Explicit Teaching - Essay Example

Running Head: EDUCATION Education Name Institution Explicit Teaching Explicit teaching lesson plan Expected learner outcome At the conclusion of the lesson (marketing lesson), the learners will be able to demonstrate a clear understanding the meaning of marketing and strategies used in various marketing activities. After completion of the lesson, students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of marketing mix by clearly explaining all the four elements of product, price, promotion and place. Lastly, the students will be in apposition to explain various marketing aspects such as recruitments of marketing staff, training and subsequent deployment into respective target market segments. All these will enable the learners to apply the theoretical acquired marketing skills into real world (practical) marketing activities. Description of the lesson The heading of the topic that will be tackled during the lesson is marketing. I intend to break down this topic into several subtopics after which every subtopic will be tackled at ago. I will start by defining marketing to make the students understand the meaning of marketing. This will be followed by discussion of the various strategies that are used in marketing and making activities. For instance, strategies such as handling of competitors, establishment of customer care units, market focus groups and other strategies will be discussed. After this, I will introduce a subtopic called marketing mix in which I intend to make a clear definition to make students understand its meaning. I will them go ahead to tackle the four elements of marketing mix which are product, price, promotion and place. I will then conclude the marketing mix subtopic by teaching various applications of the four elements of marketing mix. The last subtopic of my lesson will be on other aspects related to marketing (Van Keer, 2004). These will include discussion of how marketing staff members can be recruited, trained and deployed in various marketing segments to carry out various marketing activities and responsibilities. Task structure I will account for background knowledge by considering the knowledge already possessed by learners concerning the topic and its subtopics. I will evaluate the accuracy of the possessed knowledge and the degree to which the learners are able to access the background knowledge and apply it in learning new marketing skills. I will also account for the background knowledge by priming. Priming background knowledge will help to cultivate success because it addresses strategy deficits and memory that may be brought by learners to the topic of marketing. The priming of background knowledge will increase the chances of success for the students by motivating them to use the background knowledge in place (Becker et al., 1981). I will demonstrate the skills to students by tackling each and every concept of marketing separately and ensuring that all students understand a concept before moving to the next concept. I will ensure that students are attentive and participating to the learning activity thought the lesson. I will use repetition as a skill to emphasize on ideas that are key to the marketing field. I will also use practical examples and scenarios to explain both simple and complex concepts to enhance understanding (Slavin, 1995). Modeling guided practice will be provided by activities that will ascertain that students actually understood the skills and concepts of the lesson. I will be circulating within the classroom and providing assistance on activities under practice through worksheet illustration, discussions as well as experiments. This will ensure that students are able to handle do the tasks and be accountable for the information gained during the lesson. Guided practice activities will be both individual and cooperative in order to observe the mastery level of students, correct mistakes and help student requiring extra support to attain learning objectives. I will split students into pairs to work together on drawing of marketing structures during the lessons. I will also give comprehension marketing questions where students will be required to read silently and respond to the questions in the form of independent practice. Modeling and guided practice are connected in the sense that both of them are activities that promote either independent or cooperative learning (Van Keer, 2004). I will monitor the progress of my students by watching and listening to how they will be responding to questions. I will also administer a quick quiz towards the end of each subtopic to monitor and evaluate progress. Differentiation reflection Explicit teaching promotes differentiation through provision of multiple and diverse examples, elements and materials which support instructional content to cater for the varying needs of students. For instance, my explicit teaching lesson will help students in the marketing class to understand the elements of marketing through practical demonstration of how a marketer is supposed to approach target customers in the market segment. While maintaining the essential content, I will be able to promote differentiation by demonstrating marketing language and approaches in varying types of business (both complex and simple) to cater for varying needs of my students. Giving a diversity of examples and demonstrations enables students with varying needs (academic disabilities) to access and understand the topic being taught. Provision of multiple examples, elements and materials during the lesson will benefit certain students through giving them a certain learning perspective that they otherwise might not have realized. Application of explicit teaching in my lesson will enable my students to decide on the best learning option and the best examples to apply in the real marketing world (Slavin, 1992). Explicit teaching also promotes differentiation by ensuring that the content elements o the lesson are kept focused on the concepts and driven by principles. Explicit teaching puts emphasis on a teaching procedure