High-Leverage Practice 22: Instruction

I am going to discuss High-Leverage Practices as mentioned on the CEC website organized around four aspects of practice. I hope you will join in the conversation!

HLP22 Provide positive and constructive feedback to guide students’ learning and behavior.

I think it is important to give feedback as soon as possible in order to help students be more successful in class.

I remember my school days when I would turn in a paper and not get it back for weeks. Meanwhile, there were other papers that had to be turned in. How could I make my papers better if I didn’t know how I did on the earlier ones? I would get back the first paper with corrections or suggestions but meanwhile, I had turned in two other papers already with a lot of the same mistakes. If I had known sooner, I could have corrected them before turning them in. I feel this set me up for failure instead of helping me. Plus, after making the same mistakes without knowing they needed correcting was also turning into a habit that would be harder to correct.

I also think it is important to give positive feedback as well as constructive feedback. It is too easy to criticize and find things wrong but for some reason, it is harder to look for the good things that the student does. Many students are happy with negative attention because it is better than no attention and this becomes another bad habit that is learned. I want my students to like positive feedback better than the negative and strive to do better in order to get attention.

When I get classwork that needs to be graded, I try to get it back to them by the next day we have class. I want them to see what mistakes they made so that they won’t make it on the next assignment. I also want them to see the results of good grades if they have worked hard so they know that their hard work was not in vain. The good grades will show that their work paid off and they need to continue this trend. They will learn to take pride in their work.

By giving feedback as quickly as possible, it is easier to change the student’s behavior for the positive. The longer the feedback is delayed, the harder it is to change feedback.

If you wait too long to give constructive feedback, the student might have forgotten what they had done and won’t know how to change their behavior. They also might deny the behavior and it can turn into an argument which is not very constructive.

If you wait too long to give positive feedback, the student might do something to get negative feedback if they feel they have been ignored.

Feedback is one of the key elements to a student’s success in the classroom.

When do you give feedback to a student? Please share.

High-Leverage Practice 21: Instruction

I am going to discuss High-Leverage Practices as mentioned on the CEC website organized around four aspects of practice. I hope you will join in the conversation!

HLP21 Teach students to maintain and generalize new learning across time and settings.

I’m always happy when my students learn new skills, but it is important that they are able to use these skills outside of my classroom.

I remember when my children were growing up and I wanted to make sure that I taught them good manners. I had them use “please” and “thank you” at home but did they remember to use them when they were with other people? I wanted them to not interrupt others, chew with their mouths closed, and be polite but I had no way of knowing if they were doing that when I wasn’t around. When other people would come up to me after spending time with my children, I was filled with pride when the adults told me how well-behaved my children were. I knew that some of the things that I had taught them were being used when they were away from me.

In the same way, I want my students to be able to use the skills that they learn in my classroom during other situations.

One day a student came back to my class and proudly announce that he helped a lady at the grocery store. We had just finished lessons on writing out a check and he said that while he was at the store, an elderly lady had trouble filling out her check because of arthritis in her hand. He offered to help her and was so happy that he knew exactly what he needed to do. This was a perfect example of maintaining and generalizing his new learning during a different situation.

It is important to encourage students to look for opportunities to try out their new skills in other situations and come back to class to share their experiences. This may give other students ideas on how to use these skills. The more that the students practice these skills, the easier it will be to retain this new learning.

How do you teach students to generalize their new learning to other situations? Please share.

Photo by Kien Nguyen on Unsplash

High-Leverage Practice 20: Instruction

I am going to discuss High-Leverage Practices as mentioned on the CEC website organized around four aspects of practice. I hope you will join in the conversation!

HLP20 Provide intensive instruction.

There are ways to intensify instruction that should be taken into consideration. Here are some examples of ways to do this so that students can be more successful in the classroom.

Give additional instructional time. It may take longer for students to grasp the material. Don’t try to rush them to get to the next concept. Make sure that they fully understand and can master the concept that they are working on.

Move student to smaller small group size. If the smallest group size of two isn’t working, the student may need more one on one instruction.

Duration of instruction refers to the amount of time each day the instruction is provided, the frequency with which instructional sessions are delivered, and the number of weeks the intervention lasts.  The student may need more minutes per day of instruction in order to have enough time to process new information.  Getting this instruction more often may also be necessary. Instead of three times a week, the student may need help daily. Instead of just four weeks of instruction, the student may need to have eight or twelve weeks of instruction. This duration of time can be adjusted as needed.

  

Individualizing instruction to meet the student’s need may need to be done. By giving a pretest, I can see what skills my student may be weak in. If the student is having trouble with foundational skills, I can’t expect him to work on more complex skills that build on that foundation. Even if the rest of the class has moved on, I may need to individualize instruction for one or two students. This is why Universal Design for Learning is so important. Taking into account different learning styles and needs, instruction can be designed to help the student be more successful.

What other ways would you intensify instruction? Please share.

Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash