Competency 6: Planning and Instruction
Description of Competency:
A health and fitness teacher plans using clearly stated goals and objectives aligned to State and National Standards, a variety of age and developmentally appropriate instructional strategies to help develop physically educated and health literate individuals.
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Reflection Connection:
This assignment not only showcases what educators need to practice on a daily basis in their classrooms, but also breaks down the importance of having learning targets posted for students and guests in class to refer to at any given time. Grade Level Outcomes have components which help a teacher determine if a student has reached ‘Mastery.’ These outcomes showcase what a student is expected to do, know, and understand. In the beginning of the planning phase, these help teachers create growth opportunities for their students. A Student Learning Target is something that the students can see or understand and is easily accessible to comprehend the direction of the day. These targets can be used at the beginning of each day or at the beginning of each unit, but students can refer to them when they need help remembering the overarching goal or direction of a lesson. To garner the most impact, these targets should be discussed before each lesson for students to prepare prior knowledge and understanding before starting on a task. Some of the best educators actually create the learning targets with their students to increase student voice and buy-in.
Ways to make sure I’m writing sound learning targets and following state and national standards are to write SMART goals, which I have plenty of experience doing with my special education background. Another way is to remember the “what, why, how” method of writing targets. I will also keep the focus of my targets on the “what” portion of the lesson, which is the theme of the day or unit. Next, students need to be the focus of the lesson, or the “why,” to create meaning for the learning. Lastly, the “how” will be the learning target for the lesson, written in student-friendly language for students to clearly understand what is expected of them during the lesson and what is intended to be learned.