How Important Is Planning and Reflection To Effective Teaching?

Every teacher is unique and has his/her own unique way of navigating his/her classroom. Some teachers are more type A and have charts and checklists to document student growth and neat and organized plan books with well thought out lesson plans and post-its next to each lesson telling them what they need to do to prepare for those lessons. 

Other teachers are more organic. They have a great feel for their students and their strengths and needs and can plan fun and engaging lessons. To an outside eye, they may seem a bit scattered and unorganized but their students are just as successful as type A teacher’s students.

So is planning and reflection as important for the “type A” teacher as it is for the “organic” teacher and all the other teachers that fall in between? Honestly, I think it depends on two things: the students in your class and your own instructional approach for your classroom.

Let me explain.

Let’s begin with the composition of your class. If you have a class full of students that are performing at grade level expectations in most subject areas, then they will most likely be successful in your class whether you over prepare each lesson or just do the bare minimum. 

However if you have a class of students at varying ability levels, then the fly by the seat of your pants method may not end with all of your students meeting success at the end of the lesson or the end the school year. If different students may need reteaching or even enrichment, then that would take more reflection and planning on your part.

Now onto your own instructional approach for your classroom. And to be clear, I’m not saying that one approach is necessarily better than another. Just different. 

Your approach to your classroom could be to just simply execute each lesson as it is explained in your teacher’s manuel. No more, no less. And that should be sufficient right? I mean, smart, educated professionals came up with your grade level curriculum and its lessons so they must be good lessons, right? And honestly, most students who are on performing on grade level will be successful using this approach. There may not be much planning or reflection you’d have to do. But what about the students who are performing below or way beyond grade level expectations?

Or your approach could be to provide a more individualized, differentiated experience for each of your students based on their personal preferences, learning styles, ability level, ect. You are passionate about having each student in your class learn in the way they are most comfortable with, explore topics and subjects they are each interested in, and have modification or enrichment lessons available so that they each have an opportunity to show growth in each subject area. I don’t know how you can be successful in this approach without planning and reflection.

So back to my original question: how important is planning and reflection to effective teaching?

If you’re more on the “organic” end of the spectrum, with a class of on-grade-level achieving students and you just basically teach your lessons as they are written in your manuel, then most likely the majority of your students will be successful without much planning or reflection on your part. 

But if you’re more type A, then you’re definitely planning and reflecting anyway. However if the population of the students in your classroom is more diverse, whether ability-wise or even culturally or socio-economically, which is most classrooms in America, you may have to plan and reflect more consistently in order for all of your students to be successful. And it probably goes without saying that if you are intentionally trying to create a differentiated learning environment then that takes daily planning and reflection. 

So here are a few points to summarize:

Point one: No matter what your personality is as a teacher, you can be successful.

Point two: There is not just one approach to teaching that leads to success.

Point three: In order for most classrooms to be successful and even thrive, there should be some form of planning and time of reflection.

If this is not your forte, I will highlight three areas where planning and reflection can assist you in creating your most successful classroom.

Lesson Planning: When planning lessons, it’s important that everything done during the lesson supports the objective of the lesson. Know what it is you want your students to learn and why and make sure your lesson reflects that. For example, in teaching a phonics lesson, my objective may look like this: Today we will identify Ss by finding pictures that begin with /s/.

After you’ve taught the lesson and make sure you have a way to assess if students understood the concept independently and reflect on this information. Maybe all of your students were able to show their understanding on the skill. Great! 

But for students who may not be able to show understanding when your lesson is complete, make time for reteach opportunities. This could look very much like the original lesson but done is a smaller group or you may want to check the student understands the similar skill or concept but assessed in an easier form. 

(In the example of identifying Ss, make sure the students know that Ss makes the /s/ sound. If they can’t solidly tell you the sound Ss makes, do some activities giving them practice identifying Ss’s sound.)

For students who could show understanding of the lesson easily, consider ways to challenge them. (Staying with our current example, if students can easily identify pictures that begin with /s/, have them draw some pictures of things they can think of that begin with /s/)

Assessments and Student Work: When planning an assessment or a way for students to show their understanding of a skill, I think the most important thing is to be sure your assessment matches the objective of your lesson. (Continuing with our Ss example, the point is for the students to find pictures beginning with /s/)

Also make sure that the form of assessment does not create a barrier that hinders students from showing their understanding of the objective. For instance, if I give the students a sheet that has pictures on the bottom that need to be cut out and glued in the correct position on the sheet to reflect whether the picture begins with /s/ or not, a student with fine motor challenges may have difficulty completing this task. He/She may spend so much time and energy trying to cut out their pictures, they may not have enough time to complete the assessment, even though they may have good understanding of the main concept. Something as simple as pre-cutting that students pictures out would give you a more accurate reflection of their understanding of the main skill. 

Reflection and planning are needed to anticipate these possible barriers for your students and offer another assessment or student work product option so all students have the best opportunity to be successful.

Classroom Environment: I think it’s important to take a look at the classroom environment and take constant inventory as to whether the procedures, structures, rules, routines and even materials and furniture placements are in place so that each student feels welcome, seen, understood, safe, and secure and that there are no environmental barriers to learning within the classroom. Staying with our current lesson example, something as simple as how students receive their assessment sheet, and whether the appropriate materials they need to complete the assignment are available and easily accessible are small things that could hinder a students ability to successfully complete their assignment. 

Plan and be intentional about all those procedures and processes and reflect on their effectiveness. 

Rather than just my own opinion, I found a couple articles pertaining to reflection, planning and effectiveness. Take them for what they’re worth. 

In the article “Coach, Collaborator, Learner”, Sangiuliano (2013) describes a program in the Rhode Island School System with the objective of helping first year teachers have tools to be more effective. Part of the program included veteran teachers receiving training to coach and mentor these new teachers. One point Sanguiliano (2013) made was “effective teachers are reflective.” He then wrote about one kindergarten teacher he observed who kept a composition journal of reflections and questions. They would discuss data and observations, and she would, then, use that information to guide her instruction. 

In the article “Can Teacher Evaluation Improve Teaching?”, the Cincinnati Public School System launched a Teacher Evaluation System that assessed teacher’s performance in and out of the classroom through observation and student work. The goal was to see if highly structure classroom observations would improve teacher performance. The main result was “greater teacher performance as measured by student achievement gains in years following TES review” (Taylor & Tyler, 2012). Another result was the following: “New information is potentially created by the formal scoring and feedback routines of TES, as well as increased opportunities for self-reflection and for conversations regarding effective teaching practice in the TES environment”(Taylor & Tyler, 2012). This study showed that the increased opportunities for self-reflection lead to new information and new learning to improve instruction.

Every teacher is unique and has his or her own style. I believe that planning and reflecting can only increase the effectiveness of every teacher. Don’t believe me. Just try it.

References:

Sanguiliano, G. (2013). Coach, Collaborator, Learner. Education Next. 13(2). Retrieved from https://www.educationnext.org/coach-collaborator-learner/.

Taylor, E.S. & Tyler, J.H (2012). Can Teacher Evaluation Improve Teaching? Education Next. 12(4) Retrieved from https://www.educationnext.org/can-teacher-evaluation-improve-teaching/.