INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING, SELECTION OF ACTIVITIES

AND UTILIZATION OF MATERIALS

I. Effective Instructional Planning

A. Instructional Planning Defined

One hallmark of schooling as an organized activity is the process called

planning. Planning is preparing for tomorrow today, it is getting underway.

1. Implicit within the concept of decision-making is the notion of

responsibility.

2. Planning is basically decision – making.

3. Planning is a personal process and no two teachers will construct

the same plans.

4. In essence, planning is deciding what and how you want your

students to learn.

5. Instructional planning implies the establishment of priorities.

6. Through planning the following basic priorities are established:

Priorities about goals
Priorities about time
Priorities about learning materials
Priorities about learning activities
Priorities about teaching strategies

7. The major decisions a teacher makes in planning for successful

instruction are:
Decisions on objectives
Decisions about sequence of instruction
Decisions on levels of instruction
Decisions on appropriate strategies
Decisions on appropriate materials
Decisions on appropriate assessment instrument

8. Instructional planning is the process of sorting, selecting and

balancing and synthesizing information from many sources in order
to design instructional experiences that will assist learners in
attaining the goals and objectives that will meet their needs.

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 9. Even the most systematic and organized planning cannot assure a
hundred percent problem free teaching. There are “incidentals” and
accidentals that sometimes decisions are made intuitively because
of the rapid pace of classroom demands. Instant decision making
has to be made largely based on experience and quick thinking.

B. Principles of Instructional Planning

Principles # 1: Need Oriented

Effective planning is based on needs assessment of learners and
uses information about the needs and progress of individual learners as
basis for making instructional decision.

Principle # 2: Relevance
Effective planning develops teaching – learning experiences that
that is related to learners needs.

Principle # 3: Congruence
Effective planning is achieved when there is agreement and
harmony among objectives.

Principle # 4: Motivation
Effective planning arises from learner’s interests, problems and
expressed purposes.

Principle # 5: Unity
Effective planning is achieved when objectives, methods,
evaluation are mutually supportive of each other.

Principle # 6: Integration
Effective planning involves a reorganization of previous experience
and incorporation of what has been completed into the new learning
experience.

Principle # 7: Experience – based

Effective planning utilizes activities that bring the learner in a real or
simulated context where what is to be learned is embedded in a larger
setting one which is encountered in real life or which simulates real life.

Principle # 8: Individualization
Effective planning organizes instruction that takes into account
differences among learner in capabilities, learning styles and rate learning.

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 Principle # 9: Success
Effective planning is based on high but realistic expectations from
every learner yielding moderate to high success.

Principle # 10: Clarity

Effective planning communicates goals/objectives with high degree
of interpretability.

Principle # 11: Variety

Effective planning provides for meaningful variation in teaching
methodology, techniques and materials.

Principle # 12: Coordination

Effective planning is well synchronized with plans of other teachers.

Principle # 13: Cooperative Planning

Effective planning involves the learners and other teachers in
decision making, in examining content, in evaluating methods and
evaluation instruments selected.

Principle # 14: Flexibility

Effective planning allows for modification, revision, adaptation of
pre - selected methodologies, activities, materials and evaluation
instrument to meet student needs or to respond to student receptions of
the plan.

Principle #15: Balance

Effective planning should provide for the development of all
essential knowledge and understanding, intellectual, manipulative skills,
and attitudes and values.

Principle # 16: Economy

Effective planning is conducted with the minimum expenditure of
time and energy.

C. Planning Process on Teacher Planning

1. Teacher must plan for several reasons:

a. Personalize the curriculum making it their own.

b. Provides emotional or psychological securing which bolsters
teacher’s confidence and reduces the normal anxiety
associated with teaching.
c. Allows teachers to anticipate instructional needs in advance.
d. Provides a “script” that directs classroom interaction with
students.

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 e. Simplifies complex activity of teaching.

2. Variables affecting the planning process

a. The Teachers
1.) Significant variables
a.) belief about the role of schools and what children
should learn
b.) own capacity to help students
c.) general philosophical approach to living
d.) content background

2.) Research findings

a) Teachers who feel a sense of mission in
grading student learning and believe all
students are capable of learning are more
active in their role have higher expectations
and work harder to help students achieve.
(Dembo & Gibson, 1985)

b) Teachers with philosophical commitments to

excellence take more personal responsibility
for student features and increase their efforts
to help underachieving student (Ames. 1985).

c) Effective teachers believe that all students can

learn and that teachers play an important role
in the process (Good, 1983).

d) Teachers’ content background influences

lesson organization and clarify as well as the
type of questions asked (Carisen, 1987).

b. Students

Variables affecting planning process:

1.) Age is closely related to attention spans which determine the
length of any individual activity.
Teaching adage: Don’t play any single learning activity longer
than the age of your students.

