Instruction
To understand how well students learn, instruction is needed. Instruction is defined as the strategies students will use to master the content and skills determined in curriculum. Students must determine the best way to learn. Once they understand what they are learning, how will they show mastery? and why they are learning it, according to Crowe and Kennedy.
You can review How to Plan Curriculum using SLP Guiding Questions to plan what students are learning.
Plan Instruction Using Strategic Learning Practice (SLP)
A teacher can move a student toward ownership of their learning by strategically deciding when to offer the following three learning practices:
| Strategic Learning Practices | Each student must answer the following questions | Reflection: How well do you develop students to own how they are learning? |
|---|---|---|
| Instruction 1: Each and every student is supported by opportunities for meaningful engagement using structured student-to-student communication. | How does engaging in conversations with my peers push my learning? How do I participate in these conversations? What is my role as both a speaker and listener? | Student communications build toward mastery of the relevant standards and measurable and achievable learning outcomes. Multiple and varied opportunities for student communication are provided. Student communications are structured to provide rigorous and high-quality conversations. Structured communications include reciprocal speaking and listening opportunities for each student. |
| Instruction 2: Each and every student is supported by opportunities for meaningful engagement using effective instructional strategies. | How does engaging in conversations with my peers push my learning? How do I participate in these conversations? What is my role as both a speaker and listener? | Instructional strategies build toward mastery of the relevant standards and measurable and achievable learning outcomes. Instructional strategies require high levels of active participation. Instructional strategies account for the different needs of your students. Students must reflect on the purpose and value of the instructional strategy. |
| Instruction 3: Each and every student is supported by opportunities for meaningful engagement, in which instructional time is efficiently used. | How much time do I have to learn this? How can I use my time most efficiently? How can these routines help me in the future? | All time is used to meaningfully engage students toward mastery of the relevant standards and measurable and achievable learning outcomes. The pace keeps all students actively participating. Routines are used to maximize instructional time and exclude nonproductive time. |
In Strategic Learning Practices, authors lay out the following:
- Clearly define each learning practice
- Describe what implementation looks and sounds like in the classroom
- Share teacher planning questions and offer examples of how students have been supported with these learning practices in various content areas and grade level
- Explain how these practices directly lead to increased student ownership
Strategic Learning Practice Instruction 1
Instruction 1: Each and every student is supported by opportunities for meaningful engagement using structured student-to-student communication.
For SLP instruction 1, each student must answer the following questions for students to own their learning regarding instruction:
- How does engaging in conversations with my peers push my learning?
- How do I participate in these conversations?
- What is my role as both a speaker and listener?
Crowe and Kennedy define each aspect of this practice:
Opportunities are those chances for students to actively engage. The greater the quantity and quality of these opportunities, the higher the probability of student learning.
Meaningful engagement occurs when students are involved in interactions that directly lead to increased understanding or mastery of the learning outcome.
Structured implies these interactions have a purpose, a value, and a goal. The teacher or students can plan these interactions, but everyone should be clear on their role in the interaction.
Student-to-student communication is an interaction between students, in which they can push their thinking and understanding of the learning through speaking and listening.
What does the students’ interactions look like in the classroom?
I found an example in the book Engagement by Design: Creating a Learning Environment Where Students Thrive by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, Russell J. Quaglia, and Dominique Smith. Fisher and Frey provided Mark Castro’s classroom as an example.
Entering Mark Castro’s classroom, visitors notice the range of interactions students have within the classroom. Some groups are engaged in animated discussions, and others are sitting knee to knee, talking with a partner. At one table, a group of students discuss the questions they want to ask another group.
“I think we should first ask about the big idea,” Andrew says, “like why the author wrote this.”
Tierra agrees, “I like that because I don’t think we should start with the details, because then it gets too boring to find the information right there.”
“But I think we should have some detail questions ready, because there are some important things to remember, but they can come after the big ideas,” Brianna adds. “Remember, we’re supposed to make sure they understood this [Pointing to the paper]. Who knows how we will be asked to show that we understood? So, I think we need to make sure that details are included.”
