Classroom Instruction that Works

Studies have found that achievement can be contributed 90 percent to natural born ability, socioeconomic status, and home environment. All three of these factors are out of the control of teachers and schools. Surprisingly however, only the remaining 10 percent of achievement is contributed to the quality of the school the student attends. Studies to do not take into consideration the individual teacher. Individual teachers and the strategies they bring to there students has a large impact on the achievement of their students. Teaching as a profession is transforming from an art to a science and data based business. The strategies presented in Classroom Instructions that Work are research based strategies that are statistically proven to increase student achievement.

The first of nine research-based ideals that the book targets is identifying similarities and difference. Four classroom practices are highlighted. All practices can be teacher directed, where the instructor defines the topic and parameters, or student directed, where the student defines the topic and parameters. The initial strategy suggested is comparing similarities and differences among a topic. The suggested graphic organizers to accompany this activity are a Venn and/or a Comparison Matrix. The second strategy involves giving your students opportunities to organize groups based on their similarities, or classifying. Classifying allows students to make generalizations about material and understanding why/how things fit into different categories. The suggested graphic organizers include a boxed table and/or a bubble chart. The third strategy is allowing your students to create metaphors to develop connections by an abstract or non literal relationship between topics or ideas. The final strategy under this category is creating analogies to identify relationships between pairs of concepts. The goal of all of the strategies under this category is to deepen a students understanding of a topic and make connections to known information.

The second ideal focuses on summarizing and note taking. It is pointed out that summarizing and note taking skills are two very important skills necessary for academic success. Under the summary heading, three strategies are suggested. The first is a rule-based strategy where the students delete and substitute information according to a prescribed set of rules. The second strategy is a summary frame, which is a series of questions posed by the teacher that is designed to highlight critical information. The final summarizing strategy is reciprocal teaching. Reciprocal teaching involves a lead student and a group of participating students. The lead student will start by summarizing the information they have. The group will ask the lead student questions. Then the lead student will clarify anything that is confusing. Finally, the lead student will ask the group to predict what will happen next. Under the note taking headline the author suggests that the teacher prepared notes are very helpful to students. It allows the students to know what is important and models effective note taking skills.

The third ideal focuses on recognition and reinforcement of effort. The authors point out that students may not be aware of the importance of believing in effort. It is suggested that teachers should provide students with personal and famous examples of when effort was directly related to achievement. It is also suggest that students may benefit from keeping track of their achievement in conjunction with their effort on a rubric. Recognition is a motivating factor for some students. The authors point out that studies say verbal recognition is better linked to achievement than tangible recognition. It is suggested that recognition should be personalized to the student. An example of that would be a student achieving a personal best, rather than the highest grade in the class. A pause, prompt, praise model is also recommended; pause a student when they are having difficulty, prompt them with a suggestion for improving performance, praise for improvement. Finally, concrete symbols of recognition such as awards and sticker charts may be used by teachers who use a large amount of verbal recognition.

The fourth ideal deals with homework and practice. The authors recommend that teachers set a policy so parents and students understand the purpose, amount, consequences, and amount of parental involvement needed. Homework should be purposeful and the teacher should provide high quality feedback in a timely manner. When having students practice a skill, the focus should be on accuracy and speed. The reasoning for practice should be to master a skill.

The fifth ideal focuses on nonlinguistic representations. The first suggested strategy is supplying your students with graphic organizers. The application possibilities with graphic organizers is limitless and very valuable to enhance student thinking. Another strategy is supplying physical models, also known as manipulative, to allow student to examine and investigate concepts. Pictures, both student drawn and mental, give students the opportunity to examine the details associated with content. The final strategy under this heading is allowing your students to engage in kinesthetic activities where they can use their body to investigate information.

Cooperative learning is the sixth ideal presented by the authors. The authors indicate that groups can be informal such as think pair share or turn to your neighbor, formal with specific directions and assigned roles, and based where the groups are long standing. It is cautioned that the sizes of groups should be contingent on task and level of management. It is also warned that allowing students to work in groups can be over used.

The seventh ideal says that it is an effective strategy to set objectives and provide feedback on student work. Objectives should be specific, yet flexible based on student needs and requests. One suggestion is to develop a contract that outlines student responsibility. Feedback should be timely, corrective, specific, and criterion based. It can also be in the form of student led peer critique.

Generating and testing a hypothesis is the next researched based strategy. If a student is able to set and explain reason behind a hypothesis, then they possess a high level of concept understanding. This strategy will also enhance decision making, problem solving, and investigation skills.

The ninth ideal involves cuing and questioning students. Students get more out of a lesson when they have to fill in missing information, thus it is suggested that a teacher ask questions that prompt the students to form inferences. Analytical questioning is also recommended to foster deeper student thinking.

Personal Reaction:

The authors of this book take great care in making a lot of suggestions in this book. Several of the suggestions are very interesting strategies that I will use in future instruction. Specifically, I plan to have my students write analogies in order to deepen their understanding of concepts. It was interesting to see the percentile gain associated with each strategy. With such an emphasis being placed on high stakes testing, it is reassuring to know exactly how effective the things we do in the classroom are. Studies such as this allow teachers to know beyond a reasonable doubt that they are in fact assisting the students to achieve. Conversely, I found a lot of the strategies to be very similar and almost redundant.