Instructional Planning for Student Growth
Formal and informal assessments of what students are learning should guide teachers to adjust what they teach to ensure all kids succeed. In this domain, teachers share their experiences.
Recommendations
Based on our extensive experience, TNTP recommends the following as evidence-based practices for this domain:
- Adopt a rigorous academic curriculum, in which students do the thinking during lessons and all students have access to grade-appropriate assignments, that also provides guidance around scaffolding and differentiating for multilingual learners and students with learning and thinking differences.
- At the beginning of the year, engage teachers in a goal-setting process that begins with the end in mind: goals for student learning based on rigorous assessments, that drive year-long and daily planning.
- Create structures for content teachers to collaborate with other instructional specialists to set goals related to specific student needs (e.g., IEP goals, English language proficiency growth goals).
- Build time into the schedule and set clear goals and expectations for professional development and common planning/grade level collaboration.
- Schedule frequent planning meetings between instructional leaders and teachers to provide support with weekly and daily lesson planning based on the academically rigorous curriculum.
- Differentiate the content of planning meetings based on individual teachers’ needs.
- Observe implementation and provide feedback that is actionable and specific to the plan.
Resources
Browse Resources by Audience
Teachers
Resources for Teachers
Resources for Selecting Instructional Materials: Resources for reviewing and evaluating instructional materials to ensure rigorous grade-level content
Universal Design of Learning Guidelines: A resource on the importance of learner agency
ELA/ELC Framework, CA DOE: A sample framework developed to support and incorporate Common Core Standards with English Language Development standards
Student Work Library: Examples of assignments that are strongly, partially, and weakly aligned with college and career-ready standards
English Learners Success Forum: A library of evidence-based resources and tools that support
Comprehensive English Language Development Resources: A library of resources for supporting multi-lingual learners organized by topic
Instructional Strategies for Multilingual Learners in the Content Areas: A collection of strategies and resources to support multilingual learners with accessing content and developing language
Coherence by Design: Building Instructional Systems That Help Students Catch Up: TNTP’s research paper detailing the importance of instructional coherence and systems coherence
School Leadership
Resources for School Leadership
Resources for Selecting Instructional Materials: Resources for reviewing and evaluating instructional materials to ensure rigorous grade-level content
Coherence by Design: Building Instructional Systems That Help Students Catch Up: TNTP’s research paper detailing the importance of instructional coherence and systems coherence