Illinois Professional Teaching Standard Four | Planning for Instruction

The competent teacher understands instructional planning and designs instruction based upon
knowledge of the discipline, students, the community, and curriculum goals.

Description of the artifact:

Attached to this explanation is a planning matrix for a 3 week unit on American slave narratives.
The plan was developed in a Social Studies methods course during the Spring of 2010 by a group
of pre-service teachers (myself included). It involves students using primary sources, video,
interviewing, and writing to not only have students learn about slave narratives, but also to
understand the process of recording history by the creation of biography based on research. This
unit also uses a portfolio to highlight student work.

The attached lesson is an example of the lesson planning which occurred during the unit.
Specifically, this lesson plan addresses watching a film called Unchained Narratives which is video
recording of current African American actors reading first-person accounts of slaves before the
time of the American Civil War.

Meeting the standard:

This product meets the standard because it shows my ability to plan not only for individual lesson,
but for a unit. The slave narrative unit was the result of half a semester’s worth of work, with the
final planning matrix completed during the final week. The matrix is only a glimpse of the entire
process. When initially planning this unit, we addressed the ISBE Social Studies standards (our
curriculum) to focus our ideas. Then we created essential questions (from Wiggins & McTighe
(2007), Schooling by Design) based on the standards that we wished to incorporate. After we
decided on our objective we planned our activities and lessons. This backward design model
allowed us to cover our curriculum by focusing our attention on objectives rather than
sporadically covering material throughout the unit. However, we also tried to design the unit in a
way that would engage students so that all students had an enjoyable and practical experience
with the process of recording historical narratives.

How this demonstrates my development as a teacher:

This artifact provided me with the ability to have foresight and focus for my instructional planning.
It was a challenge devising lessons that flowed throughout the unit along with activities that
consistently engage students. Furthermore, this unit aligned challenged us to align our ideas with
curriculum, which is certainly a skill I will need. The standards acted as our guide for designing the
unit, and it allowed us to design objectives that were truly important for students understanding.
Lastly, the process for creating the unit made me recognize that long term planning is complex
and sometimes lengthy, but if a team of teachers (or pre-service teachers) works together the
result is worth the effort.