Planning Strategies
When planning a unit, I employ a backwards design strategy. I begin with the big ideas and goals for the unit, as driven by the Ontario curriculum, and then choose several different assessments to evaluate the students' learning of these ideas and goals.
I then plan the general layout of the unit by placing the major assessments first, and then write up a general plan of topics that will need to be covered for each assessment. From this point, I will plan out a week at a time, and then the individual lessons. Within each lesson plan, I make note of the overall and specific curriculum expectations being covered, as well as the learning goals and success criteria to be achieved. This ensures all aspects of the curriculum are being taught in a way that connects each topic to one another, through strands of continuity of understanding. It also allows for a fluidity of the smaller-scale plans (day-to-day lessons, or lessons within one class period), which is important for student-led learning.
When planning a unit, I employ a backwards design strategy. I begin with the big ideas and goals for the unit, as driven by the Ontario curriculum, and then choose several different assessments to evaluate the students' learning of these ideas and goals.
I then plan the general layout of the unit by placing the major assessments first, and then write up a general plan of topics that will need to be covered for each assessment. From this point, I will plan out a week at a time, and then the individual lessons. Within each lesson plan, I make note of the overall and specific curriculum expectations being covered, as well as the learning goals and success criteria to be achieved. This ensures all aspects of the curriculum are being taught in a way that connects each topic to one another, through strands of continuity of understanding. It also allows for a fluidity of the smaller-scale plans (day-to-day lessons, or lessons within one class period), which is important for student-led learning.