Planning for Teaching

A Realistic A Realistic ApproachApproach

• What have you observed other teachers to be doing in terms of written planning?• Have you seen instances where lack of planning led to problems?• Have you seen examples of excellent planning that still seemed manageable in terms of time and work?

Planning and Planning and ExperienceExperience

• As a general rule of thumb, the longer you’ve been teaching the less written planning you will need• You’ll never need none!• As a beginning teacher you’ll need more to remind you of things like equipment required, extension and remedial work, backup plans, particular points to emphasise

Planning and Planning and ProfessionalismProfessionalism

• Requirements of Education Queensland, Queensland College of Teachers and individual schools and departments for year plans• Scope and sequence documents• Drawing on a variety of sources• Assessment and syllabus ‘coverage’

Planning and Planning and CreativityCreativity

• Written planning well ahead of time allows your best creative ideas to flow and be implemented• Quality written planning is flexible enough to fit changing circumstances and to allow you to follow a sudden brainwave or the students’ interests• Planning enhances flexibility, not stifles it

Planning and Science Planning and Science EducationEducation

• Science teaching has particular planning requirements because of the need to obtain equipment, make requests of the lab tech (if you’re lucky enough to have one), book lab or computer lab time• Long term written planning also allows you to implement the curricular emphases approach

Year Planning and Year Planning and Unit PlansUnit Plans

• Typically teachers will have an overall plan for the year in terms of which topics will be addressed when, and what assessment will be done

• Within that, each unit should have a clear structure

• The actual size (e.g. number of lessons in total or number of weeks) and shape of the unit will vary depending on the school/level

Curricular Emphases Curricular Emphases (more soon)(more soon)

• The curricular emphases approach enables science teachers to balance the science, technology and society demands of the curriculum across the year• Each unit has a particular emphasis:• Nature of science• Technology• Science and Society

Unit Planning and Unit Planning and StorylineStoryline

• Drawn from Kieran Egan’s ‘Teaching as Storytelling’• A unit has a storyline: • A beginning that sets up expectations or conflicts

• A middle that complicates and deepens them• An ending that resolves them in a satisfying way

• Understanding the storyline for your unit makes all the decisions about which activities go where much simpler to make

Dynamic Process

• Planning is a dynamic process that goes back and forth between the syllabus, textbooks and other resources, prac ideas, timetable demands, new ideas and so on

• It is also dynamic during the unit – as new student misconceptions or interests arise, or external forces impact on teaching

• And it’s dynamic from year to year, because each class is different