AEE 412: Weekly Investment 3

For Week 3, three key questions are provided:

1. How do we plan for instruction?

2. What are the similarities between significant learning, understanding by design, and the universal design for learning?

3. What is scaffolding?

With these three key questions in mind, I found a few important facets of this week's readings. The readings came from Planning for Instruction and the book Methods of teaching agriculture, Understanding by design framework, and A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning.

Throughout reading these documents, I found 3 relevant connections to my student teaching internship:

1. Including a situation in one's lesson plan can be a great way to gain student interest. If a lesson plan includes a specific situation or event that can resonate with students, they may be more interested in learning about the topic.

2. Having a good interest approach is key when working with high schoolers. When I teach my classes at Oley Valley in the coming spring, I will be sure to use intriguing interest approaches to gain my student's respect and interest in the topic.

3. Using a variety of references and teaching aids can enhance student learning and participation. By using a variety of books, media, equipment, websites, and resources, students will gain a greater appreciation for the topic.

Throughout my journey to Agricultural and Extension at Penn State, I have taken a variety of courses. Two examples throughout the readings struck me as information I learned in past classes. For example, I learned about the domains of learning: cognitive, psychomotor, and affective from educational psychology class in Spring 2019. When I read the description in the book, I was immediately taken back to the information I learned in Ed Psych. The seven tenents of the Understanding by Design Framework brought me back to my technology in education class at Millersville University. My professor explained the idea of working backwards to teach to our class. I really enjoyed that class in Spring 2017 and it was nice to see a similar approach in Fink's reading for the week.

An additional source I found was from ThoughtCo. and titled, Planning Classroom Instruction. Author Melissa Kelly gives a list of suggestions for teachers when they are planning their instruction for their classroom. Some of the examples include: looking over state and national standards, working on a lesson plan calendar, planning units in conjunction with the standards and lesson plan calendar, and making sure that your lesson plans are very detailed. She also made sure to remind teachers to plan for the unexpected. Having a few "mini lessons" for days that your lesson may finish early is a good practice.

Overall, I learned much about the importance of instructional planning. There are tons of components needed to create an effective lesson and unit plan. I am excited to see what we learn in AEE 412 this week! Some little birdie told me we'll learn how to write lesson plans!

https://www.thoughtco.com/planning-and-organizing-instruction-8391