that entails critical features and essential facts. There is very little focus on unnecessary facts, details and concepts since they are considered irrelevant to the lesson being taught. This means that explicit teaching promotes differentiation through enhancing the relevancy of the lesson contents and the ideas to be focused. My explicit teaching lesson will enhance differentiation through focusing on the relevant principles and elements of marketing. This will ensure that my students concentrate on marketing principles, concepts, facts and ideas that will be helpful in meeting their marketing needs in the marketing field (Stein et al., 1998). Explicit teaching promotes differentiation through support of background knowledge possessed by learners. It allows teachers to asses and evaluates learners’ knowledge about a certain topic before coming up with a teaching plan. This strategy can comfortably allow teachers to promote differentiation through incorporation of varying needs of learners to support their knowledge base. For instance, knowing the background knowledge of my students on marketing will help me design an instruction lesion plan that wills strengthen the knowledge base of these students by shedding more light on what is already familiar to them. This system also helps in clearing out misconceptions possessed by students concerning a particular area of study. My lesson will enable my students to make a comparison of what I will be teaching them concerning marketing and what they already know so that they can draw conclusions and clear out any concerns that pertains to marketing. As a teacher, my role will be to apply explicit teaching during my lesson to promote differentiation. Through explicit teaching, I will be able to use multiple teaching options, examples and approaches to address the varying needs of students. The fact that explicit teaching allows assessment of learners’ background knowledge prior to and during the lesson; this will be a great opportunity to develop a lesson plan that strengthens my learners knowledge base on marketing and marketing activities. Since explicit teaching provides room for free interaction between teachers and students; this will be my opportunity to asses the progress of my students, identify their needs and address them accordingly before my lesson comes to an end. Therefore, my main role as a teacher will be to come up with a teaching lesson plan that meets diversified needs of learners for differentiation purposes (Slavin, 1994). The students’ role will be to accurately disclose their background knowledge to their teachers and request for more clarification in areas that they needs help s that these is incorporated in the teaching plan as practice of differentiation. The opportunity for students is that they are provided with varying options to decide on the best approach use depending on their strengths and weaknesses. The structure of the practice helps in ensuring that differentiation happens since it allows teachers and students to take diversified teaching and learning approaches to practice and cater for diversity. Theoretical reflection According to differentiated instruction theory, instructors and their students form the two major parties of a classroom. The teacher is supposed to come up with an instructional program with varying principles, elements and teaching materials so that learners can have a chance of taking an appropriate approach to learning. On the other hand, the students are supposed to give in their needs from a diversified point of view so that the instructor is able to incorporate and address them in the instruction plan of the lesson. The theory is based on mutual dependence between the teacher and the learner to enhance relevance and accuracy of learning sessions. Differentiated instruction theory reflects on varying needs of students and the strategies that can be employed by teacher to fully meet and address these varying needs. The theory assumes that students have varying or differentiated learning requirements which require a differentiated learning approach (explicit teaching) to achieve the full benefits or goals of the lesson/course (Cohen & Spenciner, 2005). The lesson articulates this theory into practice by reinforcing how important it is to enhance effective and efficient management of classrooms during lesson hours. The theory also reminds teachers and instructors to put in extra effort and try to meet the challenges that accompany effective and instructional organizational practices. In order to manage, organize and give instruction to a classroom well, it is very important to enhance engagement. Teachers and students are both expected to engage one another during the lesson hours so that they can be able to interact and work towards attainment of the goals and objectives of the lesson. In this aspect, teachers and instructors are expected to offer their students a wide range and choice of learning tools in order to enable students choose the best tools that suits their learning needs and interests (Cohen & Spenciner, 2005). On the same note, teachers and instructor are required make appropriate adjustments of learning materials to be able to adjust and provide varying level of the difficulty of the materials. This is encouraged because different learners and students have different abilities of learning new ideas. Ideas which are very complex may sound scaring to some learners and may make them de-motivated unlike other brilliant learners. Therefore, the only way to make learning fair is to adjust the learning materials into varying levels of complexity so that each ad very learner with varying academic abilities shave their needs and capabilities catered for. For instance, my marketing lesson articulates this theory into practice by provision of varying approaches to marketing in order to provide varying levels of scaffolding to my students’ so that their attention during the lesson is gained and maintained throughout the lesson (Kazioff et al., 2000). Considering my lesson, free interaction with my