DOC1 Chapter 8 Managing Lesson Delivery

Advanced Organizer

By using set-induction activities and introducing lesson objectives, you provide students with an advance organizer that supplies a framework for the new content and helps the students relate it to content they already know. Advance organizers, discussed more fully in Chapter 7, help students by focusing their attention on the subject being considered, informing them where the lesson is going, relating new material to content already understood, and providing structure for the subsequent lesson.

Situational Assistance

which are teacher actions designed to help students cope with the instructional situation and to keep students on task.

Comprehensible Input

Information that is understandable to students

Anticipatory Set

Madeline Hunter (1994) used the term anticipatory set to describe this concept, pointing out that the activity is intended to develop a mental readiness (or "set") for the lesson.

Small-Group Instruction

Small groups enable students to be more actively engaged in learning, and teachers can better monitor student progress. Groups of four students often work well. In a group of more than six, generally not everyone will actively participate.

Independent Work

You might give students opportunities to work on tasks of their own choosing, or you may assign activities that enable students to work alone.

High-Participation Formats

are lessons that have all students performing in some way, even though they may not be involved in answering a teacher's question. High-participation formats occur when each student is expected to manipulate materials, solve problems, read along, write answers, or perform a concurrent task. In this way, students do not simply sit when others are answering questions; they are actively engaged as well.

Transitions

are movements from one activity to another. A smooth transition allows one activity to flow into another without any breaks in the delivery of the lesson. Transitions that are not smooth create gaps in the delivery of the lesson.

Desists

are statements by teachers to stop an inappropriate action or a misbehavior by asking or telling a student what to do. To be effective, desist statements should be specific and spoken clearly. A desist might be in the form of an appeal, such as "Shanae, please put away the comb and continue with the class assignment." Or it could be in the form of a command, such as "Wayne, stop talking with your friends and continue with your calculations in the lab activity." Effective use of desists helps keep students on task and minimizes disorder and misbehavior.

Motivation to Learn

draws on the meaningfulness, value, and benefits of the academic task to the learner. For example, math problems may be developed that relate to student interests such as selling products for a youth-group fund-raiser. Thus, the focus is on learning, rather than on merely performing. Often students can be motivated at the beginning of a lesson by emphasizing the purpose of the task or the fact that students will be interested in the task.

Task Orientation

has to do with your concern that all relevant material be covered and learned, as opposed to your being mired in procedural matters or extraneous material. Task-oriented teachers spend an appropriate amount of time lecturing, asking questions, and engaging students in activities directly related to the material that is to be learned. Achievement is reported to be higher in classrooms of task-oriented teachers than in classrooms where teachers tend to be off task.

Student-Centered Approaches

include inquiry approaches, discovery learning and problem solving, role playing and simulation, gaming, laboratory activities, computer-assisted instruction, and learning or activity centers. Various types of grouping and discussion methods may be student or teacher directed, depending on how they are used. Teacher-centered approaches are often more structured than student-centered approaches. As a result, the management issues will vary depending on the approach used.

Teacher-Centered Approaches

include lectures, demonstrations, questions, recitations, practice and drills, and reviews.

Within-Class Grouping

involves creating subgroups within a class, with each subgroup being fairly homogeneous in terms of ability. A small number is better than a large number of groups. In this way, group assignments can be flexible, role models for low achievers are available, teacher morale is higher, and the stigmatizing effect is minimized. Within one classroom, you may group students for various activities or subjects. For example, middle school and secondary teachers may use ability groups for only part of a class period and whole-group activities or other approaches for the rest of the class time. You may group students to work on selected projects or activities.

Between-Class Grouping

involves having separate classes for students of different abilities. When reporting research on between-class ability grouping. Noted, that grouping arrangements made on the basis of standardized test scores are not effective in reducing the range of differences that affect the specific class. In addition, the quality of instruction often is lower in lower-track classes, and students feel stigmatized by their assignments to low tracks. They may become delinquent and truant and may eventually drop out of school. The disadvantages of between-class ability grouping suggest that it be avoided when possible. Instead, you might consider within-class ability grouping for a short time, as well as individualized instruction techniques.

