Free FTCE Professional Education (083) Study Guide | FTCE 083 Prep

Competency 1: Instructional Design and Planning

This competency addresses how teachers plan instruction that is standards-aligned, data-informed, culturally responsive, and developmentally appropriate. Planning includes selecting assessments, choosing instructional practices and resources, sequencing lessons, and determining interventions based on evidence of student learning.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to...

Choose formative, summative, diagnostic, and benchmark assessments for monitoring student performance, needs, and learning.
Select instructional practices, materials, and technologies that foster critical, creative, and reflective thinking aligned with state-adopted standards at the appropriate level of rigor.
Determine learning experiences and activities that require students to demonstrate a variety of applicable skills and competencies.
Identify instructional resources based on measurable objectives, individual student learning needs, and performance levels.
Apply learning theories to instructional design and planning.
Determine long-term instructional goals and short-term objectives aligned with state-adopted standards and student learning needs.
Select culturally responsive instructional materials and practices that account for regional, socio-economic, and home language backgrounds.
Sequence lessons and concepts to activate prior knowledge and ensure coherence among lessons.
Identify patterns of physical, social, and academic development to differentiate instructional design for student mastery.
Determine and apply appropriate intervention strategies based on individual student needs and data.

Assessment Methods for Instructional Planning

Effective planning begins with evidence about what students know, understand, and can do. Different assessment types serve different planning purposes. The key distinction is how the information will be used, not the label attached to the instrument.

Types of Assessment

Diagnostic Assessment is administered before instruction to identify existing knowledge, skills, misconceptions, and learning needs. Examples include pretests, skills checklists, writing samples, and interest inventories. Diagnostic information helps a teacher determine starting points and form initial instructional groups.
Formative Assessment is ongoing during instruction. Its defining purpose is to inform teaching and learning while there is still time to adjust. Examples include exit tickets, whiteboard responses, questioning, observations, learning logs, and student conferences. Formative assessment may be recorded or unrecorded, and it may or may not carry a grade. The essential feature is that the teacher uses the evidence to decide whether to reteach, clarify, extend, or adjust the next instructional step.
Summative Assessment is administered after instruction to evaluate what students have learned. Examples include unit tests, final projects, portfolios, end-of-course exams, and state accountability assessments. Summative results typically contribute to a grade or final judgment of performance, but the defining feature is timing and purpose: to summarize achievement after instruction is complete.
Benchmark Assessment, also called interim assessment, is administered periodically during a longer instructional period. Examples include quarterly common assessments and mid-year progress measures. The purpose is to track progress toward standards, identify students who may need additional support, and evaluate whether the current instructional program is working.

Formal and Informal Assessment

Formal assessment uses a structured instrument with predetermined procedures for administration and scoring. Formal assessments may be commercially published or teacher-created and may include rubrics, answer keys, or scoring guides. State tests, unit exams with fixed item formats, and scored performance tasks are examples. Formal does not automatically mean standardized.

Informal assessment is more flexible and often embedded in instruction. It relies on teacher observation, questioning, and professional judgment. Anecdotal notes, student conferences, and observation checklists are examples. Informal assessment may be structured even when it is not standardized. A teacher can use a planned checklist during small-group work and still call the process informal because scoring depends on professional observation rather than a fixed scoring procedure.

Higher-Order Thinking and Rigor

State-adopted standards require students to do more than recall facts. Teachers must select instructional practices, materials, and technologies that promote critical, creative, and reflective thinking at the appropriate level of rigor.

Bloom's Taxonomy (Revised)

Bloom's taxonomy is a classification of cognitive processes. The revision organizes six categories from less to more complex forms of thinking:

Remember: Recall facts and basic concepts, such as defining a term or listing events.
Understand: Explain ideas or concepts, such as summarizing a passage or paraphrasing an idea.
Apply: Use information in new situations, such as solving a problem or demonstrating a procedure.
Analyze: Draw connections among ideas, such as comparing, categorizing, or examining relationships.
Evaluate: Justify a decision or position, such as judging, critiquing, or defending an argument.
Create: Produce new or original work, such as designing, composing, or constructing.

