ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a brief review of teachers’ typical approaches to planning instruction and argues that by making a distinction between two important concepts, design and planning. Teachers who give some time to design units before they start to plan instruction can simplify and streamline the planning process and increase their students’ self-efficacy. In light of the planning and instructional pressures on teachers, no one should be surprised that most teachers give little thought to design and that they go straight to planning. Simplifying planning by starting with design is not the only reason to approach instructional planning with a pattern language. The myriad details involved in the building stage parallel the details involved in day-to-day instructional planning. In the same way that many educators conflate the concepts of design and planning, they also use planning and day-to-day preparation interchangeably.
