Classroom 2. Planning effectively

Effective Pedagogy for All Students (MOE, 2015) states that, “teachers are responsible for planning, developing, and reviewing the classroom curriculum. Making curriculum accessible for all students may require ‘thinking outside the square’ in daily practice”. 

The teacher in the video above talks us through how she plans a lesson on "Gleaning a Central Idea from a Non-Fiction text". This is only one example of the things teachers need to plan effectively for; others are unit plans,  classroom organisation plan, plans for different times of the year and planning classroom arrangements. Taylor M categorises the planning done by teachers into three levels in the chapter "Planning for effective teaching and learning." (McGee & Fraser, 2011). These were planning considerations I was expecting when entered Host school (see table below).

 

In addition, the many guiding questions and tips on lesson planning meant that by Intensive 1, I felt I knew how to shape the design of my lessons using the NZ Curriculum. (Cunningham, 2009 and Capel et al, 2019). However, I was surprised by how my Host school works on a 6-day timetable and gives each teacher a file to keep track of how lessons change from week to week. This makes me so much more aware of how timetabling effects lesson planning. Following the initial shock, I have become more conscious about teacher talk around timetabling and “lines”.  Then on the last week of Term 1, a kind English teacher took time off his lunch break to explain how teaching lines work, its implications and the history of how this 6-day timetable plan was implemented in the school. This plan allows teachers to have more class time with senior students. We talked about how timetabling affects the length of time students can focus and how careful planning is needed to keep students engaged on the last period on Fridays. It was an eye-opening conversation. No longer do I just think of the components found in the diagram below when I think of a lesson plan, I factor in the time of the day and where it sits on the weekly class timetable.

The other aspects of effective lesson planning I am learning at Host school is to be more aware of the timing of each activity and to judge more accurately how much and the type of content to include in a lesson. I have taught three lessons at Host school. The first on the “Bible” was too short (with 15 minutes spare) and had too little content as a result it was hard to keep the whole class engaged at all times. The second on “Editing- Grammar and Punctuation” had just the right content and I had time to summarise and ask for feedback at the end. The third on “Paragraph writing” had too much material, went on for 10 minutes after the bell rang and was too rushed in many ways. Leaving aside the question of time and content management for the moment, one of my main concerns about my first too-short lesson was that the lesson went too quickly because the students did not engage enough with the material provided to hold an in-depth discussion at the end. After much prompting, some students were kind enough to ask some general questions about the topic. If I were to do this lesson again I would only keep a third of the academic sounding material used and search for information from an adolescent perspective with strong connections to real life. From this perspective, my third too-long lesson was stretched out because the class was very engaged and could have probably gone on for another 20 minutes. My take away from this lesson was that I need to find a way to keep track of time, find a natural pause in the activity, and then get students to do the rest in another lesson. 

Another huge consideration is whether my lessons were aligned to my worldview. Biblical teaching prioritises building caring relationships (1 John 4:7, John 13: 33-35, John 15:12-17, Romans 3:8, 1 Thess 4:9 & 1 Peter 1:22) and research shows that positive teacher-student relationships are essential for transformational learning in school. My second lesson went smoothly and on time partly because it was the smallest class and I know these four students fairly well. We chat outside class when we bump into each other in the corridors. This means I was able to plan better in order to meet individual needs. An on-going challenge for me will be to use “methods that provide opportunities for students to engage in integration by applying aspects of a biblical worldview to their learning and to their personal life, allowing student to grapple with these new ideas in meaningful ways.” (Depret 2019). 

Apart from the planning each individual teacher does, there is the collaborative development of plans for special groups of students or differentiation. This happens in my Host school for Gifted and Talented students (juniors and seniors). A special programme, an Advanced Learning Day (ALD), is a collaborative effort with various teachers from different departments coming together to plan and teach this once a term. I had the privilege of observing teachers help about twenty advanced senior students unpack the theme “What is Art?” using a multi-disciplinary approach on the first ALD for 2021. “The Value of Art” was examined from an artistic and art history perspective; “Separating the Art and the Artist” was discussed from a literary, music and film perspective; and “Art as Spoken Word” was considered from a Treaty perspective.

All five teachers involved in ALD are highly skilled and I was scribbling notes all day. In terms of planning, I could tell that so much hard thinking had gone into the direction and flow of the lessons for such coherence and clarity to be achieved. The perspective that each  teacher brought to the class discussion showed that all of them have strong pedagogical-content knowledge. Throughout the day, student participation was encouraged and the students were given freedom to form their own groups and respond honestly to the material presented. Teachers asked questions or made suggestions that prodded students to think deeply and more critically. Many students were confident enough to respectfully critique the opinions expressed by the teachers and their peers. (The diagram shows the difference between teachers' and students' perspectives). Absolum (2006) reminds me that such free flowing discussions only comes about from good planning when he states, “Good planning is essential to be clear. Doing the hard thinking that is required if you are really to know what you want your students to know is absolutely crucial. There are no shortcuts. And a necessary precursor to later co-construction.” Throughout the day, the teachers began each new topic with clear learning intentions and success criteria. Planning alone and in meetings can be really tiring, yet teachers keep their motivation to plan more effectively and be more engaging primarily through professional learning.

"Professional learning assumes that we have some commitment to change—that change might be driven, or developed and refined by us." (Loughran, 2010). One of my associate teachers is doing a course on Maori research strategies and her enthusiasm to learn more is inspiring. She always talks about reflecting on her actions and finding the relevance of what she is learning and applying this to her work. In her classes, she has all the marks of an expert teacher (See the full list here). For example, she is aware of the impact that she has on her students, identifies the most important ways in which to represent the subject that she teaches, is proficient at creating an optimal classroom climate for learning, monitors learning and provides constant feedback. She believes that all students can reach the success criteria and she influences surface and deep student outcomes. Hence, I feel the reflective process that she models, together with the new professional learning that she engages in keeps her motivation to design effective lessons high.

In conclusion, teachers have lots of planning to do individually and in teams. I have learnt through my host school experience to include timetabling, timing, amount and type of content in mind when I plan. As part of my observations I have seen differentiation for Gifted and Talented students and seen how professional learning and reflective practice shapes the work of an expert teacher. As a result I am definitely going to incorporate reflecting, learning and keeping the big picture in mind into my practice when I graduate because I know it will drive and sustain my motivation to plan thoroughly and intentionally.  

 

References 

Absolum, M. (2006). Clarity in the classroom. Portage and Main Press. 

 

Capel, S., Leask, M., & Younie, S. (2019). Learning to teach in the secondary school : A companion to school experience. Taylor & Francis Ltd.  

Cunningham, G. (2009). The new teacher’s companion. ACSD.  

Deprey, L. (2019). The effectiveness of biblical worldview integration with early adolescents in Thailand [Doctoral thesis, Concordia University]. CU Commons. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/322562398.pdf  

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers. Routledge.  

Loughran, J. (2010). What expert teachers do: Enhancing professional knowledge for classroom practice. Routledge.  

McGee, C. & Francis, D. (2012). The professional practice of teaching. Cengage Learning.   

MOE. (2015). Effective pedagogy for all students. The New Zealand Curriculum. https://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Inclusive-practices/Implementing-an-inclusive-curriculum/Effective-pedagogy-for-all-students