Peer Tutoring

involves students teaching students. The two types of peer tutoring are (a) cross-age tutoring, by which older students work with younger students, and (b) peer tutoring, by which students within the same class work together. There are several advantages of peer tutoring: (a) peer tutors are often effective in teaching students who do not respond well to adults; (b) peer tutoring can develop a bond of friendship between the tutor and tutee, which is important for integrating slow learners into the group; (c) peer tutoring allows the teacher to teach a large group of students while giving slow learners the individual attention that they need; (d) tutors benefit by learning to teach; and (e) peer tutoring happens spontaneously under cooperative conditions, so the teacher does not have to organize and manage it in a formal, continuing way.

Seatwork

involves students working on assignments during class that provide practice or review of previously presented material. Students spend hundreds of hours during a school year doing seatwork privately at their desks. It is imperative that you structure seatwork so that it is done effectively while enabling students to experience a high rate of success.

Ability Grouping

involves the clustering of students who are judged to be similar in their academic ability into classes for instruction. There are two common types of ability grouping: between-class grouping and within-class grouping.

Jerkiness

is a term that refers to behaviors that interfere with the smooth flow of the lesson. This occurs when the teacher (a) interrupts an ongoing activity without warning and gives directions to begin another activity, (b) leaves one activity dangling in midair and begins another, only to return to the first, or (c) leaves one activity for another and never returns to the first activity.

Enthusiasm

is an expression of excitement and intensity. It is quite obvious that a teacher who is enthusiastic and vibrant is more entertaining to observe than an unenthusiastic teacher. In addition, teacher enthusiasm has been related to higher student achievement. Enthusiasm has two important dimensions: (1) interest and involvement with the subject matter and (2) vigor and physical dynamism. Enthusiastic teachers are often described as stimulating, dynamic, expressive, and energetic. Their behavior suggests that they are committed to the students and to the subject matter. While teachers often expect students to be interested in what they say, students more often react to how enthusiastically it is said.

Fragmentation

is another form of slowdown in which the teacher divides the lesson into such minute fragments that some of the students are left waiting and become bored. For example, the directions for an experiment may be broken down into such minute, simple parts that the students feel belittled by the teacher, or an activity may be done by one row of students at a time, leaving many students waiting.

Academic Learning Time

is the amount of time students are successfully engaged in learning activities. However, the amount of time that students are actively engaged, or on task, can vary greatly across and within classrooms. Low-achieving students often go off task due to frustrations about not understanding class material. High-achieving students, on the other hand, tend to go off task after they have completed their assigned work. Therefore, you should ensure that all students are able to successfully engage in classroom tasks while also ensuring that high-achieving students are engaged throughout the lesson. Provide feedback and correctives to students who need assistance, and at the same time, monitor the rate of students' progress through the lesson.

Set Induction

is the initial activity at the beginning of the lesson that is used to induce students to a state of wanting to learn. This activity helps establish the context for the learning that is to follow and helps students engage in the learning. Typically, the set is brief, lasting only long enough to develop student readiness to accomplish the lesson's objective. Set induction helps students see what the topic of the lesson is in a way that is related to their own interests and their own lives.

Pacing

is the speed at which a lesson proceeds. It is the rhythm, the ebb and flow, of a lesson. Effective pacing is neither too slow nor too fast. Adjustments in the pace of the lesson are made as needed. To effectively pace a lesson, you should give directions without dwelling on them, distribute papers in a timely and efficient manner, and move from one activity to another smoothly and without interruption. Classrooms that lack effective pacing will drag at times or will move along at a pace where the students are unable to grasp the material. However, you should recognize it takes more time for students to mentally and physically transition from one activity to another than it does the teacher.

Attention

means focusing certain stimuli while screening out others.

Academic Accountability

means that the students must complete certain activities related to the instructional objectives. Teacher responsibilities for holding students academically accountable are displayed in Figure 8.1

Satiation

occurs when a teacher asks the students to stay on a learning task too long and the students begin to lose interest and get off task. For example, students may enjoy seeing a DVD, writing a creative story, or working in pairs on a project. When these activities are used too often or for too much time, however, students will start to lose interest, become bored, and likely get off task. Satiation can be minimized by (a) highlighting progress toward a learning goal and providing students with feedback; (b) providing variety in the content, group structure, level of difficulty, and instructional materials and activities; and (c) offering a challenging activity to promote a greater sense of purpose and accomplishment.