Andrew responds, “Good point. Can we each write one question and then ask each other the questions, so that we can test them out and talk about them?”
The group gets to work.
Background information on Mr. Castro Students
- All Mr. Castro students are at risk for educational failure in one way or the other.
- All students live in poverty and many have attended multiple schools.
- Several students are learning English as an additional language.
- Five out of 33 students identified disabilities.
When asked Mr. Castro about his students’ achievement, his humble replied, “My students want to learn”. “They just need to be shown the way.”
Fisher and Frey believe Mr. Castro students achieve because they are engaged in learning.
Implementing the Practice
Recap: The unit we are covering is The Power of Friendship, based on the story “Charlotte’s Web”. The skill is to identify and describe specific character traits using evidence from the text.
Since meaningful engagement happens in those times when students are involved in interactions that directly lead to increased understanding or mastery of the learning outcome, the unit focuses on engaging discussion activities in describing character traits and they are:
- Use Mentor Texts: Select texts with well developed characters to help students identify character traits, motivations, and feelings. Books like “Each Kindness” and “The Day the Crayons Quit” are great examples.
- S.T.E.A.L Method: Encourage students to analyze characters using the S.T,E.A.L acronym, which stands for Speech, Thoughts, Effect on Others, Actions, and Looks. This method helps students organize their thoughts and provides a structure way to analyze characters.
- Anchor Charts and Graphic Organizers: Use aids like anchor charts to outline character traits and actions. Graphic organizers can help students track character development and changes throughout a story,
- Role-Playing and Discussions: Engage students in role-playing activities or discussions to explore characters’ perspectives and motivations. This can deepen their understanding of the roles of the characters in the story.
- Storytelling: Use storytelling and discussions to explore character personalities and relationships.
To provide multiple, varied opportunities for student communication, The Power of Friendship in Charlotte’s Web unit lesson provides discussions like the following:
- After reading the first few chapters of Charlotte’s Web aloud, discuss the initial relationship between Wibur and Fern. How does Fern show friendship to Wilbur?
- Continue reading the next chapters and focus on the relationship between Wilbur and Charlotte. How does Charlotte demonstrate friendship?
- Discussion: Analyze how the actions of Charlotte and Wilbur demonstrate the theme of friendship. Use evidence from the text and video.
- Discussion: Each group presents their web to the class, explaining the connections and examples of friendship.
You want to ensure students participate in the discussion and that the conversations are focused, and in complete sentences, a sentence frame can be provided. For example, Charlotte demonstrated friendship by showing Wilbut __________. Sentence frame helps students be more focused, meaningful conversations that push their learning while simultaneously using academic language.
Students should use the skills in various situations. You want to help them own this information. Therefore, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
- How will I share this information with my students?
- How will I check that my students understand the goals of the conversation?
As a teacher, you need to provide guidance on the role of the speaker and listener in learning from day one. Students have to share ideas and listen to others. Throughout the lesson, discuss with students what we have talked about and how the conversations helped us. This way, it means we confirm what we knew, it stretched our learning, or it made us think differently.
You can review discussion questions using a graphic organizer from the previous lessons. This way, students know what they were talking about and why.
Students need to understand the value of owning their own learning. You need to determine the following:
- How will my students understand that reflecting on the instructional aspects of the learning supports ownership of their learning?
To help students reflect on the instructional aspects of the learning, teachers can share conversations like the following:
- Share what conversations you and the students had about learning.
- How the conversations confirmed what we knew, stretched what we were learning, or made us think differently.
Crowe and Kennedy pointed out that when students share, it is not just about the skill or concept. We need to reflect on how talking and listening specifically helped us learn more.
In summary, teachers’ instruction need to:
- provide multiple opportunities to make meaning by sharing with other learners,
- Speaking and listening about learning, and
- Building on one another’s thoughts and ideas.
Strategic Learning Practice Instruction 2
Instruction 2: Each and every student is supported by opportunities for meaningful engagement using effective instructional strategies.
For students to own their learning regarding instruction, each student must answer the following questions:
- How does engaging in this instructional strategy support my learning?
- How can I use this instructional strategy in the future?
- What is the value of reflecting on my learning?