Analyze, Evaluate, and Create are commonly described as higher-order thinking. The verb alone does not determine cognitive demand. A task labeled "explain" can require recall if the explanation was memorized, or it can require analysis if students must generate and support an original explanation. The teacher must examine what students are actually being asked to do with content, not only which verb appears in the objective.

Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK)

DOK 1: Recall and Reproduction. Students retrieve a fact, identify a simple answer, or perform a routine procedure.
DOK 2: Skills and Concepts. Students make simple decisions, classify, organize, or interpret information beyond direct recall.
DOK 3: Strategic Thinking. Students reason, plan, justify, and support conclusions with evidence.
DOK 4: Extended Thinking. Students synthesize across sources, design investigations, or develop and support a complex original product over a sustained period.

DOK 4 requires synthesis of multiple ideas and extended reasoning, not simply a long elapsed time. A multi-day worksheet that repeats routine problems remains DOK 1 or 2. A multi-day task requiring students to investigate, evaluate sources, and construct a supported proposal reflects DOK 4.

Instructional Practices That Foster Higher-Order Thinking

Critical thinking: Use inquiry tasks that require analysis of evidence, detection of unsupported claims, and comparison of competing explanations. For example, students in a civics class could examine two proposed solutions to a local issue and judge which has stronger supporting evidence.
Creative thinking: Use open-ended design and production tasks in which students generate multiple possible solutions or original products. For example, students could design a public service campaign for a science topic.
Reflective thinking: Use structured opportunities for students to evaluate their own reasoning and learning. For example, students could complete a learning log entry explaining what strategy worked, what they would change, and why.

Materials and technologies should support these types of thinking rather than simply present content. An interactive simulation can foster analysis when students manipulate variables and explain results. A discussion protocol with sentence frames can support reflective talk. The selection depends on the standard and the intended cognitive demand.

Learning Theories and Instructional Planning

Learning theories describe how learning occurs and suggest different roles for the teacher, the learner, and the environment.

Behaviorism

Key theorists: B.F. Skinner, Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, Edward Thorndike.

Core idea: Learning is a change in observable behavior shaped by environmental stimuli and consequences.

Classical conditioning: A previously neutral stimulus becomes associated with a response through repeated pairing. For example, a student may associate the phrase "pop quiz" with anxiety because the phrase has been paired repeatedly with stressful conditions.
Operant conditioning: Behavior is shaped by consequences. Positive reinforcement adds a desirable consequence to increase a behavior. Negative reinforcement removes an unpleasant condition to increase a behavior. Punishment adds an unpleasant consequence or removes a desirable one to decrease a behavior.

Classroom applications: Token economies, behavior charts, praise systems, immediate feedback, direct instruction, and repeated practice. These strategies work best for building fluent, observable responses.

Cognitivism

Key theorists: Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner, David Ausubel, and information processing researchers.

Core idea: Learning is an internal mental process involving attention, encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Schema theory: Learners store knowledge in mental frameworks called schemas. New information is assimilated when it fits an existing schema or accommodated when the learner must revise the schema to make sense of the new information.
Advance organizers: A framework presented before new content helps learners connect new material to existing knowledge.
Information processing: Learners attend to limited information, hold it briefly in working memory, and encode it into long-term memory through practice and meaningful organization.

Classroom applications: Graphic organizers, chunking, mnemonic devices, connecting to prior knowledge, and scaffolding. These strategies support memory and organized understanding.

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget described four approximate periods of cognitive development as a historical model of how logical thinking tends to change with age and experience:

Sensorimotor (birth to about 2 years): Learning through senses and motor actions.
Preoperational (about 2 to 7 years): Symbolic thinking emerges, but reasoning remains egocentric and limited by surface appearances.
Concrete operational (about 7 to 11 years): Logical thinking emerges for concrete situations, including classification and conservation.
Formal operational (about 11 years and older): Abstract and hypothetical reasoning becomes possible.

