- Planning instruction
Planning for instruction as well as for learning...........................................................................................
This chapter started with one premise but ended with another. It started with the idea that teachers need to
locate curriculum goals, usually from a state department of education or a publisher of a curriculum document. In
much of the chapter we described what these authorities provide for individual classroom teachers, and how their
documents can be clarified and rendered specific enough for classroom use. In the middle of the chapter, however,
the premise shifted. We began noting that instruction cannot be planned simply for students; teachers also need to
consider involving students themselves in influencing or even choosing their own goals and ways of reaching the
goals. Instructional planning, in other words, should not be just for students, but also by students, at least to some
extent. In the final parts of the chapter we described a number of ways of achieving a reasonable balance between
teachers’ and students’ influence on their learning. We suggested considering relatively strong measures, such as an
emergent or an anti-bias curriculum, but we also considered more moderate ones, like the use of the Internet, of
local experts and field trips, of service learning, and of guided and independent practice. All things considered,
then, teachers’ planning is not just about organizing teaching; it is also about facilitating learning. Its dual purpose
is evident in many features of public education, including the one we discuss in the next two chapters, the
assessment of learning.
Chapter summary
In the United States, broad educational goals for most subject areas are published by many national
professional associations and by all state departments of education. Usually the state departments of education also
publish curriculum framework or curriculum guides that offer somewhat more specific explanations of educational
goals, and how they might be taught.
Transforming the goals into specific learning objectives, however, remains a responsibility of the teacher. The
formulation can focus on curriculum topics that can analyzed into specific activities, or it can focus on specific
behaviors expected of students and assembled into general types of outcomes. Taxonomies of educational
objectives, such as the ones originated by Benjamin Bloom, are a useful tool with either approach to instructional
planning.
In addition to planning instruction on students’ behalf, many teachers organize instruction so that students
themselves can influence the choice of goals. One way to do so is through emergent curriculum; another way is
through multicultural and anti-bias curriculum.
Whatever planning strategies are used, learning is enhanced by using a wide variety of resources, including the
Internet, local experts, field trips, and service learning, among others. It is also enhanced if the teacher can build
bridges between curriculum goals and students’ experiences through judicious use of modeling, activation of prior
knowledge, anticipation of students’ preconceptions, and an appropriate blend of guided and independent practice.
Key terms
Affective objectives
Anti-bias education
Bloom’s taxonomy
Content integration
Curriculum framework
Curriculum guide235