221+Agenda+-+2.7.13

Post your Direct Instruction Questions below. Sign your post with three tildes ~

Watching the videos on direct instruction, I noticed that many of the students seemed less engaged than in some of the other videos we have watched. Even when they were responding it was more the teacher just having them rattle off answers, and it seemed like the students were doing it from instinct rather than being genuinely engaged in the lesson. I thought that in the video with the four teachers the journals were an effective way to get students involved but between those it would be possible to lose student attention. So how do you keep student attention without merely training students to respond a certain way each time? user:sbutler13

I found the article listing specific problems direct instruction interesting. One of the issues was the different attention spans that each student may have. The average attention span __#|for college__ students is roughly ten minutes. This average decreases with age. Should teachers attempt or spend time advertising their lessons to their students? It seems ridiculous to think teachers need to entertain for a living, but the evidence is clear. Should there be a greater focus on grasping the interest of a classroom? user:afrisch

Group discussion is undoubtedly a fantastic teaching tool and it being adopted into nearly every classroom. But the problem with groups in my personal experience is that its is extremely slow compared to the streamlined practice of direct instruction. We are supposed to be preparing our students for college where the majority of instruction is done through direct instruction. My question is: Is direct Instruction as old fashioned and out of style as it seems? user:joshscheel

While I understand that having an engaging class room is important I feel that many of the articles being unfair to other forms of instruction especially the lecture. I can recall many classes where my teacher has been an excellent lecturer and maintained attention without making the class boring. I understand that this method is not for all subjects or all teachers within discipline areas but I do not like demonizing the instruction method in the way theses articles tend to.user:slally1

For direct instruction some teacher are really good at keeping the students engaged but with other the student zone out about 10mins into the class. How do you make direct instruction continuously engaging for the students? What are some example of direct instruction that can work for all kind of learning styles. user:DrieAnn8

There are many ways to spice up a lecture, from creating a BINGO card to doing hands on activities to Jeopardy to group discussion, and the list goes on. Utilizing these tools, technology-related or otherwise, can lead to a more involved classroom. Much to our dismay, society seems to have decided that students are a captive audience and it is the teacher's job to entertain them. I definitely do not think this is true, however, in my opinion, one of the biggest problems today is the reluctance of teachers to be creative and/or learn techniques relevant to teaching a new generation of students. A lecture is clear-cut with basic material and doesn't require anything but the bare minimum--personal notecards. Creating a Jeopardy Powerpoint or rearranging the desks for fishbowl discussion is extra work. It leads to more talking. It takes more preparation time. Lecturing got the job done in the past, so why doesn't it work now? While it's not the instructor's responsibility to entertain, how do we convince an older generation of teachers how vital it is to engage students and be willing to embrace all the new approaches to learning (especially with technology) that exist today? user:jordan406

I am on the same page as Josh. I agree that discussion can be slow and that direct instruction can be a very fast way transfer material. Also, discussions take a large amount of work for both the students and the teachers, in some situations it would be easier just to use direct instruction. However, my question is, is direct instruction actually learning or is it just memorization that is lost within a small amount of time? (Brian)

Today's Objectives:
(Brian, notes)
 * **Explain various meanings for the term "direct instruction"**
 * **Provide a rationale for when/how to use direct instruction**
 * **Describe criteria for effective direct instruction**

9:25 - 9:30 - Welcome
 * Teachers for Garry
 * GoogleDocs - Activity Guide

9:30 - 10:00 - Direct Instruction Discussion

10:00 - 10:30 - Design Rubrics for Direct Instruction

10:30 - 10:40 - Break

10:40 - 11:10 - Sample DI lesson - Assessment - "How do you know if students met the target?" [|http://prezi.com/er5cfkzshhiu/edit/#9_6331386]

11:10 - 11:30 - Teaching Demo's Prepare/ Conversations

11:30 - 11:45 - Teaching Demo 1

11:45 -12:00 - Teaching Demo 2

Notes:

Direct Instruction Discussion:
 * A lot of the articles demonizes straight lecture, does it really deserve that?
 * Some teachers are great speakers and can keep the attention of the class
 * But when you don’t have a good speakers it becomes boring
 * Maybe it’s the students and not the teacher?
 * Lectures only work on some students
 * Tailor it different learning styles
 * Average attention span is around ten minutes, how do you keep that attention of the students without going off topic?
 * Lectures make sense in some subjects like math
 * You can get students excited about lectures on some subjects but it gets harder in upper level grades
 * The teacher must know how to engage the students during a lecture
 * There is a difference between the “special ed” Direct Instruction and the lecture direct instruction
 * You are going to lose students in any kind of teaching, even in group work and lectures
 * Kids are easily distracted, a teacher needs verity
 * Are teachers that are uninteresting lazy?
 * Could the teacher have been more engaging?
 * Going the extra mile can make a huge difference in student learning
 * Teachers showing effort in the class to make it more engaging
 * If a teacher tries, a student may try and help the teacher by actually learning
 * Old teachers with old ways of teaching / old material
 * We need to make sure teachers update their lesson plans
 * If it works, it works…?
 * Changing things can help the teachers sanity
 * RECAP:
 * Difference between teaching students and teaching content
 * Direct instruction is a good way to deliver content
 * Just because it’s said doesn’t mean it’s learned
 * Difference between what the teachers think is going on and what is actually going on with the students
 * Some teachers are really great at lectures, students respond well to them
 * But not all teachers are good at lectures
 * In the same way, some students learn best with lectures and some don’t
 * A teacher has to step out of his/her comfort zone to better teach students
 * Where does the learning happen in lectures?
 * In the activity in the students head
 * What they develop after hearing the lecture
 * Learning is not in what the teachers says, it’s when the students interacts with the content
 * Making connections in the students memory
 * Has to do with packaging and organizing the information
 * Recycle and apply the information
 * Real life connections
 * Reviewing, applying
 * Every lecture we give has to be an Interactive Lectures
 * Goal of the course: to have five different strategies for teaching
 * Each lesson can be more or less teacher centered (teacher driven Vs. student driven) and can be more or less controlled (highly packed information Vs. organically packed information)
 * Situations where direct instruction is a good idea:
 * Time management
 * Teaching to a test
 * Sensitive topics
 * When it’s not a good idea:
 * Music
 * Application
 * When the teacher biased toward a subject
 * Something with multiple answers
 * Potential with any strategy to be successful
 * Types of assessment
 * Diagnostic
 * Finding out what they know beforehand
 * Formative
 * Finding out how students’ understanding is being formed along the way
 * Not a high stakes test at the end, but a middle lesson question
 * Less formal
 * Summative
 * Finding out what students learned at the end of instruction
 * Final test or assessment
 * My happen at the end of a course or unit
 * Key issues
 * Validity
 * Is it trustworthy?
 * Reliability
 * Does it provide consistent results?
 * Usability
 * Is it usable?


 * Housekeeping -**
 * For next Thursday - 2/14 - Prepare - Text-Based Instruction and Field Journal #1 http://gonzagateach.wikispaces.com/Field+Journal+Guidelines