The Importance of Planning

Why is planning so important?

Planning is a vital part to the success of any lesson and a foundation for classroom success. It is important that lessons are guided by aligning classroom instruction with overall goals and objectives. Looking big picture at what students should be achieving over the course of the school year, comes into the daily action planning. Each lesson plan guides how and what students will learn, and effective planning also provides the flow to effective learning. A well-planned lesson also provides an opportunity to really engage with students rather than being consumed with what to do next. Planning provides a checklist and a way for teachers to organize their thinking ahead of issues.

Here are five important take-aways that planning provides:

1.     Help identify goals and objectives

2.     Direction for each lesson and flow of the day

3.     Foresight to problems and important reflection

4.     Professionalism

5.     Perspective

To achieve desired results, planning puts teachers in a better position to guide student’s progress. Having dedicated planning provides flexibility in the moment with students because there is forethought and strategy prior to student engagement with the lesson. A holistic approach to planning allows for teachers to not simply to plan lesson by lesson but to have unity between content. In reflection of the lesson, planning provides an effective evaluation opportunity.

The following is a lesson that I thoroughly enjoyed planning and reflecting upon. I wished to make the Number Talk lesson a routine, and this initial lesson went swimmingly! The students were engaged and participating because the work was aligned both with what they had been learning AND there it was a new approach to this learning. In this subitizing lesson, they quickly saw an arrangement of dots, then I covered up half and asked: how many dots are covered? The basis of a Number Talk is a quick cognitively guided instruction problem that asks students to solve a math problem, teachers record their thinking, and students learn by comparing various strategies. While this was a simply Number Talk (beginning of Kindergarten ability), the students were excited about this mode of solving by themselves!

Planning for this lesson allowed me to be really present to their thinking and explanation of their answers rather than ensuring I had communicated the correct information. This simple lesson plan format provided pre-thinking about what strategies would arise—and ALL three of the strategies I had supposed were communicated. Also with this lesson I was able to identify that I wanted to connect the Second Step learnings about Listening Rules and points of being a Learner to launch the lesson. Truly I am discovering through implementation of planning in the classroom, that planning is an essential element to high-quality teaching and lesson facilitation. I want to plan ahead so that I can plan to learn from what my students demonstrate and teach me.

Date: __10/6/17______                                                                         Grade level: __K___

Number Sense Goals		Problem
Students will …           Analyze addition problem   Be able to identify their thinking for number recognition. Engage in Number Talk using Listening Rules (established)		Think, how would you solve this problem? 5 + 5 (I chose this problem because in our morning meeting we are starting to identify doubles and subitizing problems. I want my students to become familiarized and confident with rapid, accurate judgement of numbers).  First I quickly show them the following: ✪✪✪✪✪                 ✪✪✪✪✪   Then I covered up five and asked: How many dots are covered? After three various responses and recording answers, I asked: how many dots does that make all together?

Anticipate Student Strategies and Practice Recording Their Thinking

Use diagrams, number lines, and other visual models whenever possible and appropriate.

Strategy 1 “I see the dots” Using objects “Very good, I hear you used the dots to count what pattern there, and then could tell what was missing. Let’s count together: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.” ✪✪✪✪✪	Strategy 2 “I see there are five and I know there were ten.  Five and Five make ten!” Double facts “That’s great! You are practicing your doubles, and that is correct: 5+5=10.”
Strategy 3 “I counted ten dots, and I now see five.” Using one to one addition “Yes, you initially saw ten, let’s count to ten together: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. If we cover five dots, we can only see five.”	Possible mistake “I know four and five makes ten, so there are four under there!” Using (false) fact families Confusion trying to make a fact family of 5+4

Wrap-up:       Turn and Talk                   

 We will use turn & talk, comparing strategies and compliments.

Upon reflecting upon this lesson, I am excited to say our students are ready for this routine. They were engaged and enthusiastic to try this number talk. All except one student was actively engaged and raising hands/coral responding when asked. Their enthusiasm was most likely connected to their ability to answer as this Number Talk was scaffolding from morning meeting counting routines. We are working on subitizing techniques like doubling and seeing tens. This number talk was in connection to the story Ten dots read earlier and creating how we make various arrangements of numbers in object design. It was pleasantly surprising to me that students from all abilities were able to respond to this prompting.