These age ranges are approximate and do not determine an individual student's capacity. Many adolescents and adults do not consistently use formal operational reasoning in all areas, and instruction influences whether advanced reasoning appears. Teachers should use Piaget's framework as one source of information about development, not as a fixed limit on what a student can attempt with appropriate support.

Constructivism

Key theorists: Lev Vygotsky, John Dewey, Jerome Bruner.

Core idea: Learners actively construct understanding through experience and social interaction.

Zone of Proximal Development: The range between what a learner can do independently and what the learner can do with guidance. Instruction is most productive when it targets this zone.
Scaffolding: Temporary support that is gradually removed as the learner demonstrates competence. Examples include modeling, sentence starters, and guided practice.
Social constructivism: Learning occurs through dialogue, collaboration, and negotiation of meaning with peers and more knowledgeable others.

Classroom applications: Inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, project-based learning, structured discussions, and hands-on exploration.

Humanism

Key theorists: Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers.

Core ideas: Learning is supported when the learner feels safe, valued, and involved. Maslow's hierarchy is a heuristic for considering student needs, including physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization needs. It does not prove that learning cannot occur until every need is fully satisfied. A student experiencing unmet needs may still learn, but unmet needs can reduce attention, engagement, and persistence.

Rogers emphasized a student-centered climate in which the teacher acts as a facilitator. The emotional climate of the classroom supports academic work rather than replaces it.

Classroom applications: Building predictable routines, teaching conflict resolution, recognizing student progress, and providing structured choices.

Backward Design and Measurable Objectives

Backward Design

Backward design, associated with Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, organizes planning into three stages:

Stage 1: Identify desired results. Determine what students should know, understand, and be able to do. Begin with the standards and establish long-term goals.
Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidence. Design assessments that will show whether students have reached the desired results.
Stage 3: Plan learning experiences. Choose activities, materials, and instructional strategies that will develop the knowledge and skills assessed in Stage 2.

The central idea is alignment: assessment evidence is planned before instruction, and instruction is designed to match the assessment and the standard.

Long-Term Goals and Short-Term Objectives

Long-term goals describe broader outcomes expected over a unit, semester, or year. They are aligned with state-adopted standards and identify what students should know and be able to do after substantial instruction. Short-term objectives break the long-term goal into measurable steps that can be taught and assessed within one or a few lessons.

For example, a long-term goal might state that students will write a multiparagraph argument supported by evidence from multiple sources. Short-term objectives leading to that goal might include identifying a claim and supporting reasons in a model text, selecting relevant evidence for a student-generated claim, and developing a paragraph that explains how evidence supports a reason.

Each objective should identify student performance in measurable terms. The ABCD format is one common structure:

Audience: Who will perform the behavior.
Behavior: The observable action, such as identify, compare, construct, or explain.
Condition: The circumstances, materials, or supports, such as "given a data table."
Degree: The criterion for success, such as "with at least four of five items correct."

Verbs such as "understand" or "appreciate" are not directly observable and must be replaced with actions that produce evidence of learning.

Selecting Instructional Resources

Instructional resources include texts, media, manipulatives, software, primary sources, and community materials. Selection begins with the measurable objective and the evidence of individual student learning needs and performance levels.

To identify a resource, a teacher first asks what students must know and be able to do at the end of instruction. The resource must match that outcome rather than merely relate to the same topic. Then the teacher examines assessment data to determine current performance levels and the specific gaps or strengths the resource must address.

For example, an objective may require students to compare two interpretations of a historical event using evidence from primary sources. The teacher reviews student work and notices that many students can locate facts but do not yet explain how the source supports a claim. A useful resource would include two short, accessible primary sources with contrasting perspectives and questions that require students to identify and explain supporting evidence. A longer background article with no source-comparison task would not match the objective or the identified skill need.

If performance data show that emerging readers need support with academic vocabulary, the teacher selects materials with controlled complexity, visual supports, or embedded vocabulary instruction. If data show that students have mastered basic procedures and need challenge, the teacher selects resources that introduce novel problems or require transfer to unfamiliar contexts. The resource choice follows the objective and the performance evidence, not the other way around.