students, provision of varying marketing scenarios, monitoring and testing of progress is valuable demonstration of how this theory is applicable to my lesson. Provision of worksheets, drawing papers and live demonstrations of marketing activities, marketing languages and other aspects of marketing is also another articulation of how practical the theory is to my lesson. For effective learning, differentiated instructional theory applies where students’ demands for consideration of certain subtopics during the lesson so that they can be able to understand and comprehend the information received. In this aspect, students are allowed to ask varying questions, clarifications and repetition of certain information delivered during the lesson for understanding purposes. Dividing the main topic into subtopics and handling the subtopics one at ago enable the learners to grasp the ideas step by step seek clarification where possible, ask questions and avoid getting confused in the course of the lesson. All these practices are in conjunction with the common explicit teaching methods that enhance affective learning by offering learners a choice of content, learning tools as well as provision of adjustable levels of topic challenges and learning context. This makes the student’s learning environment flexible with varying learning contexts Cohen & Spenciner, 2005). Task analysis Task analysis lesson plan Expected learner outcome By the end of the first objective set, I expect learners to be well familiarized with the lighting system of a car including switching off the lights, moving the switch to parking light position and switching on the headlights. While the headlights are on, I expect learners to be able to properly tilt the switch to either full light or dim light mode. The learners should also be able to know how to flash the light and be aware of the purpose of flashing the light. Apart from knowing how to operate the lighting system of a car, I also expect learner at the end of the lesson to be able to tell when exactly a certain type of lighting activity is required (Killen, 2003). Description of the lesson context and the task analyzed activity As a teacher, I will be teaching some students from our institution’s driving school how to operate the lighting system of a car and apply the skills in various driving circumstances. First, I will create an analysis of the key features of a car’s lighting system so that the learners are able to see and use the system from the seat of the driver. In this aspect, I will consider the three main features of the lighting system which are switching the lights off, switching on the headlights and the parking lights as well. After the learners are well familiarized with the three basics, I will introduce another lighting system feature which will be switching on full lights, dim lights and flashing the headlights. This will be a step to narrow down from just using the headlights to application of the headlights in various circumstances. After the students are fully familiarized with the lighting system of a car, I will take a step further explain to them the purpose and the context under which each and very lighting actiuvity is required while driving. This will be the last step in my lesson (theory) in preparation of the students for practical application of the knowledge gained during the lesson (Alberto & Troutman, 1998). Description of the teaching procedure The students are being introduced to learning the lighting system of a car for the first time and completely unaware of the steps to be taught to them. Therefore, I will first gather the information required by the learners in order to come up with the content to be included in the instruction. Application of task analysis in this step will enable me come up with a lesson content that involves only what the learners need to attain the goals and expected outcomes to alleviate the program. For instance, we will take the switch and identify the three positions of parking lights, head lights and off mode. After identification, we will seek more information or analysis of headlights. Additional analysis of headlights will enable us identify or discover other positions such as high-beam lights, dim mode and flash mode. We will continue with additional analysis of the lighting system to level where the learners will be able to clearly understand the content of the instructional procedure and be in apposition to make practical application of the same (Alberto & Troutman, 1998). During my lesson, I will introduce scaffolding by providing learners with appropriate resources, guides and templates on the lighting system of a car to support them in learning the new concepts and skills that are being newly introduced to them. As my students will be developing autonomous strategies of learning, I will gradually remove the resources to enable students gain own cognitive and affective knowledge as well as learning skills. I will alter the stimulus materials to make the learning process more achievable through analysis of the needs of learners and coming up with an instructional content that exactly address what the learners’ needs and avoid unnecessary content. This will be possible thorough analysis and focusing on the learner objectives and learner outcomes. Monitoring progress Using task analysis as applied during baseline, I will monitor progress by giving tests after every task analysis and allow students to post their results on a discussion board for comments from fellow students. This will enhance interactive learning and allow me to asses the progress after every analysis step. Differentiation reflection There are several ways in which task analysis promotes differentiation within the learning context. First, task analysis enables the teacher or the instructor to analyze the topic in question and narrow it down into what is exactly needed by the learners. In doing so, task analysis help the teacher to come up with an instructional content that includes only what is relevant and needed by the learner without wasting time on matters that are