Direct and Student Centered Instruction (Reflection Journal #4)

I appreciated how our readings this week pointed out that effective lessons require many different teaching methods. Direct instruction and student-centered instruction are both needed, because they serve different purposes. We cannot forsake one for the other or our teaching will be unbalanced and our students will suffer. 

The section in chapter 7 on lesson structure and clarity particularly resonated. The authors discuss how effective teachers are organized, with a clear progression of material. They are also clear and efficient communicators, using words that highlight important concepts. Their teaching is direct and they give effective explanations using words that explicitly explain concepts and ideas. In addition to their language, they make sure to use visuals that help students understand the language. This is an important piece for ELL students and students with learning differences. 

While thinking about lessons being clear and organized, I couldn't help but think about how my current grade-level team plans our lessons and units. We work together to plan out the concepts we will be teaching during each instructional segment, but so far this year, we have been a little unorganized regarding the details of what we are teaching and when we are teaching it. We have the high level concepts planned, but the daily progression is much more vague. It has made teaching as a team more confusing for us as we are individually navigating a vague plan (while still trying to teach the content at the same time and in the same way, leading towards a common assessment). I am sure that the students are feeling the effects of this planning oversight to some degree as well. When we are unorganized and unclear on what we are teaching, the students will also be unclear on what they are learning. Any knowledge they gain in spite of our lack of clarity also runs the risk of being unorganized and disjointed, which makes retention and application more difficult for them. This is probably especially true at the primary level where I teach because they have not yet gained the skills necessary to organize their learning on their own. 

At one point, the authors discuss lesson pacing. I found their comments extremely interesting. I know that wait time is important; other classes and experience have impressed the importance of this aspect of teaching into me. It is often reported that teachers do not provide enough wait time for their students. However, the authors quote a student that found a negative effect when the teacher waited a mere 6 seconds! Six seconds is nothing and I'm skeptical that waiting only 6 seconds is considered an effective use of wait time. Many of my students require much more wait time that this. The study was completed on university students, so it's possible that the amount of wait time differs for primary grade students. 

In response to these readings, I would like to drill down into my team's pacing and lesson planning, so that I can gain more clarity on the progression and organization of our curriculum. This is so important that I need to spend time with this, even if my team decides not to plan together in that way. I can still determine a progression and organization that will serve my students and remain on pace with the other classes and administer the common assessments even if I am planning slightly differently. As I am doing this, I would like to make sure that I am using clear and direct language that highlights the most important concepts for my students as well. 

I would also like to observe and study my class's reaction to various wait times. Do they require more or less wait time? What is the highest wait time that provides the most benefit? I'm not exactly sure how I will accomplish this observational study in my class. It may require videoing several lessons and analyzing student participation in conjunction with different wait times. I will also need to observe across different subjects, because the students may require different wait times for different subjects. I'm intrigued to see what the outcome of these observations will be. I would also like to see if there have been any other studies done on wait time, but at a primary level.