Differentiate Your Direct Instruction:
Make Content Accessible to All Students
By: Stacy Davison
Differentiate
Your Direct Instruction: Make Content Accessible to All Students was an
informative article on the different ways teachers can deliver information to
students. The author, Stacy Davison, states, “Being an educator means you have
accepted the challenge of figuring out how to be that bridge. How you deliver
your instruction matters and will determine whether or not that content is
accessible to all of the diverse learners in your class.” After reading the
article and from my past experiences, I have realized that students learn at different
rates and by different methods. She gives quick tips for making your direct
instruction more accessible to all students: Use a Variety Mode of
Communication, Add More Time for Student Talk and Processing Time, Show and
Tell, and When in Doubt Sketch It Out. She called the article the new teacher
survival guide.
The
first section Variety Mode of Communication, in this section she recommend teachers
to use more than one type of communication. Using more than one mode of
communication means that your students will have more than one opportunity to
understand. If I explain the lesson orally, I’m targeting those auditory
learners. Or during a lesson I put some of the key ideas and phrases on the
board that’s to help the visual learners and ELL students have a chance of
understanding. From this section I realized how important it is to communicate
the material that is understandable to all students and their learning
behaviors.
The
second section Add More Time for Student Talk and Processing Time, in this
section Stacy Davison states, “When planning your direct instruction, try to
keep lecturing and teacher talk to a minimum.” Students benefit from having
opportunities to share ideas with each other and process information throughout
the direct instruction portion of the lesson. One activity I learned in
precious course that she also mention was Turn and Talk. This is an easy method to get students
talking and processing during instruction. This is an activity I look forward
to using in my future classroom. It’s interesting to listen to the conversations that the students have during turn and talk.
The
third section Show and Tell, some students learn by doing. This is a great
section to incorporate a project based learning activity. This will be a great
way to help student who learn best doing hands on activities. From this section
I will remember that modeling is a powerful teaching tool too!
The finally
section When in Doubt Sketch It Out, Stacy Davison states, “Drawing is a
powerful strategy that helps the brain make connections and you don’t have to
be a confident artist to make an impact!” Have the student to draw what comes
to mind when they hear a word will help them make connections to the new words.
I like to think of content clues.
From this article I learned no matter what
combination of instructional strategies you choose, you are giving your
students more opportunities to build understand and make connections.
Differentiation is the process of making information accessible and meaningful
to all students and it starts with your direct instruction.
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