Over-dwelling

occurs when teachers spend too much time on directions or explanations. Over-dwelling also occurs when the teacher becomes so enthralled with the details of the lesson or a prop being used for a demonstration that students lose sight of the main idea. For example, an English teacher may get so carried away describing the details of an author's life that the students barely have time to read the author's works. Another example is the science teacher who gets carried away describing the laboratory equipment so that the students have little time to conduct any experiments.

Summary

of the main points of a lesson can help students to gain a better idea of the content or to clarify any misunderstandings. You should plan to stop the lesson several minutes before the bell rings to begin the summation. Make sure that you have the attention of all students before the summary begins. You should avoid merely reiterating the content covered during the lesson. Ask several questions that encourage the students to relate key aspects of the lesson or to evaluate key points. Also, you can ask students for their opinions about what they believe are the key points of the lesson.

Slowdowns

or delays in the momentum or pace of a class, can occur due to overdwelling or fragmentation.

Cooperative Learning

refers to a variety of teaching methods in which students work in small groups to help one another to learn academic content. One such approach involves student team learning methods in which there are team goals, and success is achieved if all team members learn the objectives being taught. Other types of cooperative learning groups include group investigations, jigsaw activities, and complex instruction. As you consider ways to differentiate your instruction, remember that cooperative learning groups serve as an important means to provide instructional variety for your students while responding to various learning styles and student learning preferences. These groups also provide the opportunity to differentiate the content and tasks to meet the diversity of student interests and skills.

Closure

refers to actions or statements that are designed to bring a lesson presentation to an appropriate conclusion

Smoothness

refers to staying on task in the lesson without abrupt changes, digressions, or divergences. Kounin described several problems when trying to maintain a smooth, continuous flow of activities throughout a lesson. Some of these problems include shifting from one topic to another, shifting back to earlier activities or content, and injecting unrelated information into a lesson.

Group Alerting

refers to taking actions to engage the attention of the whole class when only individuals are responding. This includes a teacher's attempts to involve all students in learning tasks, maintain their attention, and keep them "on their toes." With group alerting, teachers create suspense before calling on a student to answer a question, keep students in suspense regarding who will be called on next, call on different students to answer questions, and alert nonperformers that they might be called upon next.

Momentum

refers to teachers starting lessons with dispatch, keeping lessons moving ahead, making transitions among activities efficiently, and bringing lessons to a satisfactory close. Momentum deals primarily with the pacing of the lesson, and the teacher needs to avoid slowdowns in the progression through the lesson. For example, one problem in momentum is jerkiness, when the teacher fails to develop a consistent flow of instruction, going too fast at some times and too slow at others.

Overlapping

refers to teachers supervising or handling more than one group or activity at a time. For example, a teacher working with one group of students can notice and simultaneously address a behavior incident in another part of the classroom. Teachers who are skilled at overlapping are more aware of what is going on; thus, they have good withitness as well. As a result, teachers who overlap can effectively monitor classroom behavior and intervene when needed to keep students on task. When students know their teacher has withitness and is able to overlap, they are less inclined to get off task.

Clarity

refers to the precision of your communication to your students regarding the desired behavior. Clarity in teaching helps students understand better, work more accurately, and be more successful. Effective teachers exhibit a high degree of clarity by providing very clear and explicit directions, instructions, questions, and expectations. If you are constantly asked to repeat questions, directions, and explanations or if your students do not understand your expectations, you are not exhibiting clarity in your instructional behavior.

Group Accountability

takes place when a teacher lets students know that their performance in class will be observed and evaluated in some manner. This assessment does not necessarily mean a grade will be recorded, only that the students' performance will be gauged. For example, the teacher might use record-keeping devices such as checklists and task cards. Other strategies include asking students to raise their hands in response to certain questions, asking students to take notes and then checking them, and asking students to write answers and then use various techniques to check them during the class session. Student misbehavior decreases when students know that they are held accountable for their learning and behavior and the teacher knows each student's progress.

Whole-Group Instruction

the entire class is taught as a group. In the large group, you can (1) lecture, demonstrate, and explain a topic; (2) ask and answer a question in front of the entire class; (3) provide the same recitation, practice, and drill exercises for the entire class; (4) work on the same problems; and (5) use the same materials. Although instruction is directed to the whole group, you can still ask specific students to answer questions, monitor specific students as they work on assigned activities, and work with students on an individual basis. Even with whole-group instruction, give consideration to the individual differences of students.