2.) Student background determine prerequisite knowledge.

C. Content

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 Variables affecting planning:
1.) Type of content, facts, concepts, skills
2.) Difficulty level

D. Learning Context

1.) Includes national, regional, division and school policy

2.) Leadership Deans/Principals requirement

E. Materials and Resources

1.) Text materials decide the topics to be taught, sequencing, depth

and even the tests given to student.

F. Time

1.) Amount of time consumed

2.) Frame of reference for structuring their plants

3. Models of Planning

a. Long - term planning involving preparation for a year or semester. As

a framework for later planning efforts, it serves the following purposes
(Clark & Elmore, 1981):

1.) Adapts the curriculum to fit the teacher’s knowledge and

priorities.
2.) Helps the teacher to learn the structure and content of the new
curricula.
3.) Develops a practical schedule for instruction/
4.) Establishes procedures
The products of long – term planning are potential content,
some possible objectives and long – range gathering of
resources.

b. Unit planning involves breakdown of the framework into specific units.

A unit is a series of interconnected lessons focusing on a general topic.
It is used to
1.) Bridge the gap between long term and day – to – day lesson
planning
2.) Functional for students because the components – objectives
content and activities are based together in a logical, coherent
manner providing structure for new material.

c. Lesson planning generates specific plan of action for a specific class

period. Forms varies but deals with what, why, and how to teach.

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4. Planning process

a. Unit planning

1) A unit instruction may be thought of as a “system” and individual lessons

within the unit its component parts.

2) Instructional planning involves two concepts: hierarchy and constraint. The

concept of hierarchy tells us the relationship of parts to whole (lessons to
units) end the concept of constraint tells us what must come before what in
a sequence of events (lesson sequence). Systems’ thinking draws our
attention to the relationship among parts of varying sizes to see what
lessons make up what units, what units make up what content domains, and
what content domains make up what grades and subjects.

3) Establishing instructional goals, identifying the type of learner to which your

instruction will be directed, and selecting and organizing content are three
primary activities within the planning process.

4) Any goal at the unit level can be broken into its component parts at the
lesson level – those parts representing everything that is important for
attaining the goal.

5) The two purposes of unit planning are:

a.) to convert generally stated objectives and outcomes into specific

objectives and lessons; and
b.) to provide a picture of long – term goals

6) In the graphic approach to lesson planning boxes illustrate areas of content

or instructional goals, at various levels of generality. Lines and arrows
indicate sequence among lessons and how outcomes of lessons build upon
one another to achieve a unit goal.

7) A graphic representation of a unit plan may specify that every lesson must
be taught in a specific sequence or that lessons may be taught in any order.
In some (but probably not many) unit plans, the ordering of lessons may be
unimportant.

8) The bottom of a unit plan hierarchy represents content suitably sized for the
preparation of individual lessons.

9) The three activities of unit planning are:

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  Classifying unit outcomes at a higher level of behavioral complexity than
lesson outcomes by using one or more taxonomies of behavior.

 Planning the units in a sequence in which the outcomes of previously

taught lessons are instrumental in achieving the outcomes of subsequent
lessons, and

 Rearranging or adding lesson content where necessary to provide task

relevant prior knowledge where needed.

10.) A starting point for the planning process is knowledge of the basic unit
components.

Component Function

Overview / general Summarizes the general purpose of the unit

Goal
Rationale Answer the question. Why is this topic or skill
important?

Objectives Describe the major outcomes from this unit

Content What are the important ideas and how are they
organized?

Instructional activities What will students do to learn?

Evaluation Describe how student learning will be measured.

a) Overview / Goal

The overview or goal describes the general purpose of the unit.

b) Rationale

Asking “Why”

c) Objectives

Activities serve as a useful setting point for the planning process

when skills are involved, as in the present unit.

d) Content

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 One way to organize the major ideas is to find connections between
concepts. Is there a logical order to the presentation? Do the ideas
fit together? Are the interrelationships among the ideas made clear
to student? If so, students have something meaningful and
coherent to learn, if not the logic as well as the structure of the unit
comes across as garbled, disconnected ideas.

Schematic diagrams, hierarchies, and outlines are all powerful

means of communicating lesson organization. The exact type of
organizational scheme will depend on the type of content being
taught, outlines are especially useful when teaching large bodies of
interrelated knowledge. Outlines help communicate the major ideas
of a lesson as well as the relationships among the ideas. The
outline serves a dual purpose. It helps the teacher clarify his or her
own thinking, and it communicates students the relationship of
ideas within the lesson.

