Three instructional plan templates constructed by a variety of leaders in education provide solid examples of what quality instructional plans should include. The work of Madeline Hunter dates the furthest back and is still used today, primarily in the elementary setting. Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe provide a more modern approach to curriculum and lesson design with their model of Understanding by Design (UbD). Others, as modeled by the New York State Educational Department, work closely to align their instructional plans with the Common Core State Standards.

Review each of the provided instructional plan designs:

• Common Core aligned instructional plan template
• Understanding by design-backwards design lesson template 
• Madeline Hunter’s lesson plan format 

Analyze each instructional plan and structure a Word document, essay-style as such:

1. Introduction: Introduce the essential elements, purpose, and value of creating and following a high-quality instructional plan. Include a thesis stating your intent to highlight key elements of each respective plan as well as your intent to identify what you find to be the most effective plan while justifying your reasoning.
2. Body: Discuss the following for EACH instructional plan design. (Do not list—this is paragraph format without headings/subheadings.)
   • The source’s name (i.e.; Hunter).
   • Key components representing most essential instructional plan requirements (standard, objective, activities, assessments, etc.).
   • Unique components (What makes each plan different from the others? What is notably missing or added compared to the others?).
   • Description of how Gradual Release of Responsibility Model is or is not represented.
   • Description of how assessment is embedded and potentially supports informing a teacher of student mastery of the objective(s).
   • Evidence that the instruction plan stimulates critical thinking.

   Your intent in this first part is to:

   • Inform the reader through the introduction and body.
   • Identify the instructional plan template that YOU believe is the most well-rounded and high-quality and justify your reasons with research and examples.
3. Conclusion: Make a selection between the three templates as to which one represents the best instructional plan to you. Include the key elements you’ve explored thus far. Explain its strengths, and recommend two ways to make it more effective and high quality. Be sure to justify why enacting your recommendations would make it better. Your essay will be between four to five pages, not including the required cover and reference pages, and should follow APA formatting requirements. You must include a minimum of five peer-reviewed articles or web references (in addition to the textbook), including the three from which the templates came, at least one from any reference used in Weeks One or Two, and one outside source of your own.