Explicit Instruction: Effective Approaches for Teaching and Learning, Assignments of History of Education

Download Explicit Instruction: Effective Approaches for Teaching and Learning and more Assignments History of Education in PDF only on Docsity! Megan Garcia EDU 275 9/25/2006 Assignment: Annotated Bibliography Explicit Instruction Hall, T. Explicit instruction. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (2002). Retrieved 29 August 2006 from http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_explicit.html Tracey Hall describes explicit instruction as “a systematic instructional approach that includes set of delivery and design procedures derived from effective schools research merged with behavior analysis”. She says that there are two main components to explicit instruction: group instruction with a high level of teacher and student interactions (delivery) and the instructional design principles that make up the content and strategies (design). The broad “delivery” component is then broken down into 5 smaller components: Frequent Student Responses, Appropriate Pacing, Adequate Processing Time, Monitor Responses, Provide Feedback. Likewise, the “design” component is broken down into 6 smaller components: Big Ideas, Conspicuous Strategies, Mediated Scaffolding, Strategic Integration, Judicious Review, and Primed Background Knowledge. In describing each, Dr. Hall shows how much truly goes into the craft of instruction. Dr. Hall concludes with a brief section of evidence of explicit instruction’s effectiveness, from a meta-analysis conducted by G. Adams. I found this website helpful because it presented all of the information clearly and concisely and was not too wordy or heavy. I especially liked the graphic organizers used to break up the two main delivery and design components and that the smaller components were then defined in detail. There is also a great section with links to learn more about explicit instruction and an extensive reference section. This is a great place to get the basics of explicit instruction in easy to understand language with great organization. Explicit Instruction Boyles, Nancy. Teaching Written Response to Text. Gainesville, FL: Maupin House, 2002. Retrieved 30 August, 2006 from http://www.maupinhouse.com/pdf/twr-ch4.pdf Ch. 4 “Understanding Explicit Instruction” In this chapter, Nancy Boyles begins with Madeline Hunter’s definition of explicit instruction: “teaching for mastery”. Nancy says that effective teaching requires more than just a solid command of the content; effective teaching relies hugely on the process of teaching as well. This process, roughly, is setting a purpose for learning, telling students what to do, showing them how to do it, and guiding their application of the new learning. She says that it is very important to clearly state the purpose of the lesson and to get the students to care about the upcoming lesson. As we tell students what to do, we should give just enough information to cover the basics and get them started and to not focus on how hard something is going to be. We also must include the steps needed to achieve the goal. In modeling, teachers get an idea of whether or not students understand the lesson while there is still time to go back and re-teach what was not absorbed. Modeling offers students the opportunity to watch the process unfold before their eyes and it means that the teacher engages in whatever is involved in the learning task exactly as students will be expected to perform it. Nancy then goes on to discuss how much guiding may or may not be necessary and talks briefly about graphic organizers as an instructional aid, but not an instructional substitute. I thought this chapter had a great presentation of explicit instruction, especially for English teachers although teachers of other disciplines can definitely benefit from it as well. Boyles’ description of various classrooms using various techniques helped prove that used on their own, many of our instruction practices will not get the job done, but that together they create a powerful instructional package. It was also helpful to see a breakdown of what a good explanation looks like, as sometimes it is easy to fall into the trap of always just “lecturing”. Finally, the section on modeling was especially helpful to me as an English teacher. Boyles’ explanation that “modeling is the visual (and sometimes oral) link between the explanation that precedes it, and the students’ guided application of the process, which will follow” helped put into perspective what I should be doing when modeling instruction for my students.