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Running head: PLANNING

Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment of Learners

Caitlin Flack
Regent University

In partial fulfillment of UED 495 Field Experience ePortfolio, Spring 2015

Introduction

PLANNING
Teaching children requires a lot of planning. Teachers are responsible for
planning lessons, activities, homework, assessments, and much more. On top of that,
those plans have to be changed based on students needs. If students need extra help or
are ready to move on early, their teacher has to change plans entirely. Teaching is hard
work, but it is definitely worth it to see students reaching their potential.
Rationale for Selection of Artifacts
To demonstrate this competency, I selected a unit plan on time and the
corresponding pre/post-assessment. I taught this unit over the span of one week. To
begin this unit, each student completed a pre-assessment that I have attached. I had one
student who was able to answer four or more of the questions correctly, eight students
who answered three questions correctly, and eleven students who answered two or less

correctly. My data showed me that most of my students had some understanding of time,
but a lot needed quite a bit of help when it came to telling time. I used a variety of
activities to teach this concept that included write and wipe clocks, the time song, a time
matching game, an I Have, Who Has? game, and a few other tasks.
The activities that seemed to work the best with this class were the time song and
the I Have, Who Has? game. This class has previously used many songs to remember
different concepts or Bible verses, so they are used to this practice and seem to enjoy it.
They also loved the I Have, Who Has? game. Students were each given a card that had a
time written out and a time drawn on an analog clock. They had to say, I have
followed by the written time and then Who has followed by the time drawn on the
clock. This activity was able to captivate each childs attention. I was asked every day
following this game if we could play it again.

PLANNING
One activity that did not work out as well as I expected was the time matching
game. In order to play this game, students had to match up two halves of plastic eggs.
One half had the time written on it and the corresponding half had the time drawn on it.
Students were to find the matching pairs. During this activity, I noticed a lot of

snatching. I think if I were to do this activity again, I would make sure the students knew
beforehand that if they were caught snatching, they would have to sit out and watch.
Based on my pre-assessment, I was able to determine that one child would need
extra help and another child would need harder work. For the student who needed extra
help, I made sure that every hour or hour hand was highlighted in yellow and every
minute or minute hand was highlighted in blue. This helped him distinguish which hand
was which. The same modification was also made on his post-assessment. I also set aside
time to work with him one-on-one during individual work. For the student who needed
harder work, I began teaching her to tell time to the nearest minute. When the other
students were doing individual work, I pulled her aside to work with her on this concept.
Her post-assessment was also changed to fit this advanced learning.
The post-assessments demonstrated that my students learned a lot during this unit.
Seventeen students got four or more questions correct and three got three questions
correct. My students worked very hard to learn time, so I am glad that their hard work
paid off. My cooperating teacher explained to me that the students in our class need a lot
of review during the weeks following instruction in order to maintain the knowledge
learned, so I have continued to review this information with them.
Reflection on Theory and Practice

PLANNING

While at Regent, I had a few professors touch on the misguided assumption of

some that teaching is an easy job. They reminded us that teaching is hard work and if
you are not passionate about it, you will not succeed. The process of teaching is
complex and multidimensional (Hall & Smith, 2006, p. 424). Hall and Smith continue
by talking about how teachers are constantly reflecting on their previous practices and
basing their instruction on what they have seen in the past (2006, p. 424). Consequently,
they are planning according to what they have seen students struggle with in the past,
what their current students need, what teaching techniques have worked in the past, and
any new techniques they would like to try. A lot of planning and preparation goes into
teaching not only before a lesson, but during and after as well. If a teacher notices that
students arent learning with the way he or she is teaching, the entire lesson needs to be
redone.
Teaching requires constant reflection on teaching practices and student learning.
This is why students should be assessed before, during, and after a lesson. Preassessments are valuable tools that show where each student stands when it comes to a
certain subject. This data shows a teacher what needs to be taught heavily, what just
needs to be reinforced, and what the student has already mastered. If a student has
already fully grasped a subject, it doesnt need to be focused on. If they need a lot of help
learning a subject, the teacher needs to plan accordingly. Post-assessments also share a
great deal of information. Teaching a concept does not always mean that students
understood that concept. Post-assessments show who still needs time to practice and who
is ready to move on. Assessing at every stage is a great way to keep students on track
with their learning.

PLANNING

PLANNING
Works Cited
Hall, T., & Smith, M. (2006). Teacher Planning, Instruction and Reflection: What We
Know About Teacher Cognitive Processes. Quest, 58(4), 424-442.