A second way of organizing the content of a unit is through

conceptual hierarchies.

a) Instructional activities

This component may be the most important part of

the whole unit because it brings students into contact with the
important ideas and skills contained in the unit.

b) Evaluation

b. Lesson Planning

Elements of a Basic Lesson Plan:

Unit
Instructional goal
Performance objective
Rationale
Content
Instructional procedures
Evaluation procedures
Materials and aids

A shorter variation of the basic Lesson – Plan model is the

Abbreviated Lesson – Plan Model. A third planning model has been
suggested by Madeline Hunter. Hunter planning model differs from
previous ones in several important ways. First, it is much more
detailed and prescriptive in terms of instructional procedures,

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 beginning with an anticipatory set which draws students into the
lesson and ending with independent practice that is designed to
reinforce new content.

An Abbreviated Lesson – Plan Model

Component Function

Instructional Objectives What do you want students to learn?

Contents What are the major ideas?

Procedure (s) What will happen in the lesson?

Instructional materials and resources What materials will be needed to teach the
lesson?

Evaluation Did the students learn the materials, and what

could I have done differently?

Madeline Hunter’s Elements of Lesson Design

Component Function

Anticipatory set How will students’ attention be focused?

Objective purpose What will student learn and why?

Input What new information will be discussed?

Modeling How can the teacher illustrate new skill or

content?

Checking for understanding How can the teacher as certain whether

students are learning the new materials?

Guided practice What opportunities are students given to

practice the new material in class?

Independent practice How can assignments and homework be used

for long-term retention?

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 Related to this prescriptiveness, the sequence of activities is pre-
established, with initial teacher input, followed by modeling and student practice. Finally
the evaluation procedures are an integral part of the instructional sequence; teachers
evaluate learning during the last three phrases of the lesson by observing student
responses to practice exercises.

1) Before the preparation of a lesson plan can begin, it must be determined at

what level of behavioral complexity the lesson will begin (e.g. Knowledge,
application, evaluation) to what extent opportunities for individualized
learning will accompany the lesson plan (e.g. ability grouping, peer tutoring,
learning centers, specialized handouts), and what level of proficiency will be
expected of students at the end of the lesson (e.g. whether mastery of
learning will be required).
2) Learning refers to the internal events going on in the heads of the learners
which result from the external events provided by the teacher. Hence, the
words teaching and learning refer to two different but related sets of
activities.
3) The external events that can be specified in a lesson plan are:
 Gaining attention
 Informing the learner of the objectives
 Stimulating recall of prerequisite learning
 Presenting the stimulus material
 Eliciting the desired behavior
 Providing feedback
 Assessing the behavior
4) Gaining attention involves gaining your student’s interest in what you will
present and getting them to switch to the appropriate modality for the
coming lesson.
5) Informing learners of the objective involves also informing them of the
complexity of the behavior expected at the end of the lesson.
6) Stimulating recall of prerequisite learning involves reviewing task relevant
prior information required by the lesson.
7) Presenting the stimulus material involves delivering the desired content in a
manner conducive to the modality in which it is to be received, using
procedures that stimulate thought processing and maintain interest.
8) Eliciting the desired behavior involves getting learners attempt to produce
the intended behavior by organizing a response corresponding with the level
of complexity of the stated objectives.
9) Providing feedback involves allowing the learner to know the accuracy of his
or her elicited response in a non-threating, non-evaluative atmosphere.
10) Assessing the behavior involves evaluating the learner’s performance with
test, homework and extended activities (Borich, 1995).

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II. Selection of Learning Activities

Guiding Principles for the Selection of Learning Activities

1) Learning activities should suit the learner’s level in terms of skills, abilities,
habits, knowledge, ideas and attitudes.
2) Learning activities should suit the type of teaching methods used.
3) Learning activities should suit the time and context of the teaching situation.
4) Learning activities should suit the subject matter at hand
5) Learning activities should suit the number of learner’s being taught
6) Learning activities should suit the interest and experience of the students
7) Learning activities should suit the subject matter
8) Learning activities should suit the teacher’s relationship with the students
9) Selection and utilization of learning materials must utilize the principles and
laws of learning
 Laws of readiness
 Law of exercise
 Principle of learning activity
 Principle of multiple sense appeal
10) Learning activities must aid the learner in defining his/her own purposes.
11) Learning activities should stimulate thinking and reasoning powers of the
pupils.

