What is direct instruction?
Direct
instruction is when the teacher provides the information and facts to the students
for the first lesson of a unit. This type of instruction is skills-oriented,
therefore the students should be taking notes and paying close attention to the
content. According to Carnine
(2000) direct instruction is when “It emphasizes the use of
small-group, face-to-face instruction by teachers and aides using carefully
articulated lessons in which cognitive skills are broken down into small units,
sequenced deliberately, and taught explicitly” (pgs. 5-6). This is a teacher model approach, which means
the students should be interpreting and developing the new content information
they are given.
Planning
Implementation
Our introduction to this lesson was to have the students
watch a short video clip; however the trick to this was that the students
would not have any sound. The fourth grade students were told to pay close
attention and then after they reviewed the video, they were asked to share their
thoughts. Some expected responses we wanted to hear was that the American
Revolution is starting, the colonists were angry, or the British soldiers are shooting
the colonists. This was review for the students and then we got into our lesson
by explaining to them that they are going to learn what made them so angry and
the causes of the Revolutionary War. We then explained to the students why we
were learning about this and how it helped be citizens in the United States of
America. Our transition was that we were going to teach the students the causes
of the American Revolution and how they occurred one after the other. Lindsay
and I explained to the students that we had prepared 3D domino graphic
organizers for them to take notes during the presentation; however we did not
want them to be distracted by them. We explained to the students that if the 3D
domino graphic organizer was distracting them, we will walk over and take it
away and the students will be handed a worksheet as a graphic organizer.
Lindsay and I started to introduce the information
on the American Revolution and we would take turns talking, therefore we did
not talk over each other. As one of us will be in front of the classroom
presenting the information, the other teacher candidate will be controlling the
computer or walking around the classroom. After about three to four slides, we
will switch on the contemplation slide. Our contemplation slide focused on
asking the students questions on the information they just learned, therefore
we got an idea of where the students are with understanding the content
information. Our goal for the contemplation slide was to hear from various
students and have them actively participate the information they are learning,
along with using their notes to help guide them. When a student answers a
question, the class will be asked to put thumbs up if they agree and thumbs
down if they disagree with their answer. They also kept the students attention
during the lesson because since this is teacher-directed, the students do not
get a chance to talk that much. This pattern will continue throughout the
direct lesson, until we get to guided practice.
For
guided practice the student will be asked to go up to the SmartBoard and roll a
10-die. As partners, the students will ask and answer questions corresponding
to the domino with the same number that is rolled on the SmartBoard. During
this time, the students could take notes and ask their partner questions if they
did not understand a cause leading to the American Revolution. After this
activity, the students will be shown various pictures that will appear slowly
and the students will shout out the event. Once the students shout out which
event it is, they will then describe what they see in the picture and why they
thought it was that specific event. Based on the amount of time we have, our
next activity we planned was to have the students match each cause of the
American Revolution with its appropriate date on the SmartBoard timeline. A
student will be asked to come up and drag a cause and place it on the time line
appropriately. Once all the causes are placed on the timeline, as a class we
will review them to see if we agree or disagree.
For the closure to our lesson, the students will be
working in small groups that they regularly sit in, therefore this will allow
an easy transition. Each group will be given a dry-erase whiteboard to respond
to a SmartBoard jeopardy game. This will assess student’s knowledge of what
they learned in class today and it will allow Lindsay and I to see what we need
to work on as teacher candidates. Every group will be responding to every
Jeopardy question, therefore we can see every groups answer. Depending upon the time, the students will be
assigned an Instagram Caption Assignment, however if there is not enough time
given, the students will be assigned this for homework.
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| This was the front of the Instagram Caption Assessment. |
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| This is the back of the Instagram Caption Assessment. |
Reflection
As you can see from the videos
above of Lindsay and I teaching, we had faced some challenging aspects during
the lesson, but overall it went smoothly. Lindsay and I started the direct
instruction off by giving the students a video clip, but the trick to this was
that there was no sound. The purpose of having no sound was to have the fourth
graders develop and create their own thoughts based on the clip they saw. After
the students viewed the
video, they were asked, “What are we talking about?” The students replied, “The
American Revolution” and “Cannons and dust.” The video seemed to be successful
and have the 4th graders start thinking of what they would be working on the
next couple of weeks. Lindsay and I asked to hold up their thumbs if they
agreed, but if they did not agree they could hold their thumbs down. All the
students agreed with what the other students said about the video clip. The
questions Lindsay and I asked allowed the students to expand their
ideas, which demonstrated their prior knowledge of the American Revolution. The student’s responses were on track, therefore we moved
onto the focuser for this lesson, which was stated as, “You are right, the
colonists and the British soldiers are very angry. Today, you are going to
learn what made them so angry, the causes of the Revolutionary War!” Lindsay
and I told the students that they were going to be using an exciting tool for
note taking today. The students were given the note-taking tool at this time;
although this may seem distracting the students were told that if they fool
around with it they will be given a blank worksheet and this tool would be
taken away. The students were asked, “Why might we be given you dominos?” This
was to have them start to think about how dominos can be symbolized as the
causes of the American Revolution. The transition from the introduction to the
development was, “And now I will teach you about the causes and how they
occurred one after the other.” At this point the students were given the 3-D
dominos to begin note taking.
