1

Domain 1: Planning and Preparation Writing Piece

Patrick Nolan
EDUC 540: Field Experience
The lesson that I have chosen as a representative of my adherence to the
first Domain of the Danielson Framework, Planning and Preparation, involves
students learning about the process of Meiosis and presents them with a formative
assessment project that will serve to assess student understanding of not only the
process of Meiosis but also the process of Mitosis and the differences that exist
between the two systems of reproduction (The Danielson Group, 2013). I originally
designed this lesson to act as the first major topic of discussion in examining sexual
reproduction, transitioning from Meiosis into a discussion regarding heredity and
Mendelian inheritance in later lessons, and I feel that it more than demonstrates
attention to the teachers knowledge of presented content, students and resources;
is founded on strong instructional outcomes; and is effective in its design of
coherent instruction and student assessment. Though it may require more than just
the information contained within the lesson itself in order to be completed and
understood by students, the students this lesson is intended for will have already
demonstrated understanding of the prerequisite information needed to achieve the
outcomes set for it prior to its execution, and are they more than capable of
achieving the intended goals of the lesson in a way that helps to foster their
understanding of the material and a willingness to engage in the lesson through
their own interests.
To start off with, the lesson and the manner that it is has been constructed is
a demonstration of knowledge regarding content and pedagogy as indicated by the
research that I conducted for the lesson, as well as the way that it connects with

2
material that comes before and after it and the collusion of idea and interests
related to the manner it is taught that came about through interactions between
myself and my cooperating teacher. Life science is not my area of scientific
expertise, and while I might have good knowledge of the subject, prior to the
creation of this lesson, I cannot say that I was a perfect master at understanding the
material. As a result, I took the time to conduct research on the matter in order to
strengthen my understanding and memory of the material from earlier school days;
this assisted me in making it clear to my students that I was an expert on the
subject that they could launch inquiries towards if they required more information or
clarification in order to understand the provided lesson material. I also used my
cooperating teachers knowledge to check my understanding of the material that I
was to teach my class, and through this check, I was also able to take a closer look
at the lesson material and determine areas where the students might have had
trouble understanding a concept or could have been confused, a special mention
being made to the fact that cells undergoing the process of Meiosis undergo nuclear
and cellular division twice in order to complete the reproductive process, which
further enabled me to act as a reference that students could check their thoughts
against and in turn helped to build rapport between myself and them as they
viewed me as someone that could explain the material flexibly and in a manner that
they could comprehend. This confusion is directly addressed within the assessment
that is designed for the lesson, ensuring that students will be able to identify the
differences between the processes of Mitosis and Meiosis and thus be able to
differentiate the two in their minds when needed. Moreover, because I have actually
been teaching a class for some time including this very lesson, I have been able to
steer the direction of course learning in a direction that is aligned with the

3
curriculum of the school that I am conducting my student teaching at and the class
is moving at an appreciable pace and along a specific pathway that I planned out as
soon as I started to construct lesson plans for my class. As such, I have known since
before I started teaching my class where I wanted to start and where I wanted to go
in the future within my lessons, which has helped me direct student learning
towards a specific point along my designed path that will maximize their ability to
comprehend the material presented to them through the context of what they
learned previously and then build upon it for the next lesson; this is clearly indicated
through the list of prerequisites for the lesson and at the very end of the
instructional procedures section of my lesson plan where I close the lesson with a
summary of what was taught in the lesson and a transition into the topic of interest
for the next class, an ending procedure that I utilize within all of my lessons. In
addition, I plan on calling back to the process of Mitosis as I go over each of the
different phases of Meiosis during my lesson, as I want to ensure that my students
are able to grasp the events that occur between the two processes and compare
them to see their similarities and differences. As far as content-related pedagogy
goes, I admit that I have not had much experience working with the specific
pedagogies of teachers in my profession, but I will note that I have started to
implement the use of Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) in planning each of my
lessons, including this one, with my cooperating teacher serving as the start of my
learning community (Addis et al. 2013). For this lesson, we discussed with one
another how we wanted to approach the topic of Meiosis and how to best assess
students on their ability to keep it separate in their mind from Mitosis, as we wanted
to make sure that the students could not only understand how the process of
Meiosis worked but also why it is different from Mitosis and the implications that

4
could have for understanding genetics in the future, since it is rooted directly in the
process of sexual reproduction for eukaryotes. It was my suggestion to make a
project out of it, and my cooperating teacher lent his insight as to the manner in
which to best design the assessment project so as to make it as student-centered as
possible. Despite the fact that our FLC only has two members in it as of right now,
we are treating this lesson and all of my other lessons in the same manner to
ensure the greatest amount of student-centered interaction in both projects and
lecture, and I feel that this is reflective of both our group efforts and my developing
pedagogical strategies for educating my students.
The lesson is reflective of my knowledge of my students from the perspective
of not only the different intelligences that are present among them but also their
specific needs and developing knowledge. Since I have already taught my students
about Mitosis by this point in my class, I know the prerequisite information that they
should possess, and I already have created and given them formative assessments
to help build their understanding of the prerequisite material and eliminate any
confusion regarding that particular information. The feedback I have received from
those assessments have provided me with a gauge as to how well the students
understand the information they have been introduced to in class; this is vital
because if they dont fully understand Mitosis, then it would be unfair for me to
think that they would be capable of automatically understanding how Meiosis works
after just one examination of it, let alone the differences that separate the two
reproductive processes, in turn accomplishing nothing in terms of helping them to
understand the material in the greater context of the Cell Cycle. By now, I have had
plenty of time to study and familiarize myself with my students as a teacher and not
just a stranger, and I have thus come to understand their interests and performance

5
abilities at an individual level. I even asked my students to write down and inform
me of what types of science interest them the most after the completion of their
first assessment under my tutorage, and I have used that information to stylize my
lessons in order to accommodate for those interests. This lesson may still focus
primarily on life science, but this is fine from my perspective as that was a relatively
common answer from my students, and I have exploited other interests in previous
lessons and will continue to do so in the future to help entice student engagement.
The lesson itself has been tailored to fit several of the multiple intelligences
possessed by students as highlighted by Gardners theory of multiple intelligences
(2011): The lecture portion is designed to appeal to linguistic and visual-spatial
intelligences, while the assessment project that I have planned for the students in
this lesson serves to engage students with a high degree of bodily-kinesthetic (in
the creation of the model for the project) and logical-mathematical (through the
need to critically examine Mitosis and Meiosis and understand the major differences
between them) intelligences. I have also been experimenting with different ways of
appealing to the learning styles of students based both on individual strengths and
weaknesses and their current state of intellectual development, and the manner in
which I am presenting this lesson as described is the product of trial and error with
different teaching styles, in particular noting the student need to stay actively
engaged in learning by utilizing colorful and detailed images to appeal to their
visual senses and enhance their understanding of the subject material as well as
open-ended questioning techniques directed towards individual students and not
just the class at large that act to get them involved in the lesson while at the same
time placing the power of teaching in their hands, putting them to the task of
analyzing and launching initial inquiries towards aspects of the lesson and the

6
information provided in it to further the depth of their understanding. I am also
aware that some students in my class have a hard time seeing the board and that a
student in one of the classes that I have observed does not use English as his first
language, factors that I made a point to accommodate for as noted in my lesson
plans accommodations and modifications section. Furthermore, I have been
keeping track of individual student performance on all of the assessments that I
have been giving them, and I have already begun to implement measures to ensure
that my students are performing their very best in class. I can particularly recall
having to give a short talk to my students over grading because several of them
were turning in incomplete assignments or not turning them in at all; I gave them a
pass the first time, but I made it clear that work was to be turned in on time from
now on, and that unwarranted absences of work would be marked with a 0 for the
grade. Finally, on this note, I have taken a look at the special needs of certain
students, and while the class that I am teaching does not possesses any students
that need some significant form of special assistance, I have been interacting in the
classes where there are such students, and I have been making accommodations
for those individuals in this and all of my lesson plans as needed.
The instructional objective that I have set for this lesson is designed in
accordance with the material that is to be covered by my schools curriculum for the
class as a progression from the process Mitosis to understanding Meiosis in
preparation for a deeper examination of sexual reproduction and heredity, as well
as in accordance with both NGSS and Common Core standards. The instructional
objective of the lesson is clearly stated and is internally segmented into the minor
objectives of understanding the names, ordering and events that occur during the
different phases of Meiosis; establishing an understanding of the differences that lie

7
between it and the process of Mitosis; and being able to illustrate this through the
creation of a model as an assessment, a level of performance at the highest end of
Blooms Taxonomy (Forehand, 2010). In this way, it is possible to ensure that the
students come to understand exactly what they need to in order to cement past
learning on Mitosis and show that they are able to use said past learning to
influence and reinforce current learning. The instructional outcome has been prealigned with previous lesson material in terms of both subject and the structure of
the lessons assessment as well as its use as a transition point at its conclusion to
discussing taxonomic classification as further preparation for discussing the topic of
heredity, a subject of future lessons, so students are able to discreetly meet the
objective while cementing the importance of the information in their minds relative
to future understanding of topics of interest. It is further noted that the lesson
objective is differentiated through the assessment project of the lesson and can be
met by students through a variety of methods as a result of the freedom they are
provided in the construction of their model. While the model does have required
information that must be present in order to assess student success at reaching the
instructional objective of the lesson, freedom is nonetheless given as to how
students construct the model on paper and how they choose to visually represent
the different phases of Mitosis and Meiosis; this further requires them to utilize
higher-order thinking skills to compare the processes of Mitosis and Meiosis and
present their comparative analysis in a way that meets student learning needs and
accomplishes the task while still providing them the opportunity to express their
understanding in a fashion that meets their interests and mental perspective, thus
giving them more control and power over the way they learn and display their
understanding of the material.

8
The lesson draws from a number of resources aside from the classroom
textbook that is provided to the teacher for use in class; while my cooperating
teacher uses it on rare occasions, in taking a close look at what the textbook offers,
the two of us have both come to the conclusion that it is wholly inadequate for what
students are expected to understand according to curriculum standards, so both of
us create our lessons using a variety of other resources that are accessible to both
us and the students we are in charge of in order to direct their learning towards the
specific set of goals laid out in the aforementioned curriculum standards, our
instructional objectives for each lesson and the experiences we desire them to have
within class as a whole. This lesson is no different, as it draws from both the
background knowledge and research conducted by myself and internet video
resources in order to articulate to students the information that they need to
understand; the use of the Meiosis video in particular is aligned with an aspect of
the lessons instructional outcome in regards to students understanding the
different phases of Meiosis and what occurs in each phase. The lesson material has
been chosen to be appropriate to the grade level of the students so they are able to
handle the basic aspects of it and focus their attention on thinking deeper in their
understanding of the presented material than what the lesson explicitly examines,
and I will act as an additional source of knowledge to clarify or add to the
information presented in the video used in the lesson to supplement what it does
provide and thus assist in student understanding of the topic. The physical
resources available to students are catalogued to make sure that everything that is
available to them is accounted for so they can be replaced if on short supply, and
they have access to both physical and digital resources during and out of class so
they do not have to worry about rushing to get their work done within the scope of

9
the class time allotted, so long as they make it clear that they will be present
outside their normal class to work on their assessment project and I am present to
make sure that is exactly what they are using the classroom for as a safety
precaution against potential harm on their part or the destruction of school property.
Aside from the resources that are available through myself, my cooperating teacher
and the school, I will allow students to utilize their own resources at home to
complete the assessment project for this lesson if they wish, and I do have contacts
at my undergraduate university in the biology department that can assist me and
provide suggestions for resources to use in future lessons, even though I did not
require their assistance for the construction of this particular lesson. I admittedly
have not had the opportunity to take part in apprenticeships as of yet to increase
my discipline knowledge related to potential resources, but I actively use a variety
of resources in order to accomplish the intended instructional objectives of each of
my lessons, including resources derived from video sources and scholarly sources
via the internet. All of the resources that I allow use of in this lesson are designed to
assist students in reaching its instructional goal and are designed to be used freely
within the assessment project of the lesson; in conjunction, I have been looking at
different resources for students to access and use as part of their work, providing
them with a great variety of materials to use in tackling their assessment project
and in turn allowing them to again take control of their learning and display their
understanding in a fashion that reflects the freedom of materials available to them.
The lesson is further designed for the purpose of coherent instruction that is
aligned with both school and larger-scale standards, such as those in the NGSS, in
order to align the lesson with these standards and meet the associated expectations
held for student understanding of the material. This lesson in particular is aligned to

10
fit with NGSS standard MS-LS3-2, which requires that students create and utilize a
model in order to describe the products of asexual and sexual reproduction and
understand how and why their end-products are different; the lessons purpose is to
introduce students to the process of Meiosis and challenge them to do just as the
standards dictate, create a model that demonstrates the differences in their end
products, the phases in general and the reasoning behind these differences. It
further is aligned with Common Core standard CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.7 , which
requires students to integrate information expressed in the words in text with a
version of that material expressed in a visual format, and the combination of written
and visual explanations that students must include with their model to demonstrate
the differences that exist between phases fulfills that standard. The lesson
progresses from an introduction to the topic of the lesson to a grade-level
appropriate video presentation designed to provide visual and text-based
information for student notes as I provide commentary to enhance the lesson,
before moving onto the assessment project that will evaluate both their past and
newly-acquired understanding of cellular reproduction. Students are grouped as
individuals in this lesson in both lecture and assessment in order to ensure
individual comprehension and understanding of the presented material, but
students are allowed to work together as a collective in asking questions regarding
the material; in fact, the plan for the lesson is to provide them bits of the
information they need to understand and then ask random individuals to reaffirm
what was communicated to them to put them in the position of driving the
conversation through a verbal demonstration of understanding as well as
communication between peers if unsure of what was attempted to be conveyed,
additionally providing them the chance to ask questions regarding more in-depth

