A Types of Instructional Planning
A Types of Instructional Planning
INSTRUCTIONAL
PLANNING
EED 110: TEACHING SOCIAL STUDIES IN ELEM.
LONG-RANGE PLANNING
Long-Range Planning
Long-range, or strategic, planning is a way to identify what you
want in the future and how you are going to get there.
Whether you are looking at school buildings or curriculum, the
components of the planning process are the same.
First, a group needs good information on which to base its
planning. What is working well now? What are the problems?
What are the external factors that will impact your future?
Those are some of the questions that group members might
need to answer in order to define a long-range plan.
Imagine, for example, that you are looking to prepare a long-range plan for a middle school building
•First, you identify what everyone
1) likes about the current building and
2) what they see as the problems/potential problems with the building.
•Gather as much information as possible about the building. For example, you might gather a structural and safety
survey of the building, forecasts for school population growth/decline, and the latest thinking about good school
design.
•To gather additional background data, use the SWOT analysis technique to define the current reality and likely
future impacts.
•Engage all interested parties in creating a common vision for the future of the school building. What does it look
like when it is the way you want it to be? (See previous Great Meetings article, including
Visioning the Ideal: Wish, Want, Wonder and Defining the Vision.)
•Use the group's "vision" to identify specific goals you want to achieve. Agreement on the vision and goals gets
everyone headed in the same direction. If you don't know where you're going, it will be impossible to find the
right road to get there.
Once you have collected the background data and
have a set vision and goals, then you can work on
a plan for how to get from the present to that
vision; that is the roadmap to your goals. For each
goal, you will need to develop a series of tasks
that must be accomplished over time to meet the
goal. Make sure that plan specifies each task, the
budget/staff implications, the person responsible,
and the date by which it needs to be completed.
UNIT PLANNING
Unit planning involves organizing a series of related lessons around a
central topic or theme. It can be designed for any length of time, from a
week to a whole quarter. The K to 12 Curriculum Guide for Social Studies
provides examples of units, such as focusing on the self, family, school, and
environment in Grade 1. In Grade 6, a quarter may contain multiple units,
each exploring different themes and issues within the overall theme. When
planning a unit, it is important to consider elements and processes such as
the unit title, time requirement, list of topics, target students, rationale,
goals, objectives, teaching strategies, resources, and evaluation
procedures. These elements help ensure a well-structured and effective
unit plan.
LESSON PLANNING
Lesson planning communicates to learners what they will learn
and how their goals will be assessed, and it helps instructors
organize content, materials, time, instructional strategies, and
assistance in the classroom. A lesson plan is the instructor's road
map of what students need to learn and how it will be done
effectively during the class time. Lesson plans are essential tools
for educators, aiding in imparting knowledge, skills, and
competencies. They guide content delivery, organization,
communication, and assessment.
Through careful planning, educators engage students with
accessible content, align activities with objectives, and ensure
relevance. Lesson planning is essential to effective teaching,
requiring thoughtful consideration and the implementation
of various strategies. Example of lesson planning is a
teacher’s guide for facilitating a lesson. It typically includes
the goal (what students need to learn), how the goal will be
achieved (the method of delivery and procedure) and a way
to measure how well the goal was reached (usually via
homework assignments or testing). This plan is a teacher’s
objectives for what students should accomplish and how they
will learn the material.
THE IMPORTACE OF INTSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING
What is the importance of instructional planning?
◦ Instructional planning is an important way for teachers to strategically
decide what their students will learn and how they will learn it. An
important factor of instructional planning is using differentiated
instruction to meet the various needs of all students.