Purposeful Planning – Questions and Answers
Is this supposed to be a new format for lesson plan books?
The goal of the professional learning opportunities is engagement of the process of purposeful planning. We are not concerned with the format of a final product, or even a final product – the focus is on process.
This is an important topic or area to discuss. Could we have a half day (professional development) to do this unpacking the standards? It’s not enough time.
The process of purposeful planning is ongoing and expansive. Were we dealing with the creation of a product and a deadline, actual pull out time would be necessary. As we are dealing with the ongoing process of professional learning and refinement of practice, the plan is to continuously engage in this investigation.
Where do we go from here in education? Why do we have standards if we need to unpack them? I feel that is we are teaching what is expected, then why add more work to our plates? Teaching should be fun for both students and teachers.
The intent of these District facilitated opportunities is to support teachers in their journey to become more effective and efficient in practice. To this end, unpacking the standards is one of many processes we will investigate, and a practice in line with our District goal of improvement in purposeful planning.
When will National Standards be adopted and, if so, will special education IEP goals and objectives be aligned with the standards? I see this in incoming IEPs and are computer generated.
Common Core standards – a movement which has built upon strong state standards – will probably be coming to DoDEA in the near future. Click http://www.corestandards.org/ to learn more. If you had a specific question regarding SPED, please contact Ms. Rita Pike, Guam District ISS for Special Education, directly.
I admit to being utterly mystified by this whole concept/process. I understand the students and am dedicated to student mastery of the standards. I teach daily using the text, the standards, my wits, and student progress as my guide. I plan according to my need to organize my instruction. Where does Scope and Sequence come in? I’ve never heard of it. – With an M. Ed. And can’t figure out how it can help me, my kids, or better inform the standards. Am I using my time constructively here?
Wow! It sounds as though you have all the components. This professional investigation into the process of instructional planning we are undertaking together emphasizes the components you mentioned in a specific order . . . “I teach daily using my standards, student progress, my wits, and the text as my guide. “ This process of reflection and refinement is the goal of these District facilitated sessions.
Rubicon – What is it? I want to know more.
Rubicon is an online repository for curriculum maps DoDEA used for a time in Mathematics and Science. Those documents are available on Blackboard.
Need samples of what to do. What/how it would look like?
Since our focus is on the process of planning and not the product, this is outside the scope of the professional learning opportunities at your faculty meetings. We do, however, provide any direct professional discussion and/or resources that you need. Let us know who you are and we can setup a time to get together and further discuss these opportunities.
Unpacking the standards. What does it look like?
This is the ongoing process we will investigate throughout this school year. You have hit the nail center on the head. Let’s discuss more.