not relevant to the topic. In this aspect, the teacher analysis the task in consideration with the goals, objectives and expected learner outcomes so that a well planned, relevant and appropriate instructional content is developed. In this way, task analysis strives to abolish the traditional teaching system where a teacher provides lots of materials and resources to students which give students hard time to analyze what is relevant and what is not relevant (Walters, 2000). Another way in which task analysis promotes differentiation is through enhancement of cognitive and affective skills to enable learners gain skills and knowledge to enable them develop autonomy in learning. As task analysis begins, most of the learners are newly introduced to the topic and are unable to learn or gain sufficient skills for autonomy in learning. Therefore, the teacher has to provide supplementary resources such as guidelines, reading materials and templates to give background knowledge to learners. The advantage with task analysis is that as the topic is broken down in simple subtopics, some of the resources and learning materials are gradually withdrawn by the teacher to enable learners develop own learning skills and means of acquiring knowledge. As this goes on, the learners are able to develop their own cognitive and affective skills that help them continue with the learning process without supplementary resources. Task analysis therefore literally facilities the process of learners becoming autonomous in learning activities (Alberto & Troutman, 1998). Task analysis also promotes differentiation through provision of skills necessary to children with special needs such as autism and other individuals with challenges learning. Task analysis enhances this idea by enabling the teacher to break down the main idea or instruction into component pieces to form a chain. The teacher then takes step to tackle each piece at ago till the whole chain in completed. The rationale is that before moving from one piece to the next piece in the chain, you must have understood the previous piece. In this aspect, a teacher is able to reward and motivate children with special needs after very step or piece of learning the skill. This system of teaching enables individual with special needs to consolidate pieces of an idea bit by bit till they are able to handle the whole idea. This is because some individuals are unable to digest ideas the way they are unless the idea is broken down into manageable pieces and task analysis exactly addresses this. Final evaluation is done by making the learners repeat the steps independently to ascertain whether they have gained the skill or not. As a teacher, my role is to asses the needs of learners, analyze the topic and break it down into simple subtopics according to the expected learner outcomes, goals and objectives for relevancy and for easy understanding. Task analysis creates opportunities for me through enabling me use the most appropriate teaching procedure that only involves instructions that are relevant to the topic and the learners. As a teacher, I will only concentrate on what my students needs and save time on what would have been considered irrelevant (Westling & Fox, 2004). The students’ roles in task analysis is to clearly state what they require so that the instruction content involve their needs. They can also demand for breakdown of ideas into parts that are easy to understand and practice. Task analysis creates opportunities for students through provision of easy mode of learning and enhancing their ability to develop cognitive and affective skills for autonomy in learning. The structure of this practice is important in ensuring that the varying needs of students are addressed and at the same time limit time wastage on ideas, information and instructions that are not relevant or goal focused. References Alberto, P.A., & Troutman, A.C. (1998). Applied behavior analysis for teachers (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Merrill/Prentice-Hall. Becker, W., et al. (1981). The direct instruction model: Making schools more effective. New York: Academic Press, Inc. Cohen, L., & Spenciner, L.J. (2005). Methods for teaching students with mild and moderate disabilities: Research based practices. New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall. Killen, R. (2003). Using direct instruction as a teaching strategy. In Effective Teaching Strategies: Lessons from Research and Practice. Thomson Social Science Press. Kazioff, M., et al. (2000). Direct instruction: its contribution to high school achievement. Wilmington: University of North Carolina Slavin, R.E. (1995). Research on cooperative learning and achievement: what we know, what we need to know. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 14(2), 21-28. Slavin, R.E. (1994). Student teams-achievement divisions: STAD. Journal of Learning and Technology, 32(2), 214-221. Slavin, R. E. (1992). When and why does cooperative learning increase achievement? Theoretical and empirical perspectives. New York: Cambridge University Press. Stein, M., et al. (1998). Direct instruction: integrating curriculum design and effective teaching practice. Intervention in School and Clinic, 33(4), 227-234. Van Keer, H. (2004). Fostering reading comprehension in fifth grade by explicit instruction in reading strategies and peer tutoring. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 74(1)37-70 Walters, L. (2000). Putting cooperative learning to the test: Harvard Education Letter Research online. Retrieved October 20, 2004 from http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/2000-mj/cooperative.shtml Wolery, M., & Wilbers, J.S. (1994). Including children with special needs in early childhood programs. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Westling, D. L., & Fox, L. (2004). Teaching students with severe disabilities. Columbus: Pearson Merril. Ziegler, S. (1981). The effectiveness of cooperative learning teams for increasing cross-ethnic friendship: Additional evidence. Human Organization, 40, 264-268. Read More