Mentor’s guide: Co-planning with feedback

What is this practice?

Co-planning with feedback involves you and the teacher candidate working together to design or modify aspects of instruction, explicitly discussing 1) goals for student learning, 2) possible choices you could make and their pros/cons, and 3) ways of supporting specific learners in your classes. Co-planning may take different forms over the course of the year, with the TC playing a more peripheral role early on (e.g., modifying an activity, suggesting a reading for students). As TCs gain more experience, they can take the lead in designing increasingly larger chunks of instruction. Your role at that time becomes more advisory, probing their thinking and providing feedback on plans.

Why is it important?

Planning and modifying instruction is a pivotal part of the work of teaching. As an experienced teacher, you have planned and modified your instruction over many years, and much of your planning may nowadays play out “in your head.” For the TC, on the other hand, it is imperative to experience how planning and modifying lessons is done as an explicit and regular practice, and the kinds of considerations that go into designing cohesive instruction.

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