Reading Circle

Title of the book               : I will explain only chapter 3 the title ” Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons”

Author                                  : Doung lemos

Genre of the book          : Education

Publication date               : 2010

Number of pages             : 39 pages

Level of difficulty             : On a scale of difficulty is 5 medium because something i fond new vocabulary. 

Summary                             :

Chapter 3 – Structuring and Delivering Your Lessons

Champion teachers plan a deliberate progression in their lessons in which the responsibility for being able to do the work is gradually transferred from teacher to student, sometimes known as “I/We/You.” Some peopleknow it as direct instruction, guided practice, and independent practice. The “I” part of the lesson is when the teacher introduces information or models a process and walks students through examples. The “We” follows when the teacher asks students to complete examples with less and less assistance. In the “You” part, students have multiple opportunities to practice the work on their own. What is challenging is deciding when to move to the next step. In some classes students do independent work before theyare ready and in others, the teacher does all the demonstrating without giving the students a chance to practice independently. Below are some techniques to help with this progression.

“I” Techniques

Technique 12: THE HOOK –When appropriate, use a short, engaging introduction to excite students about the material. You can use a story, an analogy (single replacement bonds in chemistry are like dancers choosing partners), a prop (a globe and a flashlight to show the earth’s rotation), a challenge (“See ifyou can translate this Shakespearean line into plain English!”), or other hooks.

Technique 13: NAME THE STEPS –Champion teachers help their students learn complex skills by breaking them down into steps and often naming those steps. Giving the steps a name helps students recall those steps. For example, to help students learn to make an inference, one teacher broke this down into three steps (figure out the context, look for an appositive –a restatement of the word’s meaning in the sentence, and find relationalwords –like and, but, and because.) Then to make this more memorable, more “sticky,” she used the acronym CAR for the three parts and made up the phrase, “To gather the clues, you’ve gotta drive the CAR!”

Technique 14: BOARD = PAPER –In addition to teaching content and skills, teachers need to teach how to be a student. In this technique, the teacher models for students on the board how they should take notes. You start by making the board a mirror image of their papers, and then as students grow they learn to make decisions about how to take notes and what to include.

Technique 15: CIRCULATE* –Move around the classroom to both engage students and hold them accountable. Don’t expect proximity to be enough. It’s important to move strategically throughout the entire classroom, continue to face the class as much as possible, and to engage when you circulate. Assess and respond to student work as well as check for understanding.

“We” Techniques

Technique 16: BREAK IT DOWN –When students don’t understand, break down the material into its parts to focus on the problematic area. Champion teachers don’t simply repeat the question, they think about the part of the material that most likely caused the confusion and ask smaller, simpler questions about this part. The goal is to provide the smallest hint possible and do it quickly. This is a challenging technique and it is best to prepare for this during planning by considering possible wrong answers and cues to use for those errors. There are many ways to break down the material, such as the suggestions below:

•  Provide an example. If asking for the definition of a prime number, provide an example, “7 is one, but 8 is not.”

•  Provide context.To help a student who does not understand ancient, “I hope nobody ever calls me ancient.”

•  Provide the missing (or first) step. “What do we always do when the numerator is larger than the denominator?”

•  Eliminate false choices.“If it were a verb, it would be an action. Is owneran action?”

Technique 17: RATIO –To help students do moreof the cognitive work (instead of the teacher) use techniques such as feigned ignorance (“Wait, I can’t remember what’s next”), involving students when you are at the board (“6 plus 8 is what, Sarah?”), having students explain why and how, asking students to support answers with evidence, and asking students for more rigorous thinking by providing an additional example or a more precise and richer answer.

Technique 18: CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING –Good drivers check their mirrors every five seconds. It would be far too costly to wait for an accident to learn what they are doing wrong. Teachers also need to check for student understanding frequently while they are teaching to avoid the costly result of waiting until a final assessment. First you need to gather the data, then you need to respond to that data to insure learning occurs. Gathering Data –Traditionally, a teacher would ask students to name a cause of the Civil War and three students would get it wrong and the fourth one would get it right. The teacher would think, “Oh, good they finally got it.” However, the champion teacher thinks, “Only one of four students understands this, I need to circle back.” By samplinga smaller group of students who are representative of the larger group, teachers can learn about student understanding. It is important to ask severalstudents at different ability levels for an answer to provide enough data. To insure your data is accurate, you should also check for reliability(do students get the answer correct several times in a row) and validity (is the question measuring the type of material you are ultimately responsible for). There are two ways to gather data –by asking questions, and through observation. To observe, circulate and look for the number andtypes of errors students are making. Consider tracking this data on a sheet of paper for later reference. Another way to observe is to use “slates” (paper or dry erase boards) for students to hold up their answers so you can check for understanding. You can also use nonverbal methods to gather data as well, such as, “Hold up one finger if you got answer A and two fingers if you got B.”Responding to Data –Teachers are usually better at checking for understanding than responding to the data. However, thisis the crucial second part. There’s no sense in continuing on if students don’t understand. It’s vital to stop and correct the misunderstanding, and only then move on. A lack of understanding that continues for hours or days is only more difficult to correct. Instead, the champion teacher stops and reteaches the material in a different way, reteaches the problematic step (“I think we’re struggling when

we get to remainders.”), identifies the challenging terms (“I think the term denominatoris giving us some trouble.”), reteaches at a slower pace, or identifies struggling students (“Push ahead in your packets while I work with a few of you up front.”).

“You” Techniques

Technique 19: AT BATS –In baseball, to perfect your swing, you need as many “at bats” --or practice sessions batting –as possible. In the same way, students need lots and lots of practice to master a new skill entirely on their own. Also make sure students can solve questions in various formats. Because some students reach mastery more quickly, have bonus problems to push those students further.

Technique 20: EXIT TICKET –By collecting answers to one or a few questions at the end of class you can gather important information about student understanding. What percentage of your students got it right? What mistakes were made? What in your lesson might have led to the confusion? This short assessment provides critical insight and helps in designing the next day’s lesson.

Technique 21: TAKE A STAND –This technique gets students to actively make judgments about their peers’ answers. “Stand up if you agree with Alexis” or “Thumbs up if you think Dashawn is right.” The answers will help to inform your teaching, especially if you ask students to defend their answers, “Why is your thumb down, Keisha?”