Effective Educators Alternate Instructional Strategies Essay

Other education strategies that must be addressed to ensure optimal education outcomes are regular advanced planning and preparation, increasing task engagement, practicing the elements of direct instruction, teaching learning skills, teaching social skills, altering teaching behavior as needed, increasing active student responding, peer tutoring and teaching behavior replacement skills.

Diversity encompasses numerous characteristics including socio-economic background, ethnicity, special needs, gender, and giftedness (Cazden, 2001). Today, classrooms are getting more varied and diverse with students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and students with a disability. It appears that teachers must meet the needs of all students successfully and individually to effectively teach a classroom of diverse students. This paper will first identify three challenges involved with ensuring that teaching strategies are

William Bennett John Hattie, and Bert Creemers all produced lists that identified research-based practices that were effective in the classroom. The writer has used strategies that work from their lists on a daily basis, including differentiating instruction and reinforcement with play or games. Cooperative learning has also been used frequently to give opportunities for students to collaborate in order to negotiate meaning, teach and learn from one another. Benjamin Bloom’s (76) unit of instruction “guides teachers to the most appropriate use of research-based strategies but does not constrain them as to day-to-day lesson design” (83). Instructional strategies are integrated into the unit plan, but should remain flexible in order to meet student needs and goals.

The types of learning strategies were focused on teacher-directed, teacher-facilitated, and learner-directed strategies. Both traditional and active learning principles were incorporated in the plan as well. The Traditional learning principle is focused primarily on teaching the student through a lecture or presentation, which is correlated as a teacher-directed strategy. This strategy is focused primarily on teaching the student through a lecture or

Group work and group projects help blossoming students develop key social skills that will help them later in life.

The authors of this article discuss the research that has been conducted to substantiate the fact that direct instruction is much more effective than minimally guided instruction. Throughout the past few years, there have been continuing arguments about the effect of instructional practices in the classroom. Some experts believe that students learn more efficiently through minimally guided instruction, also known as discovery learning, constructivist learning, and inquiry learning. Others believe that students need more direct instruction, and do not successfully learn when they are required to acquire information by themselves. Minimally guided instruction in inefficient because of the structure of the human cognitive system.

Teachers are less likely to have behavior problems when they build classroom communities because the students will have developed respect for their teacher and peers, therefore, limiting the likelihood a student causing disruptions that would distract or impact their peers in a negative manner. Students respect teachers who are, straightforward, honest, fair, and maintains control without being rude. It does not take long for students to become excited about learning. Students are eager to learn once they become members of a classroom community that offers encouragement, support, values learning and has successfully built and implemented strong community of learners. They are eager to keep their position within the classroom community, therefore, they will take the necessary steps to ensure they remain apart of the group. Social-contextual factors and personal issues are two of the most crucial components that affect student learning. Learning is a social process that needs both cultural and social factors addressed during the instructional process. This social aspect of learning also drives the determination to learn. Building classroom community can be used to

Group projects can help students develop a host of skills that are increasingly important in their daily living. This positive group experience, moreover, may contribute to student learning, retention and help them feel successful. Today’s group was small and unstructured in a safe and supportive environment to help students work on developing individualized coping strategies to increase their social performance. Topics of discussion included following instructions and waiting your turn.

Lastly, measuring the effectiveness of social constructivism in the classroom will take place in two different ways. When working on group projects or engaging in class discussion, students will be expected to demonstrate the five elements of cooperative learning: positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, and social skills (Moreno, 2010). Students will then be provided with rubrics so they are aware of how they will be individually assessed pertinent to group work. This is abstract and as a result, will be measured through direct evaluation because it allows the teacher to receive quality information on individual participation. The second measurement

Sharing and cooperation have passed the tests of time. As humans, we are constantly looking for that human connection and membership within a group. A complex of simultaneously applied instructional approaches, each reinforcing and/or complementing the other can enhance collaborative learning and social interaction amongst group members (Kreijns et al. p.338, 2003). Working together has never been so important, and effective teamwork never so stressed, bringing people together who would otherwise be easily divided with technology.

Clear strategy teaching is at the ultimate of good comprehension teaching. "Before" strategies inspire students' previous understanding and set a willpower for reading. "During" strategies benefits students in creating connections, monitor their understanding, create questions, and also stay motivated. "After" strategies offer students a chance to review, question, reflect, debate, and reply about text.

Being a member of a group helps develop interpersonal skills, such as speaking and listening, working with and motivating others and leadership. “ The interpersonal and organizational skills needed for managing a group project need to be highlighted in any assignment, so that students recognize the importance of such things as: listening, clarifying statements and providing good feedback; keeping discussions on task; probing assumptions and evidence; eliciting viewpoints and perspectives; mediating conflicts; and summarizing and presenting findings.” (Bosworth, 1994) These skills are very important to learn while in highschool, so that a strong communicational foundation is built for later in life, such as college and career opportunities. These communication skills also help with good team building skills, if one can communicate his/her thoughts more clearly to their peers then the team will be more fluid and able to solve the tasks at hand in a more timely fashion. This brings the argument to the need for a development in team working

I set up my classroom to encourage collaborative learning. Students will often work in groups, so they have opportunities to learn from each other. There are several activities

Effective differentiated instruction reflects where the students currently are in their educational stage and not where a teacher wishes them to be. This step is important; placing students either too high or too low in the instruction can be adverse to the teacher’s goal of helping all students. Developing lesson strategies for students that are too demanding may have a negative effect on performance and reinforce negative emotions concerning learning. Likewise, developing lesson strategies that do not challenge students to perform at their best can also have a negative effect. Some students that are not engaged by a teacher's instruction are left adrift waiting for new or more stimulating material. Engaging students in the learning strategy is the key ingredient in producing active learners.

Prior knowledge, experiences permits children to draw back on prior experience and background knowledge that may help them draw connections. As part of learning students need to be able to build their own knowledge based on both the experiences and the information they have learned. In a constructivist environment, it is key for students to be able to question themselves and apply new understandings to any prior knowledge, which helps the student develop critical thinking. In a classroom I consider it is vital for students to have time to explore outside a textbook. To make a connection with the world outside and reflect on experiences lived. Direct instruction is a strategy used by many teachers who believe that guided instruction is an effective approach to teaching. In a direct instruction environment the teacher sets objectives and has a lesson plan with a clear outline of what will be done in that class period. The teacher directs the lesson by lecturing to impart a set of skills that he or she wants the student to learn.