Module 1 Reflection: Instructional Design

This article has made me think about my role as an instructional designer in the following ways...

• I create lesson plans to align with what I want to do and what administration requires, but not necessarily with my students. Being in my second year of teaching, I understand a little more about differentiation and how to plan lessons to (hopefully) appeal to all students, but when I have 100 history students and 55 human geography students, it is not always the easiest task to find out what works and what doesn't for each individual student. I plan in a way that will appeal to most students and allow them to learn in their own way at their own pace (as much as possible). However, I do not have 4 different lesson plans for each of my history classes. I have a blanket lesson plan that will encompass all of what I plan to do, and I differentiate based on the class' abilities.
• I do not necessarily agree 100% with the section titled "But This Kind of Planning Does Not Describe What the Teacher Should Do!" What I mean by this is, though I agree that lesson plans should not be timed down to the second of every day, the lesson plans that I have been taught to write and what is expected by administration to be turned in should have a rough blocked out time for each activity. Do I necessarily have it all written down for each plan? No, but I know that each day for the first 10 minutes of class I will have a bellringer on the board; then I will go into the day's lesson, whether it be notes or various activities for the students to complete; I end class with an exit slip the last 5-10 minutes of class. 

This article was definitely interesting and made me see how effective an instructional design lesson plan can be, but in some aspects I do not foresee how this could be effective in my school or school system, just based on the guidelines given to me and my coworkers by administration and from central office.