11
curiosity or interests they may have towards the subject beyond what was explicitly
presented to them, placing the power of discussion in their hands. As it stands right
now, this lesson does present students with a task that is challenging for their grade
level as they are just being introduced to the topic of Meiosis and thus can best reap
the benefits of understanding the process relative to Mitosis through the given
assessment project, and the resources that they have access to for this project are
varied enough that students can engage in the learning process with their own
interests of style and design in mind, providing them with a critical choice in
deciding how they wish to demonstrate their understanding of the lesson material in
model form. The accommodations and modifications noted in the lesson plan also
serve to make it possible for students of different needs to take part equally in the
lesson and its assessment. While the material contained in the lesson might not be
at a level at which it alone can have a multidisciplinary use, the practice in model
construction that the assessment activity brings does, and it will serve students in
training them in developing models to compare and analyze multiple processes
and/or factors, experience that will serve them well in future science classes and
other subjects as a whole.
Lastly, the designing of the student assessment used in this lesson
reflects a careful alignment with the instructional goals of the lesson, in particular
the construction of a model that demonstrates the differences between the phases
of Mitosis and Meiosis, and serves to give students the chance to fully demonstrate
their understanding of the material presented. While I cannot say that students
contributed to the assessment made for this lesson directly, an indirect relationship
can be established since the project was made to appeal to the multiple
intelligences of students displayed in past assessments. The criteria for

12
performance is made evident to students within the actual directions to the
assessment project and a rubric is provided to them that clearly details how they
will be graded on the assessment and how each of the different components are
weighted, so they understand what components are the most important and in turn
are worth the most time investigating and analyzing when constructing their model,
even if this does prevent them from practicing the art of creating their own rubrics
based on the lesson objectives to gauge their own progress against. The
assessment itself is authentic and based in real-word applications, as the creation of
models to compare and analyze different processes and/or factors is a prominent
exercise in higher-order thinking and thus something incredibly important for
students to practice and build upon, not just for science but as a skill that can be
applied to a variety of other disciplines. This lesson only contains a single formal
assessment, but my students have taken part in a number of different assessments
prior to this lesson that have helped them to prepare for this assessment project
and they have always been given back their work after it is graded so they have a
reference to rely on when completing future assessments, including the project
included in this lesson. Graded assessments are not the only form of assessment,
though, as the students have also taken part in several informal assessment
activities as well, aimed at helping them to build their critical-thinking skills and
understanding of lesson topics before being tasked with a formal assessment that
requires them to display the full breadth and depth of their acquired skills and
understanding. Moreover, the assessment itself will act as an educational check for
student understanding and is thus formative in nature, as students are unlikely to
be able to clearly and fully grasp heredity and the inheritance of traits without
possessing adequate understanding of this lessons focus. Their overall performance

13
on these assessments has also helped me to tailor the design of future assessments
in order to take advantage of their individual skills and abilities, in particular
targeting their areas of weakness (critical thinking in the context of visualizing
models being a weakness among many of the students that I regularly interact with)
and designing assessments and associated lessons that will help to build the weaker
aspects of their educational self-structure and make them more capable students in
how they analyze provided information and derive further knowledge from it
through comparison, logical analysis and critical-thinking.
While this lesson is only one of many that I have put together by now for my
student teaching experience, I feel that it is a worthy representation of the effort
and understanding of the first domain of the Danielson Framework I put into my
lesson plans and use to ensure that my students understand the material presented
to them at a pace and level that is challenging to them while still giving them a
sense of power and control in the discussion of the lesson (The Danielson Group,
2013). The nature of the lesson in its planning and construction is the result of
continuous interaction with my students over time, and I have done my best to
tailor it to take advantage of their learning strengths and interests while still
assessing their ability to overcome their weaker learning skills and put them to the
test. I may not yet be perfect in my execution of lessons under these intended
goals, but I will continue to develop my pedagogy as time goes by in my student
teaching experience and into my future teaching profession; this lesson is but one
of many steps for me, and I hope that the outcome of the lesson, no matter what it
may be, will be something that I can use to further develop my performance within
the Domain of Planning and Preparation to a level worthy of a Distinguished rating
across the board.

14

References
Addis, E. A., Quardokus, K. M., Bassham, D. C., Becraft, P. W., Boury, N., Coffman, C.
R., Colbert, J. T., & Powell-Coffman, J. A. (2013). Implementing pedagogical change
in introductory biology courses through

the use of faculty learning

communities. Journal of College Science Teaching, 43(2), 22-

29.

Forehand, M. (2010). Blooms taxonomy. Emerging perspectives on learning,

teaching, and technology,41-47.
Gardner, H. (2011). Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. United
States of America: Basic Books.
The Danielson Group. (2013). 2013 Framework for Teaching Evaluation Instrument
[PDF file]. Retrieved

from http://www.danielsongroup.org/framework/.