Define what is to be taught and implement aligned learning plans. Set learning goals and objectives: Setting learning goals and objectives allows teachers to create pre-assessments to gauge students’ prior knowledge and inform instruction. Setting learning objectives, which address the behaviors, conditions, and criteria for learning, gives students a purpose for learning. When learning objectives are shared and communicated with students, they connect classroom activities to the desired learning outcomes. As students tap into their prior knowledge and attend to the learning goals and objectives, they are better equipped to set their own learning goals. This leads to increased engagement and motivation (Hattie, 2009). Alignment: Instructional planning ensures written, taught, and tested curricula are aligned both in content and cognitive level of rigor, which provides the necessary depth and breadth of learning. Alignment of learning goals, instruction, and assessment provides for the appropriate measurement of what has been taught.

Balance surface level and deeper learning experiences. The Standards of Learning may or may not provide for the balanced surface-level learning and deeper understanding we seek. Teachers must use content knowledge to instruct students in acquiring facts and skills, as this learning is essential for student meaning-making. However, teaching these facts and skills in the context of enduring understandings and essential questions is imperative. These contexts link learning to students’ experiences and interests, establishing relevance and leading to motivation (McTighe and Tomlinson, 2006). Purposeful 8 planning that focuses on teaching for meaning-making and transfer of knowledge and skills must occur to provide students with the skills, behaviors, and opportunities we desire.

Connect curriculum to relevant contexts and rigorous learning goals. When students can make meaning, they better transfer their learning. When students can transfer knowledge to new and authentic contexts, rigorous learning goals and deeper learning are revealed. This, in turn, leads to critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and communication. Additionally, authentic applications reveal student proficiency and the varying degrees of their understanding (McTighe and Tomlinson, 2006), which allows teachers to address any gaps in student understanding and proficiency in meeting learning goals.

Select appropriate instructional materials. While expectations for learning of content standards, understandings, and expectations for transfer of learning remain consistent for all students, every student has different knowledge, skills, and learning needs. As such, teachers must ensure that instructional materials are relevant to student needs, readiness, interests, and backgrounds. Instructional materials must provide multiple means of content and concept representation and practice and support the differences in students' learning preferences. When instructional materials are varied and address the student mentioned above indicators, appropriate rigor is attended to, and motivation and engagement increase.

Align and select digital learning tools. While technology fundamentally improves nearly every aspect of our lives, it plays a major role in the teaching and learning process. Teachers must strategically plan, align, and select the appropriate digital tools to maximize student learning experiences. Selecting trendy digital tools and resources does not come first as teachers plan their instructional units and lesson activities. A student-centered teacher is an instructional designer who utilizes data, frameworks, and curriculum and pacing guides to identify what he/she will teach, determines the strategies that will best meet his/her students’ needs, and finally selects and aligns the appropriate digital tools and resources to support the content and the strategies of that lesson and/or unit. One way to consider the best tool to use during the planning phase of instruction is to utilize the TPACK theoretical framework. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) attempts to identify the knowledge teachers require for technology integration while addressing teacher knowledge's complex, multifaceted, and situated nature. (Koehler, 2015).