After I come home from a long day of work, the last thing I want to think about is planning future units. Instead, I want to kick back, watch some Netflix, and eat popcorn. A couple hours of pass and I come to grips with my situation...I need to plan tomorrow's lesson! I know in my mind what I want to teach and usually plan a really engaging lesson, but I usually don't give myself enough time to plan long term for the unit.
It seems obvious to plan long term as we've all been taught that procrastination is a terrible thing (although some of us may have passively ignored that lesson for quite some time). Personally, I am all for planning long term units, making classroom visions, and even attending professional developments on planning. However, I've found the biggest challenge to unit planning is my perception that planning is of lesser importance to other more immediate needs. Another challenge is that I perceive unit planning as too daunting of a task to complete. Finally, I feel like I have no idea where to start when it comes to unit planning at times.
First, I make excuses to avoid unit planning. I tell myself that grading papers, taking extra time to craft a really creative lesson for tomorrow, or taking the night off of work are more valuable uses of my time. However, I've learned over time that just because you feel like something is more valuable, or more desirable for that matter, doesn't make it true. Through experience tracking my data, I've found that the units I planned before I began teaching them actually resulted in positive outcomes for my students. My students performed better on the summative assessments and qualitatively seemed to comprehend the underlying themes of the material much better than if I planned my lessons on a day to day basis. My hypothesis is that my students do better on preplanned units, because I exactly pinpoint the concepts I want my students learn and intuitively focus on those concepts during instruction. Without planning units I usually go on several different tangents during my instruction, and that information does not end up on the summative assessment. Therefore, I test my students on knowledge that I neither adequately covered in instruction nor find of necessary importance.
Second, I've imagined in the past hours and hours of work when envisioning unit planning and consequently do not bother unit planning. Unit planning is what you make of it. I've learned that you can spend hours on a unit plan or make a decent outline in a hour and a half. Unit planning is an ongoing process that can be modified, and probably should be, on a continual basis. I've felt the pressure of having to complete a stellar, transformational unit plan before the unit begins, when in fact all I need is a good outline to build off on in the upcoming days. Read your textbook, make some essential questions that you think your students should be able to answer at the end of the unit, and then make your summative assessment reflect those questions. These steps are the bare bones of a good start to a unit plan. Rather than overly concern yourselves with the intricate details of each lesson in the unit, focus on crafting a rigorous assessment that focuses on the most important concepts in your unit. If you don't know how to generate good essential questions or make a rigorous assessment for a unit, then I recommend attending TFA's professional development class Understanding by Design. It will give you a good framework on how to create these questions.
By generating these essential questions and crafting a rigorous summative assessment, you will have a sense of purpose in your unit. You will have a starting point to build on with your day to day lessons. Now as I've already written, unit planning can be easier said than done. There are going to be road bumps along the way and you may feel that you still have no clue what you are doing when unit planning. I've asked myself a thousand times: "Am I asking the right essential questions to my kids?", "Am I utilizing class time effectively by spending so much time on this unit?", "Is my planning actually leading to positive academic outcomes to my students?". I have, at times, let this uncertainty get the best of me and ditched solid unit planning. Nevertheless, I advise you that unit plan as much as possible.
It gives you a sense of purpose in your teaching. It does not take as long as you think. It really improves your students' academic outcomes. So don't let perception get the best of you and ditch unit planning in favor of eating popcorn and watching Netflix. In the end you'll be much happier with teaching your kids solid unit plans that you planned well in advance.
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