Most important component of instructional planning

The words instructional planning is at the top five most important words in relation to
teaching. I open with this statement because while instructional planning is crucial for the
classroom to run smoothly, it is also difficult to do well every day, every week and every month.
I was introduced to instructional planning the school year of 2015-2016, during a weeklong in-
service training for teachers. Before coming to the training, I worried about what I would
teaching and how I would teach it. After a couple of hours, I learned that our department had
curriculum guides for each grade level that had been written by a group of teachers and some
specialists.
Instructional planning includes not only planning what students will learn, but how they
will learn it.
Planning should include both short-term goals and long-term goals, and for students with
exceptionalities. Instructional plans may include considerations of academic content, assistive or
augmentative technology needs, scaffolded supports, specific teaching strategies, and adaptations
of or modifications to content.
When delivered with fidelity, well-planned instruction is designed to maximize academic
learning time, actively engage learners in meaningful activities, and emphasize proactive and
positive approaches across tiers of instructional intensity.
How to teach?
Materials
Instructional materials are the content or information conveyed within a course. These
include the lectures, readings, textbooks, multimedia components, and other resources in a
course. These materials can be used in both face-to-face and online classrooms; however, some
must be modified or redesigned to be effective for the online environment. The best instructional
materials are aligned with all other elements in the course, including the learning objectives,
assessments, and activities.

Instructional materials provide the core information that students will experience, learn,
and apply during a course. They hold the power to either engage or demotivate students. This is
especially true today for new normal classes, which rely on a thoughtful and complete collection
of instructional materials that students will access, explore, absorb, and reference as they proceed
in a course.
Therefore, such materials must be carefully planned, selected, organized, refined, and
used in a course for the maximum effect. The planning and selection of instructional materials
should take into consideration both the breadth and depth of content so that student learning is
optimized.

Activities
 When planning learning activities, you should consider the types of activities that
students will need to engage in, and to demonstrate the intended learning outcome/s. The
activities should provide experiences that will enable students to engage, practice and gain
feedback on specific outcome/s. Also, how much time the activities would take. Identify
strategies to check on understanding, and build in time for explanation, discussion or to reflect
on learning.

Some questions to think about when designing the learning activities:

 What would motivate your students to do these activities?

 What do students need to hear, read, or see to understand the topic?
 How can I engage students in the topic?
 What are some relevant real-life examples, analogies, or situations that can help students
explore the topic?
 What will students need to do to practice and demonstrate knowledge of the topic?

Assessment
The major purpose of assessment in schools should be to provide interpretative information
to teachers and school leaders about their impact on students, so as educators we must have the best
information possible about what steps to take with instruction and how they need to change and
adapt. So often we use assessment in schools to inform students of their progress and attainment. Of
course, this is important, but it is more critical to use this information to inform teachers about their
impact on students. Using assessments as feedback for teachers is powerful. And this power is truly
maximized when the assessments are timely, informative, and related to what teachers are actually
teaching.