Begin with the End
As the fall semester unfolds, our lives at work and at home seem to become busier than ever. One way to keep the stress under control is to be very well planned. At home, this may mean having a calendar that includes all family activities and obligations so due dates are met and events are not accidentally missed. At work, the idea of planning may not be a huge hit, but it really is a key to your professional success.
One way to have a successful planning session is to consider what it is you are trying to accomplish. The idea of beginning with the end in mind works well. If you generally know you need to be done with a unit on plant life by Thanksgiving break, then you can start with that due date and unpack your ideas and calendar from there. If your final product is a student project presentation that includes a visual and written piece, then you need to think through the steps and backwards map what it would take to get there.
Figure out how you are going to assess the final product (rubrics are very helpful here) and make sure it aligns with standards. Using a general timeline and a vision for your end product will then allow you to plug in the smaller parts like resources and important assessment checkpoints along the way. Doing planning this way can help you avoid the pitfalls of stalling out on details and resources without a clear vision for the end result.
Once the checkpoints are in place that will help you assess understanding, then you can begin to think about the instruction that aligns. If students need to do research on the plant of their choice and have a draft due to you on a certain date, what instruction will you provide related to doing research? What do your students already know about research and in what areas will they need more support?
After that is figured out, it will be important to think about what resources and protocols you will need for your instruction. Are you having students read mentor text articles to get an idea of how to structure their written work? If so, which pieces provide the best example of what you want and how will you use these across your unit? Will you need to allow time in the computer lab or working with a technology specialist to support collecting information or writing drafts? Based on what you know about your students, what lessons do you need to provide on reading, writing and researching?
It is important to note that you need to build in some cushion time to respond to what you are noticing within your unit. Try to anticipate the pitfalls or the days where your students may need more time to process and work through ideas.
By the time you have considered all these things and mapped it out with a timeline, standards, and resources, it is time to talk to the students about what is coming. It is much easier to answer student (and parent) questions when your vision of the end product is clear!
It may take time, but planning with the end in mind can actually ease your stress level. Once all the planning pieces are in place, you are able to navigate the terrain much easier and hopefully with less stress!
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up someplace else.” ~ Laurence Peters