Embedded HLP
HLP 12
Systematically Design Instruction Toward Learning Goals
Educators help students to develop important concepts and skills that provide the foundation for more complex learning. Educators sequence lessons that build on each other and make connections explicit, in both planning and delivery. They activate students’ prior knowledge and show how each lesson “fits” with previous ones. Planning involves careful consideration of learning goals, what is involved in reaching the goals, and allocating time accordingly. Ongoing changes (e.g., pacing, examples) occur throughout the sequence based on student performance.
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HLP 12 Information
Systematically designed instruction involves making explicit connections among content and skills within and across lessons. Explicit and systematically designed instruction supports student learning across all content areas (e.g., Doabler et al., 2015; Fien et al., 2015; Gallagher et al., 2019; McMaster et al., 2020). Explicit and systematically designed instruction allows students to link prior and new knowledge; see relationships among facts, concepts, and principles; and organize content to maximize retention, deepen understanding, and facilitate application. For example, the use of graphic organizers to visually represent relationships within and across concepts can support students in making connections while learning new content (Boon et al., 2018; Ciullo et al., 2015; Singleton & Filce, 2015). Graphic organizers, or concept maps, support student connections between their prior knowledge, lived experiences, and understanding of new concepts. Graphic organizers can support vocabulary acquisition, multiple representations of concepts, and examples and nonexamples. Instruction designed in this way helps students see the big picture of what they are learning, why it matters, and how they are progressing towards their goals in each instructional lesson.
Each lesson should consider students’ prior knowledge (Hattan et al., 2023) and funds of identity (i.e., intersectional identities; Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2014) to make explicit connections to instructional content. Funds of identity refer to the historical, cultural, and socially distributed resources that all contribute to an individual’s self-definition, self-expression, and self-understanding (Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2014). Designing lessons with explicit connections helps students understand why the new skill or concept is important, the associations with what they have already learned, and how it relates to their own lived experience and unique lens as an individual. By helping students see how the lesson “fits” in the larger instructional scope and sequence and in their lives, teachers support students’ understanding, motivation, and engagement. Future instruction can then build off of each prior lesson, systematically moving students closer to their learning goals.