Goals
Long term planning is a critical step in accomplishing the curricular goals for the year. Without a bigger picture, it is easy to get lost in details and routines, and not accomplish what needs to be done in a school year!
There are two completely different paths that planning can follow. Good planning should take on aspects of both.
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Triangular
← Yearlong goal
← Term goal
← Unit goal
← Week goal
← Day goal
← Lesson goal
This type of planning is linear—the goals are in place and teaching is a matter of reaching goals at all levels. It usually is a top down model, however it can run bottom up if a lesson idea is consistent with many of the goals. The year long goals are typically QEP competencies, and levels of mastery that should be reached. Typically this type of planning would deal with subjects as separate.
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Spiral
In this model for planning, each concept is revisited repeatedly. The concepts dealt with in this manner become more and more complex over time. This is the ideal model for long term planning, as it ensures that learning is integrated and subjects are not taught as distinct and separate entities. Spiral planning ensures that students will revisit knowledge and thus retain it better, and will be more capable of applying concepts in varied contexts.
The spiral should exist at many levels:
- Units should spiral around important ideas.
- Yearly, topics should spiral.
- Weekly reviews are a way of spiralling back.
- Anytime students are applying learned concepts, it is a way of spiral teaching.
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A thematic unit is a great tool to reach many topics and subject areas. Topics can be used at different levels, and spiralled back to in the next thematic unit in more complex ways. Units are not only an ideal structure for spiral teaching, but they also get students excited!
Units
