Long-Term Planning
InTASC Standard 7: The teacher plans instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.
In order to best teach my students and maintain a linear curriculum that does not frequently deviate from what is most necessary to learn, I create a long-term plan at the beginning of the year. The plan is a blueprint of what objectives and overall goals I want my students to take away by the end of the year. "A long-term plan drives students and teachers to purposefully prioritize actions that lead to the achievement of the ultimate goal" (Teach for America, 2011 p.38). Before I created a long-term plan during my first year teaching, I was lost with the countless ideas and materials I had, and I did not know where to start. I sat down and looked at the suggested book that our school has. I used it as a guide and marked down all the units and topics that I needed to teach. Once I had all of that written down, I was much more confident about the school year. I knew what direction I wanted to go with the students. I was able to read through all my materials and find what fit perfectly in this plan and what would not assist my students achieve dramatic gains by the end of the year.
Backwards Planning
As I create my long-term plan, I look at what is most important for my students to learn. From there I create a final assessment that students will take at the end of the school year. After I have decided what I will assess my students at the end of the year, I can begin planning the year. "This approach to instruction is called “backwards planning” because it requires you to start by identifying what you want students to know at the end of instruction. By doing so, you can gear your instruction to ensure that students perform the way you originally envisioned" (Teach for America, 2011). All of my units fit within an overall year-long plan, while all of the lessons within each unit are cohesive and fit within the unit. When I look at any particular lesson, I can see how it fits within the context of the school year and how it will prepare my students to speak Spanish outside of the classroom.
My Spanish 1 Long-Term Plan
There are six units, with the first three happening before the mid-term in January, and the last three happening from January until the final assessment in June.
When effectively planning for an assessment, it is best to know the direction that you want to take in terms of content and pacing. This is why a first step to take at the beginning of the year is to have a general year-long plan. An indicator of what the class should know at the end of the year would be demonstrated in the final assessment. To show growth, I administer this same assessment at the beginning of the year.
The next step is to plan the units. Each unit has assessments, which include unit tests, projects, vocabulary quizzes, written and spoken check-ins and exit tickets.Once I have figured out what I will teach in the units, I can then begin planning my lessons. Most of my lessons include an exit ticket that I create as a goalpost that I want my students to reach by the end of class.
As Linda Darling-Hammond (2012) mentions, "In terms of assessment, we need to be clear about what the goal is and have an example or a model or a demonstration of what a skilled performance would look like. We need to backward map from that to the process of learning that will get us there. We need to figure out what the learner already knows through some form of assessment of their current understanding, what they bring to the task. We then need to develop a set of scaffolds or assistance components that'll help get us there, and then provide regular feedback to the learner as he or she is undertaking this task. So, assessment at every step of the way has to tell us what the person knows, how they're doing, give feedback to the learner, and show them where they're going"(Laureate Education, 2012). By creating a map starting from the end and working backwards, I am able to teach in a much more linear and scaffolded manner. I can ensure that this plan is effective by starting each planning stage with some form of assessment. This way I know exactly what I want my students to leave class knowing, and I know if they reached that goal or not.
Practical and Relevant Material
Spanish and World Languages have a unique position at our school as both an elective but a required prerequisite to graduating high school. This requirement pushes many students in my class that are not invested in learning Spanish and are only in the class to graduate. This affects the classroom culture, with many students showing up to class just satisfied with a passing grade; although, sometimes that is not even enough to motivate them. To combat this, I spend the first few weeks solely working on classroom culture and learning about the importance of learning another language — specifically Spanish. As the year progresses, I still spend time addressing this.
A strategy to increase student investment, I plan interesting lessons that are relevant to their lives and that will be practical when they leave the classroom. This puts me at odds with the suggested curriculum and textbook. The manner that the units progress is in a way that does increase access to the language until late into the first year. Students learn topics like classroom objects, classes, family members and the present tense verbs for much of the first semester. While these are all useful topics in themselves, they do not immediately allow students to have short conversations outside of class. They can say sentences like, "I have a big table" in Spanish, but if someone outside asked them to introduce themselves or about their day, they would not know how to answer. While the material is still important, it is not going to help students speak to native speakers naturally for quite a long time. We live in an era of instant gratification, and many students will lose interest in a subject if they do not see how it impacts them. Because of this, I have changed many aspects of the curriculum to better translate to the real world outside of the classroom. What I have noticed this year is a higher interest in the material compared to previous years.
A Look into My Long-Term Plan
Semester One
Semester One Plan
Unit 1: Hi, How are you?
Unit 2: How is your life?
Unit 3: What is the temperature?
I spend much of the first two weeks building relationships, a positive classroom culture, and stressing the importance of learning Spanish. From there, the students learn important questions and phrases that they can use on a daily basis, such as asking others what they like, what are they doing, where are they from, etc. In the past I stressed grammar and drilled it throughout the year, and the results were mixed. My students did not see how the grammar directly benefited them in speaking the language. This year I still teach grammar, but I teach it more as a supplement to the phrases and words that students can use in their daily lives. Later in the semester, the students learn about family members, school subjects, weather and clothing. All the while, I teach them multiple useful tenses, without restricting them exclusively to the present tense. When we speak naturally, use the past tense much more than the present indicative tense. Yet in my curriculum, we are expected to wait until Spanish 2 to teach the past tense. That is a long time to wait for such an important part of daily speech. Because of this, I integrate the past tense in the lessons, as well as the future and present continuous (two other highly used tenses in daily speech). I have found much more student engagement in these lessons because they see it directly benefit their ability to speak to native speakers.
Semester Two
Semester Two Plan
Unit 4: Where do you live?
Unit 5: Are you happy?
Unit 6: How do you spend the day?
In the second semester, I expand on the topics we covered in the first semester. We also touch on topics, such as places and asking for directions, food, feelings, professions, sports, and pastimes. These are all important topics that students can apply in their daily lives. My curriculum does not have students learn to ask for directions or order food until in the second year, which are of the first things they would need to know how to do if they traveled to a Spanish-speaking country or went to a Hispanic restaurant. My goal at the end of both semesters is for students to be able to use the language in their daily lives and improve upon it. So often when I talk to individuals in the United States about their experience learning Spanish in high school, they mention that they never used it and forgot it. This is much more likely if the material is not useful or relevant. It is also likely if students are too self-conscious to speak with native speakers. By planning plenty of applicable material and many opportunities to practice speaking, listening, reading, and writing, I prepare the students to speak and interact with native speakers and boost their confidence.
References:
Teach For America. (2011). Instructional planning & delivery. Retrieved from http://www.teachingasleadership.org/sites/default/files/Related-Readings/IPD_2011.pdf