What is your plan?

2/17/2023

Projecting your plan as classroom management for all.

Administrators in the gym, doing an evaluation, are not the only ones looking to see what you are going to be teaching. If you are like me, your students often walk in and before asking 'how are you?' or telling you that you have a piece of apple skin from lunch still in your teeth, they are asking 'what are we doing today?'

By creating a class routine, as part of your classroom management, with a daily lesson clearly outlined in student-friendly terms, you will find that you can slowly start to remove the tedious question, asked multiple times before you are even able to greet the class as a whole, by taking the time to post the agenda. In a recent demo lesson, the following poster was generated and posted for both evaluators and students to reference.

Let's start with the unit and lesson focus -- You may be working on throwing and catching and that is obvious to you and your students as you transition through different size, weight, and shaped balls, but when the lesson is over, you want the transition to be prevalent to a specific unit (i.e. softball in the above lesson overview). All of this information should be clearly identified for all.

If you haven't had a professor or evaluator emphasis the importance of posting your objectives, you must just not be fully listening. Although this post will not go into writing clear, concrete objectives, we will take the time to explain the importance of posting these objectives for both Massachusetts student-teachers, as well as those already in the field.
Student-Teachers: Let's take a look at how objectives align with CAP Online

Student teachers, you have three essential elements on your CAP Online guidelines in which clearly stated objectives can improve your rating:

Element I-A-1: Subject Matter Knowledge, under proficient, states, "demonstrates sound knowledge and understand go the subject matter and the pedagogy it requires by consistently engaging student in learning experiences that enable them to acquire complex knowledge and subject-specific skills and vocabulary..." Sound familiar? Most students will be able to... now fill in the blank with that knowledge, skill, and or vocabulary that you are wanting your students to be able to achieve by the end of the unit/lesson.

Element I-A-3: Well-Structure Units and Lesson, under proficient, states, "...implements standards-based units comprised of well-structured lessons with challenging tasks and measurable outcomes..." Again, a unit and lesson objective is that measurable task/goal that you want students to be able to do by the end of the lesson. We write them as most students will be able to, because these objectives should be challenging; not every student will be able to find success at the end of the lesson, some students may take several lessons before the objective is met -- reminder: everyone in the class is at a different developmental level (pre-control, control, utilization & proficiency) as it relates to each skills.

Element II-E-1: High Expectations, under proficient, states, "clearly communicates high standards for student work, effort, and behavior..." Shape America, National Standard 4, the affective domain should be coming to mind. How might an objective be written in in regard to this standard and posted in the gymnasium?

Although the rubric includes three essential elements in which including the lesson objectives may be included in the evaluation of the student-teacher, not all three may be met just by posting the objectives.

So, you have already completed your student-teaching practicum and are a licensed teacher in the field; you, too, should be getting in the habit of posting your objectives. But, if you are still in your student-teacher practicum, take a moment to continue reading, as much of the information aligns, identically, with the CAP Online rubric -- If DESE is doing one thing right, it is aligning our student-teacher performance assessments perfectly with what is actually being used on current professionals in the field.
Licensed Professionals: The Massachusetts Educator Evaluation Rubric
** click the link for a more in depth review of the rubric

Rather than laying out each of the elements in the classroom teacher evaluation rubric that aligns with writing and posting clear objectives, the above rubric overview shows how both student-teachers and current professionals have very similar indicators. As explained above, I-A-1 Subject Matter Knowledge, I-A-3 Well-Structured Units and Lessons, and II-E-1 High Expectations are also outlined in the Classroom Teacher Evaluation Rubric. One may argue, once in the field, posting your objectives could align with any indicator under Standard 1: Curriculum, Planning, and Assessment, as well as Standard 2: Teaching All Students.

Standard 1: Curriculum, Planning, and Assessment
The teacher promotes the learning and growth of all students by providing high-quality and coherent instruction, designing and administering authentic and meaningful student assessments, analyzing student performance and growth data, using this data to improve instruction, providing students with constructive feedback on an ongoing basis, and continuously refining learning objectives.

Standard 2: Teaching All Students
The teacher promotes the learning and growth of all students through instructional practices that establish high expectations, create a safe and effective classroom environment, and demonstrate cultural proficiency.

For more information regarding both evaluation systems, be sure to check out CAP Online and the Massachusetts Department of Education websites.

Aside from objectives being posted, it is also beneficial to share your essential question with all stakeholders. Similar to an objective, an essential question is an overarching question that your students should hopefully be able to answer by the end of the unit or lesson. When writing the essential question for your lesson think about what you want your students to be able to identify, explain, and or demonstrate by the end of the lesson. Many times, these questions may relate to the key vocabulary and physical skills/tactics needed in your lesson. When designing my posted content for students, the key vocabulary are typically the key skills being taught in my lesson. If we are focusing on more gameplay situations, consider what offensive or defensive terms you may be using when teaching.

Lastly, a lesson hook is a must in all lessons -- what are you going to do to grab the attention of your students and make them want to engage in what you will be teaching. Sure we could just tell our students we will be working on fielding, but you may find students sitting out and not wanting to engage, but if you demonstrate some amazing skill you have in what is being taught, or you could utilize a student demonstration, students love being in the spotlight and being noticed for amazing things they are capable of. The lesson hook is a great time in which you could also incorporate some technology into physical education, maybe a YouTube video or new app you learned about at the yearly convention. Additionally, your coaches may have film from a game that you could borrow, think, maybe the quarterback of the high school football team has an amazing video of him passing with proper form, scoring a touchdown to your schools biggest rival -- again, students love when they can be spotlighted in front of their peers! Below are some additional suggestions on what your lesson hook may look like.