Instructions



		EDL725 : The Class : Rating Scales : Instructions : Instructions

Implements and Manages Instructions and Assessment

This section targets the "art and science" of teaching. The scale assesses thirteen competencies, indicators 13-26, which make up the bulk of instruction. Scan this scale now to determine which competencies are probably the most problematic for beginning teachers.

If you selected numbers 13, 16, 17, and 26, you are in sync with many others who have taken this course.

Recalling the Zork videotape, the teacher did not set behavior expectations at the beginning of the class and did not use attention-getting techniques to engage the students early on.

Some effective sets include stories, examples, role-playing, puppets, or challenging problems. Consider the set that follows.

Last week, boys and girls, we learned that animals inherit some traits from their parents. This week we will see if we also inherit any traits from our parents. Quietly turn to your neighbor and look into his or her eyes. What color are they: brown, blue, green, gold? Write the color of your eyes on your white boar. Next, write down in a list the words: mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, sister, and brother. Next to each write the color of his/her eyes. Now circle the ones that are the same as yours.

Yes, chances are good that you inherited the color of your eyes from your biological parent or grandparent and this is good. However, not all traits that we inherit are good for us and we want to know more about that, too. This week we are going to learn more about inherited traits as we study genetics.

In this set, all of the students are asked to participate both overtly and covertly. Because they were already familiar with inherited animal traits, they serve as a link to today’s lesson. Students are motivated to know more about which traits they have inherited, which are good, which are not so good, and what that means for them.

Competency #13, introducing the lesson, is one of the most important yet one of the most difficult for beginning teacher to master. We can help them to realize that planning the set and closure often occur after the rest of the lesson is planned. In this way closure is directly related to set and both are directly relevant to the objective(s).

Set and closure are tied together. Without identifying than explicit relationship, students often do not see or understand how all the pieces of the lesson fit together into a concept or skill. Hence, they are not sure what, if anything "they learned today."

Closure can occur after, between, or at the end of objectives. It involves the student actively in summarizing the learning along with its critical attributes. It helps the teacher to check the learning, see where the "holes" are in student learning, and plan for what to teach next. Closure is especially helpful to students because it aids retention and it provides a rehearsal of key concepts or skills. Too often time just runs out unless teachers conscientiously plan for closure and pace themselves to allow for sufficient time. This may mean setting a timer to ring five minutes before the end of the lesson.

Closure activities are as varied and creative as teachers and may include any of the following:

Write in a journal
Tell a partner
Solve a problem
Describe the steps
Show a neighbor
Write on a 3x5 card and hand in to me as you leave
Write on a post-it and leave on the board as you exit
Create a question for the question box

Even though we want to engage all students actively in learning, not all students are as eager to participate as Nance is in the cartoon. So teachers must plan their lessons with a high degree of active participation, both covert and overt, by all students throughout the lesson. Simultaneous active engagement is gaining more popularity in questioning strategies as teachers pose the question to all students, asking them to think about a response before the teacher calls on a non-volunteer student. Teachers can get more mileage out of a question when they call on other students to respond, refute, or expand on earlier responses to the same question.

Using covert involvement, teachers frequently ask students to think about or close their eyes and visualize. Wait time is critical with covert involvement in order to promote thinking and encourage all to be prepared to respond.

Of course, it is not enough to gain the attention of students at the beginning of the lesson; a teacher must maintain their attention through the lesson. Movement around the room and working with individual students often helps to keep them engaged.

Communication is the heart and soul of the teaching process. It becomes evident when teachers give directions and explanations. I like to stand at the top of a mountain and watch beginning skiers get off a chair lift. It is easy to tell if their instructor gave them adequate directions. If too many fall as the disembark, it is probably because some critical step was left out of the directions. The same thing happens to students in a classroom and it can result in their frustration, failure, and inability to complete assignments and homework.

Since not all students learn with their ears, directions as well as other instruction should be presented visually also. Using visual resources such as overhead transparencies, power point slides, hands-on manipulatives, felt boards, and others help students to learn more easily and to retain the information more effectively. Resources need not be elaborate or expensive. Madeline Hunter once said, "You do not need an elephant to teach the color gray."

In addition to oral, visual, and kinesthetic presentation, students need guided practice between modeling and independent practice. Some steps that are considered essential in a practice module include opportunities for the students to:

1. Label the steps
2. Demonstrate the steps
3. Demonstrate knowledge of the process independently

Also, assessment is an ongoing process throughout the lesson. The informal checks provide the teacher with the information needed to monitor the learning and to decide what to do next. Teachers need to be able to develop assessment tools such as clear rubrics and share these as well as other criteria for assessment with the students. This brings to mind a situation I observed in an English classroom of sophomores. Two ESL students waited until the end of class to talk with the teacher. With papers in hand they approached the teacher’s desk and one asked in a Korean accent, "I want ‘A’ --- I want ‘A’ on my work. " I also want ‘A’ on my paper," the other student proclaimed. It was immediately clear how helpful models of papers with varying grades from excellent to failing accompanied with a rubric would be useful for all students.

Students also want specific and immediate feedback, both verbal and written, to help them to learn what was "right" so that they can do it again and what was "not right" so that knows what not to do again.

Specific feedback also saves time in so far as it promotes retention and success. Presentations must also be efficient as well as effective. Teachers must use instructional time judiciously.

In closing, reflect on the competencies of instructional delivery and assessment in order to evaluate and guide a teacher’s professional growth. Go now to the next activity where you will watch a video of Debby teaching a first grade class. After you have watched the video, you may assess the quality of the lesson using the last scale.