The students were very excited when they were given the dominos,
and I was very surprised that the students did not fool around with the 3D
dominos when they had to take notes. At first the students were confused with
the domino they should have been writing on, but once we clarified that they
seemed to be on task. On the slides the students had to write when they saw a
symbol of a corresponding domino, which helped keep the students on track. For
the first four events, I would remind the students which domino they should be
on. This helped engage them and also kept them on track. Some students did not
have enough time to write everything they wanted to write on the dominos,
however they were going to have time to fill it in later when working with
their partners. Overall I believe the students enjoyed using this 3-D domino graphic organizer. It allowed
them to see the order of events and kept their notes organized.
The
“Contemplation” slides helped to clarify the facts and order of causes that led
to the American Revolution. Some of the “contemplation” slides had questions
about how the Colonists or British felt. This clarified for the students how
each side should feel after a series of events. Lindsay and I made sure that we
emphasized the facts that one side was angry or wanted to boycott because it is
important for all the students to follow. I had expected responses in mind and
if a student did not fulfill that, I would ask other students to add onto that
event or ask another question to lead the students up to the full answer. A lot
of the students were very excited to answer the questions, which showed me that
they were paying attention and knew what was happening. All the “contemplation”
slides ended with a prediction question. This was a question every time because
I wanted to see what they thought may happen and hear their reasoning behind
it. Many students were on the right track and would get excited if their
prediction was correct. For the most part, the students knew the order of
events and what happened in each event to cause another one leading up to the
American Revolution. The students were still confused about the Intolerable
Acts and the Boston Tea Party. Otherwise, all the other causes were clearly
explained and organized. During the lesson, the students asked a lot of higher
level thinking questions. I would redirect them to the class to see what they
thought and then expand upon it. I believe all the students were paying
attention and engaged with the causes and interested to see what was going to
happen next. When Lindsay and I were presenting the PowerPoint, the students
were truly all listening at all times. Our voices and facial reactions had
enthusiasm and I also tried to provide real life examples that would help them
remember what was happened. When teaching students it is very important to show
them that you want to be the engaged teacher teaching them and that you are
interested in the subject that is being taught. Lindsay and I worked together
to make this lesson engaging to keep the students’ attention. I believe I
displayed enthusiasm when teaching some of the causes leading up to the
American Revolution.
The student’s loved the second activity we did in class. During
this activity, pictures would appear slowly and the students had to shout out
the event. The students then had to describe what they saw in the picture and
why they thought it was that specific cause. All the students got excited to
shout out the answers when they knew the event. There were some tricky pictures
in there, however it did not trick the students, except for one picture. That
picture was displaying the vocabulary word, ”boycott” and the students thought
it was the Stamp Act. The students were asked to describe the reaction to the
stamp tax. After discussing this, we all agreed that the picture was when the
colonists decided to boycott. Lindsay and I did not get to all three activities that we
had planned, however out of the two activities we used in class I would not do
the first activity or I would design it differently the next time. For the
first activity, a 10-die was rolled on the Smart Board and in partners, the
students were asked to answer questions corresponding to the domino with the
same number as the number that was rolled. For example, if the number two is
rolled, partners will have to focus their questions on domino two’s topic of the
Proclamation of 1763. Although this seemed to be clear, the students were
confused with what they had to do. The teachers were helping the students and
once the students did about two examples, they started to understand what to
do. I would pick one student to roll the 10-die on the Smart Board. This
engaged the students and allowed them to take notes form their partner about
the cause they were talking about. The pairs of students got to exchange their
notes, which was beneficial for them if they missed an important key element
from the presentation. The students had enough
background information to complete the guided practice activities. The fourth
graders also worked with either a partner or in small groups during these
activities, which allowed them to exchange notes and ideas about the ten causes
leading up to the American Revolution. The fourth grade students were also
allowed to refer back to their notes and discuss it with their peers near them.
This allowed me to see what students know and what they were confused about. If
students were confused about a certain cause or event, I would go over it.
The fourth graders loved the Jeopardy game and they were all
activity engaged. The students were broken up into small teams and every team
received a dry erase board to write their question on. All the teams had to
respond to every Jeopardy answer so the teachers could check for understanding.
We went through about five categories with Jeopardy and every time the students
knew the answer right away. This interactive closure activity was successful. By providing the students the
causes of the American Revolution under the domino effect, it was a very useful
tool for them. The students had a visual tool to look at with their notes. When
the students were asked to explain the domino effect with the causes of the
American Revolution, they had such detailed responses. This showed me that they
truly understood the significance of the domino effect and why we used it for
the causes of the American Revolution.
I believe the students met
the learning objective for this lesson. The causes that were taught they
understood and they showed me that in their Instagram Independent practices.
This worksheet also allowed the students to tell the teachers if they were
confused about anything and wanted to go over. The majority of the class could
identify and explain each snapshot picture that was given to them. Some
students had trouble explaining what happened but had some keywords that showed
me they were getting on the right track. Next time I teach I would improve on walking around and
getting other students to participate. I want to hear from everyone to make
sure that all the fourth graders are on the same page. I would also try to talk
louder and provide different examples to help students remember the causes
leading up to the American Revolution. Lindsay and I had a difficult time
getting the students’ attention when transitioning from guided practice to
closure and then to independent practice. Lindsay and I decided that we were
going to ask the teacher if she has a specific signal that is used consistently
that the students are familiar with in class. I believe our main focus should
next lesson should be to find a signal that works for the fourth graders
attention. Although we ran out of time and it was difficult signaling for the
student’s attention, teachers only improves their teaching through
experience and as I continue to teach, it will come easier to me.
Thank you for reading,
Works Cited
Carnine,
D. W. (2013, July 29). What is Direct Instruction? Retrieved March 10, 2014,
from http://www.education.com/reference/article/what-direct-instruction/
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