number of different professional skills that teachers should have control over. Standards 3.4, 3.5 and 3.7 link directly with communication skills while standard 3.6 focuses on using planning to effectively analyse student progress to inform teaching. The Queensland Department of Education and Training defines planning and organisational skills as; The capacity to plan and organise one's main work activities, including making good use of time and resources, sorting out priorities and monitoring ones own performance (DETA, 2009). All teachers are faced with a number of deadlines including planning and report cards so the need to be organised is incredibly important to being successful in the educational field.

"Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail." - Lakein

Underpinning every successful teacher is meticulous, well-structured planning (Ewing, Lowrie & Higgs, 2010, p. 79). For almost every teacher planning will be done at a number of different levels including yearly, per term, weekly and daily so having a high level of organisational skills is essential. The most common type of planning done by teachers is planning daily lessons which play an important role in helping to simplify the job and ensure lessons are conducted in a productive and efficient manner. It is important to view lesson plans as a way of organising activities, experimenting with different ideas, highlighting focus areas and setting goals for student achievement.

It is essential that lesson plans align with the relevant curriculum content descriptors and the schools educational outcomes. The best way to do this when planning learning experiences is to use backwards mapping. Snowman et al. simplifies, "once you know your goal, you can work out how to get them there" (2009, p. 372). Backwards mapping allows the teacher to see where they expect their students to be at the end of the lesson, unit or term and incorporate activities that will help the students reach those goals. While new teachers often find planning time consuming they will find that the more effort the put into their planning, the more they will benefit from it. Well planned teachers can anticipate areas that may be difficult as they have created a visual of the lesson in their minds, and can more successfully create alternate or differentiated activities to cater to all students learning needs, as flexibility is enhanced (Ewing, Lowrie & Higgs, 2010, p. 91).

Standard 3 – Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning.

Source: AITSL (2011).

Examples of Teacher Planning

As a pre-service teacher it is important to develop a method of panning that suits your style of teaching. During your time at university you would have been required to use a range of planning tools which help you cover all the bases. Below are some examples of completed unit and lesson plans which will give you a great starting point for your own planning. There are also blank templates that you can download and alter to suit your planning style. The Blooms Taxonomy link will take you to another website where you can get an idea of how to encourage higher order thinking by using the right series of questions during your unit or lesson.

UNIT PLAN EXAMPLE

UNIT PLAN TEMPLATE

LESSON PLAN EXAMPLE

LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

USING BLOOMS TAXONOMY

Reflecting on Your Planning Skills

Think about how you have used planning in the past. How does the planning you do at work/home/university differ?

Why is it so important for teachers to have good planning skills?

What planning tools or strategies have you used to successfully plan terms/units/lessons?

Planning & Organisation Tools for Teachers

Now that you have a better idea of why planning and being organised is so important as a teacher have a look at these online planning tools that will get you started on your planning journey and help you keep track of everything from your weekly schedule to student grades and everything in between. Pinterest is a great place to go if your looking for some planning inspiration.

Teacher Tips!

"Don't leave all of your planning to the last minute. The more time you spend planning at the start of the year, the more confident your will be going into each lesson." - Grade 2 Teacher

"Invest in 4 big binders and have your planning for each term set out in them along with curriculum documents, printouts, activity ideas and even back-up plans if something goes wrong on the day." - Grade 5 Teacher

THE EARLY YEARS LEARNING FRAMEWORK

THE AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM

HAVE FUN TEACHING

LEARNBOOST

PLANBOARD

PINTEREST

Take Action!

Set yourself 5 goals that will help you to improve your planning skills.

Go and talk to other teachers about what planning strategies they use in their classroom.

References
AITSL. (2011). National professional standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/aitsl_national_professional_standards_for_teachers

Department of Education and Training (2009). Professional Development: Essential Skills for Classroom Management. Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/actsmartbesafe/teachers/pd.html

Ewing, R., Lowrie, T., & Higgs, J. (2010). Teaching and communicating: Rethinking professional experiences. Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.

Snowman, J., Dobozy, E., Scevak., Bryer., Bartlett., & Biehler. (2009). Psychology: applied to teaching. Brisbane, Australia: John Wiley & Sons Australia.

Spencer, J. (2003). Learning and teaching in the clinical environment. (p. 25). BMJ Publishing Group, London, England.