Culturally Responsive Instructional Planning

Culturally responsive teaching uses students' cultural knowledge, experiences, and frames of reference as assets for learning.

Geneva Gay emphasized using students' cultural references to make learning more relevant and effective.
Funds of knowledge, associated with Luis Moll and colleagues, describes the knowledge and skills developed in homes and communities. Instruction draws on these funds rather than treating them as deficits.

Selecting Culturally Responsive Materials

Culturally responsive material selection means evaluating resources against student backgrounds and the instructional goal. A teacher considers three dimensions:

Regional background: Materials should include examples, settings, occupations, and issues that students can recognize. A word problem set in a familiar transportation system or a reading about a local environmental concern can make the task more accessible without lowering the cognitive demand.
Socio-economic background: Materials should avoid assuming that every student has the same resources, experiences, or home circumstances. A homework task requiring internet access, paid supplies, or private study space may not be feasible for all students. A teacher can select in-class activities and resources that do not depend on unstated economic advantages.
Home language background: Materials should treat home languages as assets. Bilingual word walls, texts that include words from students' languages when instructionally relevant, and resources that allow students to process ideas in the home language can support access to grade-level content. Materials should not imply that a home language is inferior or irrelevant.

Materials must also be checked for bias, stereotypes, omission, and inaccurate representation. A resource may be accurate for one group and harmful for another because of the examples it selects or the voices it omits. The teacher selects resources that reflect the actual students in the room while still meeting the standard.

Culturally Responsive Practices

Connect new learning to students' prior cultural and community knowledge.
Use multiple participation structures, including pair work, small-group discussion, and whole-class sharing.
Invite students to analyze how authors or historical figures represent cultural groups.
Use examples from regional communities and student home languages where instructionally appropriate.
Develop classroom routines that respect diverse communication patterns without requiring students to abandon them.

Sequencing Lessons and Activating Prior Knowledge

Effective instruction is sequenced from simple to complex, concrete to abstract, and known to unknown. Each lesson builds on prior learning with explicit connections.

Activation strategies engage what students already know before new content is introduced. Examples include:

KWL charts to identify what students know and want to learn.
Anticipation guides that ask students to agree or disagree with statements related to the new topic.
Brainstorming and concept maps that reveal existing categories and connections.
Vocabulary previews that teach critical terms before reading.
Brief pretests that reveal current performance levels and misconceptions.

Spiral curriculum, associated with Jerome Bruner, revisits key concepts at increasing levels of complexity throughout the school year. A concept introduced simply in one unit returns later with more demanding applications. This design supports coherence, retention, and mastery over time.

Developmental Patterns and Differentiation

Instructional design accounts for physical, social, and academic development.

Physical development: Younger students may need shorter focused tasks, movement breaks, and materials that do not require advanced fine motor control. Mature students may sustain longer independent work but still benefit from structured transitions.
Social development: Peer relationships change across grade levels. Older elementary students often benefit from structured cooperative tasks that support a sense of competence. Adolescents may respond to tasks that allow perspective taking and identity exploration.
Academic development: Prior knowledge, skills, and performance data reveal what students are ready to learn. Two students of the same age may need different entry points.

Erikson's psychosocial stages describe social tasks across the lifespan. During elementary school, the stage of industry versus inferiority is common. Students need opportunities to complete meaningful work and receive feedback that supports competence rather than shame or persistent feelings of failure. This does not mean every elementary student faces the same social challenge, but it helps teachers design tasks with appropriate support and recognition.

Tomlinson's differentiation model organizes planning decisions into four areas:

Content: What students learn. Teachers may adjust text complexity, provide supplementary materials, or focus on different aspects of the same standard.
Process: How students learn. Teachers may vary grouping, pacing, graphic organizers, or scaffolded prompts.
Product: How students demonstrate learning. Teachers may allow students to choose among acceptable formats that require the same skill.
Environment: The learning setting. Teachers may vary noise level, seating, supports, and routines.

