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Reflections on Domain 1: Planning and Preparation

Richelle E. Colucci-Nunn
Drexel University










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Reflections on Domain 1: Planning and Preparation
Danielsons (2014) Domain 1 components lay the groundwork for a successful lesson.
After all, if you do not know your content and pedagogy, your students may be misinformed or
may not have the prerequisite skills to achieve mastery of concepts or skills. If you do not know
your students, set developmentally appropriate yet challenging outcomes, or seek out resources
to enhance instruction, your students may not be engaged minds-on (Danielson, 2014, p. 3) in
the learning. If you do not design coherent instruction and assessments aligned with instructional
outcomes, your students may either not achieve desired results or you may not even know
whether or not they do!
For this assignment, I chose to design a social studies lesson, which lent itself to some
components better than others. Unlike the English Language Arts (ELA) or math curricula,
which follow the published programs fairly rigid structure and pacing and have limited
flexibility or differentiation for the summative assessments, the social studies curriculum in this
district allows for a wider variety of learning activities and assessments
However, there is not a clear learning trajectory (Clemens & Sarama, 2009) or sequence of
skills such as found in math or ELA, so I focused on content-related pedagogy, intra- and
interdisciplinary content relationships, and possible misconceptions to meet component 1a
(knowledge of content and pedagogy). As Maxim (2010) notes, Children come to school
deeply curious about their surroundings, and social studies provides an ideal setting to utilize
their inborn drive to explore and investigate (p. 3). I therefore designed my lesson with an
engaging hands-on warm-up activity to pique students interest in the topic and inspire them to
inquiry. I also made connections to a prior ELA lesson and laid the foundation for connections
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to math in follow-up lessons within the unit when I included money (needs and wants; addition
and subtraction) and maps (map skills; addition and subtraction; measurement) in the mystery
box for this unit introductory lesson. Connections to science will also be made in a future lesson
that explores how weather impacts the physical characteristics of a community. Finally, possible
misconceptions will be addressed during the K-W-L chart activity.
To meet the requirements of component 1b (knowledge of students), I have been maintaining
a composite record of key student background and developmental data. I have recorded
information about students families (including beloved pets), before-after school and
community sports and activities, and other notes. I use this information to connect with students
in discussions about their journal entries (from which I glean much of this information) and
during informal conversations, as well as when I plan lessons. In a future lesson in this unit,
students will interview their parents or grandparents about the communities in which they lived,
which will allow families to share their cultural heritage while helping students explore the
change in communities over time.
The developmental data is used to provide students with leveled readers (available online
from Macmillan/McGraw-Hill) so that students can access information about communities
independently. I will also use this data for student groupings.
Setting instructional outcomes (1c) was the most difficult component for me, because I had
been locked into the formula Given ______, student will be able to ______ (measurable) when
writing instructional objectives. Somewhere along the way, I had lost sight of the backward
design concept (Wiggins, 2005). Once I had reacquainted myself with the process of writing my
desired results in the form of understandings, knowledge, and skills, I was able to develop my
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lesson plan using results that were not limited to the demonstration of skills. I found this
expression of desired results to be especially important in a content area such as social studies.
It was much easier for me to demonstrate knowledge of resources (1d), because social studies
content lends itself to the use of artifacts, community resources, trade books and literature, and
the internet to enhance instruction. Students will use a variety of books with a community theme
for their exploration activity, and these books will also be available in the free-choice reading
area for student enjoyment during the rest of the unit.
The one obstacle for me in this area was (the lack of) advance planning. Unfortunately, I had
not considered that the Chester County Historical Society would be closed from Sundays through
Tuesdays, so I have not yet received a response from their Family and Youth Program
Coordinators with more information about the items contained in the traveling trunk or about
other resources they might have to offer. I have always liked the idea of opening social studies
units with a mystery box containing artifacts about the topic to be explored in the unit, so I used
that as my back-up plan. If, before I deliver this lesson, I find that the traveling trunk contents
would stimulate inquiry better than my planned mystery box, I will either use the traveling trunk
as my warm-up activity or work it into a future lesson.
This lack of advance planning also impacted my ability to design coherent instruction (1e). In
the future, I would like to plan my social studies units well in advance so that I have enough time
to gather materials and resources as previously discussed. Such advance planning will also
afford me more opportunities to plan connections between disciplines. I have been fortunate that
the first couple of units in both social studies and ELA complement each other, and have
capitalized on connections wherever possible.
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I have also demonstrated coherent instruction design through my grouping of students
heterogeneously for discussions, which will allow stronger students to scaffold understanding for
struggling students, and have provided opportunities for student-led instruction, both in this
lesson and during the presentation of the students culminating projects.
For this unit, I planned both formative and summative assessments as I designed my student
assessment plan (1f). I provided students with the opportunity to present their culminating
project in the format of their choice: newspaper article, poster, or oral presentation. This choice
not only allows students to present their understanding in a manner reflective of their learning
style, but it also allows students with limited writing skills to participate in a meaningful manner.
Reflecting on planning and preparation using Danielsons (2014) framework has provided me
with the opportunity to synthesize all of my learning whether it was from course work, field
experience or student teaching. I have considered approaches not previously in my repertoire,
and believe that I now have developed a robust planning process that will lead me (and therefore
my students!) to success.





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References
Clements, D. H., & Sarama, J. A. (2009). Learning and teaching early math: The learning
trajectories approach. New York: Routledge.
Danielson, C. (2014). The framework for teaching evaluation instrument [PDF document].
Retrieved from http://danielsongroup.org/framework/
Maxim, G. W. (2009). Dynamic social studies for constructivist classrooms: Inspiring
tomorrow's social scientists (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by design: Overview of OBD and the design template [PDF
document]. Retrieved from
http://www.grantwiggins.org/documents/UbDQuikvue1005.pdf