In deciding which activity as appropriate to a particular lesson, the teacher

must consider the following aspects of the teaching situation:

1) Context of teaching situation (time and place)

2) Number, ability, interest and previous experience of the learners
3) Nature of the subject matter
4) The teacher’s own abilities and inclination
5) What the teacher wishes to emphasize in his teaching skills, knowledge of values
6) The time requirements of the activities
7) The demands the activity will make
8) The materials required in the activity
9) The result the activities bring

III. Guiding Principles in the Selection of Instructional Materials

1) Instructional materials should be selected in terms of its effectiveness to

contribute most to the growth and development of the learners.
2) Instructional materials should be selected on the basis of an adequacy of its
contents in terms of educative experiences in all areas of the curriculum, not just
limited phase of it.
3) Instructional materials should be selected in terms of its appropriateness in
scope and sequence.

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4) Instructional materials should be selected in terms of its breadth that
encompasses all round development of varying group of learners.
5) Instructional materials should be selected in terms of usefulness to particular
teacher as she works for a particular group of learners.
6) Instructional materials must be suggestive of the needs and demands of the
society.
7) Instructional materials should contain purposive activities.
8) The material selection program must:
a) Be consistent with official policies of the school or school system.
b) Use defensible, valid and readily understood selection criteria
c) Be conducted in such a way as to lead smoothly and efficiently towards
final selection and purchase of items holding greatest promise of helping
the school to reach its instructional goals.

General Criteria for Selection of Instructional Materials

1) Appropriateness
a) Instructional materials must promote the general and specific goals.
b) Instructional materials must be appropriate to the level intended in terms
of :
1) Vocabulary levels
2) Difficulty of concepts
3) Methods of development
4) Interest appeal

c) Instructional materials must be defensible in terms of:

1) general purpose
2) content
3) objective treatment
4) overall effect
d) Instructional materials must either basic or supplementary to the
curriculum
2) Authenticity
a) Instructional materials must present accurate up-to-date dependable
information
b) Authors are well qualified.
3) Interest
a) Instructional materials must catch the materials of the users
b) Instructional materials must stimulate curiosity or satisfy the needs to
know
c) Instructional materials must have the power to motivate
d) Instructional materials must encourage creativity and imaginative
response among users.
4) Organization and balance
a) Instructional materials must be well organized and well balanced in
content

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 b) Purpose must be clearly stated or easily perceived
c) Content must be presented logically, clearly and in accord with the
principles of learning (e.g. reinforcement, transfer, application)
d) Information given is pertinent
e) Titles, labels, captions appropriate.
5) Cost
a) Cost of the material justified considering relative costs of available
satisfactory substitutes.

IV. Guiding Principles on the Utilization of Instructional Materials

1. Variety of instructional materials used in proper, balance produces best learning

results
2. What instructional materials and what proportions depends on the particular
situation
3. There is no one best instructional materials for all kinds of learning in all kinds of
situations.
4. No one type of instructional materials should be used to the exclusion of others.
5. Certain instructional materials seem more appropriate than others for certain
units of understanding, or in connection with certain objectives.
6. Student’s participation is a necessity for positive learning whether the lessons are
verbalized or visualized.
7. Teaching materials are worthless unless they are studied and utilized.
8. Pupils must be held responsible for what goes on the lesson. How best to do this
cannot be laid down categorically. Follow-up in the form of library or committee
research, creative projects, summarizations, experimentations, group actions and
so on after using any instructional materials is necessary.
9. Too much instructional material used at any one time be fog rather than clarify
learning.
10. Preparation for the proper use of learning material must always be made.
11. On the whole, examples, demonstrations and other perceptual instructional tools
should be positive rather than negative. There is always danger that the negative
be mistaken for the positive.
12. The teacher should provide opportunities for language training, oral and written,
to accompany perceptual experiencing.
13. Instructional materials and tools should never be used haphazardly nor work
periods be allowed to become mere entertainment unless the objective is just
that and nothing more.
14. Materials of instruction must be coordinated and integrated with the teaching
procedures, laws of learning and the objectives of education.
15. Educational experiences contained in the instructional materials should be
utilized with consideration of the interests, capacities, needs and concerns of
varying groups of learner.
16. Instructional materials in different subject areas must harmonize with one
another. Similarly, it must contain educative experiences that cut across various
subject areas of grade level.

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17. Instructional materials should not be isolated for single use. It should be
advantageous in any form of subject matter.
18. Teaching materials are only guides that stimulate and help teachers to develop
different types of educational experiences for pupils.
19. Teaching materials are suggested tools for determining the type of educational
experiences that are appropriate for the maturity level of learners.
20. Teaching materials should be used to broaden the insights of teachers, stimulate
and direct them to improve the suggested experiences contained in existing
guides.
21. Teaching materials should be utilized with the great deal of freedom and
flexibility as such teachers may plan teaching-learning experience on such a
basis.
22. Teaching materials are worthless unless they are studied and utilized.
23. Teaching materials should be used as a tool; not a device which freezes the
curriculum in a mold.

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