Data drives differentiation. The teacher reviews performance evidence and identifies the specific skill or knowledge gap. Then the teacher changes content, process, product, or environment to address that gap without reducing the rigor of the standard.

Interventions Based on Individual Student Needs and Data

Response to Intervention and Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports describe a framework of increasingly intensive instruction based on evidence of student response. Percentages of students in each tier are variable and should not be treated as fixed mandates. Monitoring frequency also varies by need, school procedures, and available tools.

Tiered Support

Tier 1: High-quality core instruction for all students, aligned to grade-level standards and based on effective classroom practices. Universal screening identifies students who may need additional support.
Tier 2: Targeted small-group supplemental instruction for students whose screening or progress data show they are not making expected progress in core instruction. Tier 2 instruction provides additional practice, reteaching, or a more targeted focus on specific skills.
Tier 3: More intensive, individualized support for students with significant or persistent skill gaps. Progress monitoring occurs regularly, and the team uses the data to judge whether the support is working.

RTI or MTSS processes must not delay a special education evaluation when a disability is suspected. A parent or school team member may request evaluation at any time, and observations of persistent difficulty despite generally effective instruction should prompt the team to consider assessment in addition to continuing intervention.

Determining and Applying Data-Based Interventions

To determine an appropriate intervention, a teacher examines data to identify the specific skill or learning process involved, not just the general area of weakness.

Consider a fourth-grade student whose reading comprehension is below benchmark. The teacher reviews screeners, class work, and observations. The data show that the student's oral vocabulary and listening comprehension are average, but decoding accuracy is low. The intervention should target decoding using systematic, explicit phonics and repeated reading of decodable or controlled text. A general comprehension intervention with extra main-idea worksheets would not address the identified skill deficit.

Now consider a middle school student whose math screening shows weak fraction reasoning. The teacher reviews the student's work and notices consistent confusion about equivalent fractions and comparing fractions, while whole-number computation is accurate. The intervention should focus on representing fractions with visual models and number lines and on explaining equivalence. The teacher then monitors progress with brief fraction tasks. If the student's progress is limited after a period of well-delivered intervention, the team reviews intensity, frequency, and possible additional needs.

An intervention is appropriate when three conditions are present. The selected support matches the identified skill deficit, the support is delivered with adequate intensity and fidelity, and the team monitors progress with data that measure the targeted skill. Decisions to increase, change, or discontinue an intervention are based on student response data rather than grade level or diagnostic label alone.

Key Information Summary

Diagnostic assessment identifies starting points before instruction. Formative assessment informs teaching during instruction and may or may not be graded. Summative assessment summarizes achievement after instruction. Benchmark assessment tracks progress over time.
Formal assessments have structured procedures and scoring. Informal assessments rely on observation and judgment. Formal does not mean standardized, and informal procedures can be structured.
Bloom's taxonomy and Webb's DOK describe cognitive demand. The verb alone does not determine demand. DOK 4 requires synthesis and extended reasoning, not simply time on task.
Behaviorism explains learning as observable behavior shaped by consequences. Cognitivism explains learning as mental processing of information. Constructivism explains learning as active meaning-making. Humanism emphasizes needs and classroom climate.
Piaget's stages are approximate historical descriptions, not fixed limits on individual capacity.
Backward design requires teachers to identify desired results, determine assessment evidence, and then plan instruction so that all three stages align.
Long-term goals describe broad outcomes. Short-term objectives are measurable steps aligned to standards and student needs.
Instructional resources are selected by matching the resource to the measurable objective and to evidence of individual student performance levels and needs.
Culturally responsive planning selects materials and practices that reflect students' regional, socio-economic, and home language backgrounds and treats those backgrounds as assets.
Lessons should activate prior knowledge and be sequenced for coherence. A spiral curriculum revisits concepts at increasing complexity.
Differentiation adjusts content, process, product, or environment based on data, without lowering the rigor of the standard.
Interventions are determined by matching a specific skill deficit to targeted support, delivering it with fidelity, and monitoring student response with data. RTI and MTSS processes do not delay disability evaluation when a disability is suspected.

FTCE Professional Education (083) Study Guide

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