Chapter 7: Instructional Model
- Instruction
- Problem-Based Learning
- Project-Based Learning
- Backward Design Process
Instruction
Now that we’ve laid the foundation for an effective lesson by discussion, planning, and assessment, we can turn to instruction. Instruction involves the actual act of teaching a lesson and is usually what comes to mind when you envision teaching. You likely have experienced both good and poor teaching in your life as a student. Teaching is not telling. To teach well requires careful planning and knowledge of the learners in the room. Various tools, techniques, and strategies help teachers organize their instruction more logically and deliver it appropriately.
Teaching strategies are usually a series of steps that a teacher might have the students follow to encourage interaction or deeper thinking during instruction; strategies usually take from 5 to 15 minutes to enact during a lesson. An example of a strategy is “think-pair-share,” where a student turns to a partner to discuss a question or prompt before sharing with a larger group. Other strategies include using graphic organizers or creating metaphors to help students see content in a new way. You will have entire classes about teaching strategies in different content areas, often called methods courses, as you continue in your journey toward becoming a teacher. For now, we’ll investigate one very powerful, research-based strategy that can be used in all grades and content areas: Think-Pair-Share.
Think-Pair-Share is a particularly effective strategy because it allows students to share ideas with just one other person before being asked to share with the class. Students can have an opportunity to articulate their ideas prior to whole-class discussion. Extended Think-Pair-Share is a strategy used for English Learners. Instead of just an open-ended dialogue, students are prompted to use sentence frames, such as “I think the experiment showed us__________________ because I saw ___________happen.” Or, “That character in the story is very ______________. I know this because he _____________”. In this way, the dialogue is more structured, and English learners practice correct English syntax. This video shows a math teacher using the Think-Pair-Share strategy during a lesson.
When planning instructional activities, always keep them aligned with your standards, objectives, and assessments. While it can be tempting to turn to Teachers Pay Teachers, Pinterest, or TikTok for instructional inspiration, many of these “fun” activities do not result in meaningful learning. Always keep your instructional goals at the forefront of your selection of instructional activities.
Video: Think, Pair, Share
Source: https://youtu.be/tPSfolz_700
One or more interactive elements have been excluded from this text version. You can view them online here:https://mtsu.pressbooks.pub/introtoedshell/?p=562#oembed-1
Direct Instruction
Direct Instruction is an evidence-based teaching method. In gene