Table of the Direct Instruction Model

1. Table of the Direct Instruction Model

2. Although experienced teachers learn to adjust their use of direct instruction to fit various situations, most direct instruction lessons have five essential phases or steps.

3. The lesson begins with the teacher providing a rationale for the lesson, establishing set and getting students ready to learn.

4. Phases • Phase 1: Clarify goals and establish set. • Teacher Behavior • Teacher gets students ready to learn by going over goals for the lesson, giving background information, and explaining why the lesson is important

5. This preparational and motivational phase is then followed by presentation of the subject matter being taught or demonstration of a particular skill.

6. Phase 2: Demonstrate knowledge or skill. • Teacher Behavior • Teacher demonstrates the skill correctly or presents step-by-step information.

7. In the practice feedback phase of this model, teachers should always try to provide opportunities for students to transfer the knowledge or skill being taught.

8. Phase 3: Provide guided practice. • Teacher Behavior: • Teacher structures initial practice.

9. The lesson then provides opportunities for guided student practice and teacher feedback on student progress.

11. Direct instruction lessons conclude with extended practice and transfer of skills.

12. Phase 4: Check for understanding and provide feedback. • Teacher Behavior: • Teacher checks to see if students are performing correctly and provides feedback.

13. This phase is often characterized by the teacher asking students questions and students providing answers they deem to be correct or calling on students and asking them to demonstrate a particular skill or sub skill. Without knowledge of the results, practice is of little value to students.

14. Guideline 1: Provide feedback, as soon as possible after practice. • It should be close enough to the actual practice that students can remember clearly their own performance. • Immediately grade test and provide feedback.

15. Guideline 2: Make feedback specific. • In general, feedback should be as specific as possible to be most helpful to students. For example: • “Your use of the word domicile is pretentious; house would do nicely.: • Instead of: “You are using too many words.”

16. Guideline 3: Concentrate on behaviors and not intent. • Feedback is most helpful and raises less defensiveness with students if it is aimed directly at some behavior rather than at one’s interpretation of the intent behind the behavior.

17. Guideline 4: Keep feedback appropriate to the developmental stage of the learner. • Sometimes students can be given too much feedback or feedback that is too sophisticated for them to handle.

18. Guideline 5: Emphasize praise and feedback on correct performance. • Everyone prefers to receive positive rather than negative feedback. In general, praise will be accepted whereas negative feedback may be denied. Teachers, therefore, should try to provide praise and positive feedback, particularly when students are learning new concepts and skills. If incorrect performance is observed, it must be corrected.

19. Here are sensible approaches to dealing with incorrect responses and performance: • Dignify the student’s incorrect response or performance by giving a question for which the response would have been correct.“George Washington would have been the right answer if I had asked you who was the first president of the United States.”

20. Provide the student with an assist, hint or prompt.“Remember, the president in 1828 was also a hero in the War of 1812. • Hold the student accountable. “You didn’t know President Jackson today, but, I bet you will tomorrow when I ask you.”

21. Guideline 6: When giving negative feedback, show how to perform correctly. Knowing that something has been done incorrectly does not help students do it correctly. Negative feedback should always be accompanied by teacher actions that demonstrate the correct performance.

22. Guideline 7: Help students to focus on process, not outcomes. Many times, students will want to focus their attention on measurable outcomes. It is the teacher’s responsibility to get students to look at the process, or technique, behind their performance and to help students understand that incorrect techniques may achieve immediate objectives but will probably prohibit later growth.

23. Guideline 8 Teach students how to provide feedback to themselves and how to judge their own performance. Teachers can help students judge their own performance in many ways. They can explain the criteria used by experts in judging performance; they can give students opportunities to judge peers and to assess their own progress in relation to others; and they can emphasize the importance of self-monitoring, goal setting, and not being satisfied with only extrinsic feedback from the teacher.

24. Providing Independent Practice • Teachers need to pay particular attention to managing the independent practice stages of direct instruction. Independent practice can be accomplished through seatwork and/or homework. • Independent practice provides students with opportunities to perform newly acquired skills on their own and also can be viewed as a way to extend learning time.

25. Harris Cooper and his colleagues have studied the nature and effects of homework for quite some time, including summarizing other research on this topic (Cooper, 1989; Cooper, Jackson, Nye & Lindsey, 2001; Cooper and Valentine, 2001) They found several interesting results:

26. (1) Homework seems to have very little effect on learning in the elementary grades (2) There is negative effect between the amount of homework and elementary students’ attitudes toward leaning, (3) Homework does not lead to more learning in grade 6 and higher.

27. Seatwork • Seatwork refers to work and extended practice assigned to be completed in the classroom; its use is very common, particularly in the elementary grades. • Assign seatwork that students will find interesting and enjoyable. Restrict the use of standard worksheets. • Make sure students understand what the seatwork assignment requires.

28. In general, make seatwork following a direct instruction lesson a continuation of practice, not a continuation and extension of instruction. • Have clear procedures about what students do if they get stuck, and have recommendations for students who finish before others as well as those who lag behind.

29. Homework • As with seatwork, assign work that is interesting and potentially enjoyable and make sure students understand the task. • Give students homework that is appropriately challenging and that they can perform successfully. • Use frequent and smaller homework assignments rather than less frequent and large assignments.

30. Make homework rules clear. • Inform parents about the level of involvement expected of them. • Provide feedback and grades on the homework promptly.

31. Phase 5: Provide extended practice and transfer • Teacher Behavior: • Teacher sets conditions for extended practice with attention to transfer of the skill to more complex situations.