This question makes me think of one of my favorite words in the English language, culture. It is important to know the specific culture of your classes; how they act, their typical energy and participation level, how they work in groups, and many other factors. As educators we have to be flexible in almost everything we do, just because a lesson plan works wonderfully one year, doesn't mean it will continue to impress students in the future. One of the things you often hear from new teachers is that their time outside of the classroom consists of a lot of lesson planing, because they have yet to collect a variety of methods to teach each concept they need to. It is definitely difficult to teach in a manner that can be meaningful to the entirety of the increasingly diverse classrooms we find ourselves in. How exactly can we differentiate our teaching so that every student can learn? What exactly is the most important factor in effective teaching?
According to dictionary.reference.com (2015), to differentiate is to 'to form or mark differently from other such things; distinguish'. That is exactly what differentiation of instruction is, to change how you teach, or the lessons you plan, so that a concept is taught in different ways. This is important simply because not everyone learns in the same way, some people need visuals to learn more effectively, others, like myself, are much more of a lecture learner, and even more are hands-on learners. Learning style varies from student to student, but this doesn't mean a student can only learn through their preferred style. A hands-on student can learn just as much from a lecture as a student who prefers lecture, it just means that the concept may not come quite as easily or naturally to them. Mr. Black, my placement teacher, was a lecturer, his lessons consisted primarily of student guided lecture, letting students determine what gets focused on, by simply asking a question here and there during the lecture, this also increased student attention with the constant threat that they could be called on. Although lecture is his preferred way to teach, he always took one or two days out of the week to do some activity to mix up the teaching methods, and attempt to break up the monotony of an everyday lecture. All it takes is a day a week, change your style and help your students grow, you cannot be sure how many students will suddenly just understand an idea with an activity until you try, and if it doesn't work, don't scrap the lesson, wait until the right group of students come along.
What exactly is the most important factor in effective teaching?
The NCSS (2015) gives five factors for what they call 'powerful teaching' these factors are for the lessons to be: meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging, and active. Meaningful referring to lessons that stay with a student in a way they deem valuable. Integrative means not only to integrate all the disciplines of social studies into our lessons, but also to incorporate things like writing skills, into our lessons. Value-based stems from the idea that our purpose is to educate well-informed, responsible citizens. Challenging is self explanatory, just remember that everyone has limits. Active lessons get students thinking about more than just the content, but why the content is important. All of these are equally important in education, but what exactly does this mean for teachers? I believe that this really only gives us a small part of what we need to be effective teachers. I think it is important that we find the best way we can teach that works for us, Mr. Black was more comfortable lecturing, and when his class was polled on his performance, the vast majority praised him. A teacher down the hall from Mr. Black does many activities with her students, and there is no one to say that one of these teachers is more effective than the other. We have to make the classroom OUR classroom, we are going to be more effective teachers if we remember to differentiate our instruction, but primarily stick to what we are good at. Some teachers do not have the necessary emotion or humor to keep student's attention during a lecture, Mr. Black does, the teacher down the hall probably does not. It is up to us to combine the five NCSS factors into something that we can teach almost naturally.
References
Dictionary.com. (2015). Differentiating
Above Jerry talks about Elvis & Guitar Man. Part one with Jerry Reed. Jerry Reed Hubbard (March 20, 1937 – September 1, 2008), known professionally as Jerry Reed, and lovingly as the Snowman, was an American country music singer, country guitarist, session musician, songwriter, and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films. Jerry Reed Guitar Man; Gretsch G6120EC Eddie Cochran Tribute video review. Shelby GT500 Powered 1968 Ford Bronco - Jay Leno’s. Beneath The Skin Of A Pure Electric 1900bhp Monster; The Hidden Parts Stash Of The Pacific Northwest!!! The 2020 WCPM Social Distance Shootout @ Castrol R. Seized wheel bearing exploding off. I posted a few of his records since the inception of this blog back in January. The world will truly miss him, but at least we have his music to remember him. So in tribute to Jerry I thought I'd post another record from my stack of 45's from old Mr. This one's from 1970. 'When You're Hot, You're Hot' is a great song.
Mar 16, 2016 I'm Movin On - Jerry Reed (1971) elrancho-1.blogspot.com. I'm Movin On - Jerry Reed (1971) Published: March 16, 2016 10:11. 01 Love and War. Jerry Reed The Uptown Poker Club (1973) 1. Uptown Poker Club 2. Some Of These Days 3. Everybody Has Those Kind Of Days 4. Lay It On My Lady 5.
How exactly can we differentiate our teaching so that every student can learn?According to dictionary.reference.com (2015), to differentiate is to 'to form or mark differently from other such things; distinguish'. That is exactly what differentiation of instruction is, to change how you teach, or the lessons you plan, so that a concept is taught in different ways. This is important simply because not everyone learns in the same way, some people need visuals to learn more effectively, others, like myself, are much more of a lecture learner, and even more are hands-on learners. Learning style varies from student to student, but this doesn't mean a student can only learn through their preferred style. A hands-on student can learn just as much from a lecture as a student who prefers lecture, it just means that the concept may not come quite as easily or naturally to them. Mr. Black, my placement teacher, was a lecturer, his lessons consisted primarily of student guided lecture, letting students determine what gets focused on, by simply asking a question here and there during the lecture, this also increased student attention with the constant threat that they could be called on. Although lecture is his preferred way to teach, he always took one or two days out of the week to do some activity to mix up the teaching methods, and attempt to break up the monotony of an everyday lecture. All it takes is a day a week, change your style and help your students grow, you cannot be sure how many students will suddenly just understand an idea with an activity until you try, and if it doesn't work, don't scrap the lesson, wait until the right group of students come along.
What exactly is the most important factor in effective teaching?
The NCSS (2015) gives five factors for what they call 'powerful teaching' these factors are for the lessons to be: meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging, and active. Meaningful referring to lessons that stay with a student in a way they deem valuable. Integrative means not only to integrate all the disciplines of social studies into our lessons, but also to incorporate things like writing skills, into our lessons. Value-based stems from the idea that our purpose is to educate well-informed, responsible citizens. Challenging is self explanatory, just remember that everyone has limits. Active lessons get students thinking about more than just the content, but why the content is important. All of these are equally important in education, but what exactly does this mean for teachers? I believe that this really only gives us a small part of what we need to be effective teachers. I think it is important that we find the best way we can teach that works for us, Mr. Black was more comfortable lecturing, and when his class was polled on his performance, the vast majority praised him. A teacher down the hall from Mr. Black does many activities with her students, and there is no one to say that one of these teachers is more effective than the other. We have to make the classroom OUR classroom, we are going to be more effective teachers if we remember to differentiate our instruction, but primarily stick to what we are good at. Some teachers do not have the necessary emotion or humor to keep student's attention during a lecture, Mr. Black does, the teacher down the hall probably does not. It is up to us to combine the five NCSS factors into something that we can teach almost naturally.
References
Dictionary.com. (2015). Differentiating