Maximum Tier One Instruction

*Improving Full-Class Instruction

By Pat Quinn

I went to a training this past Wednesday on Instructional Coaching with Reluctant Teachers and got more out of the five hours than I have gotten at any other training all year! There were a few curriculum specialists at the training whom work for my district so hopefully they will pass along to the powers that be how great, engaging and intriguing the training was and the district will bring him in the upcoming years. 

I NEVER purchase supplemental material from a presenter, usually because it's including in the training, but also because I don't feel like I get anything "new" or "fresh" from the speaker, but this time; he made me a believer! I told him as I bought his book, audio and site license. As usual, I'm going to give a few tid-bits from the book. This is not in any way a substitution from reading, but it's nuggets I'm pulling to review! 

1. Students need direction. Self-direction,  Academic direction, Career direction, and Relationship direction. They are like the four tires on a car. If they're balanced and headed in the same direction the car can GO. 

2. Seven essential components to lesson plans: Attention- raise student interest, relevance, and receptiveness to your instruction. Pre-Assessment- it's important to be knowledgeable about your students' prior knowledge in the particular area you're trying to teach. (My thought: it guides instruction). Instruction- Don't just evaluate or give feedback on yesterday's assignment then move right in to practicing a new skill. Connect the new learning to prior learning and differentiate as you tie in the relevance. Check for Understanding- "Are there any questions?" Is NOT checking for understanding and no student is going to raise their hand and be that one student that doesn't get it! Individual accountability and active check for understandings is the goal during this component. Guided practice- students practice the new content in a supervised situation with short feedback time usually less than 3 minutes. Homework- only if required. To give or not to give?

Independent practice- targeted at the level of the student. Giving an assignment that is too difficult is a recipe for frustration or defiance and giving one too easy is a recipe for misbehavior or boredom. This is also a time for students to check as they go and provide instructional support or resources. Feedback- if the only feedback you give students is a grade, you need to improve your feedback. Rubrics and checklists are great for student-instant feedback while they work. The reason we give assignments (or should be) is to give feedback which can be one of the greatest tools to improving student performance and learning. All seven components vary in length so don't feel restricted to how they look in a day, or week but include them in each lesson.

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4. Four opportunities to differentiate instruction or MAXIMIZE INSTRUCTION are pre-assessment, check for understanding, end of guided practice, and feedback. 

During pre-assessment, feel comfortable dividing the class into two groups and pre-teach for five minutes KEY prerequisite skills to those that aren't ready for the lesson. Choose one or two essential skills that will help students be successful today. That's the focus. You allow the other students to relax, work on something else, get started, tutor, prepare, etc. Don't try and remediate all skills. No one will ever be on a level playing field. The moment they walked in your class at the start of the year everyone was in different levels and rates of learning. Your goal is just to tip the scale to better all student success. 

Check for understanding- you can't have your entire class always doing the same activity at the same time. 5 minutes (My thoughts-remember my Power of FIVE). End of guided practice- include remediation and extension assignments for various learners. Independent practice-  provide a check as you go opportunity so students don't spend 30 to 45 minutes doing an assignment incorrectly. Feedback- the best feedback tells students what they're doing right, wrong, and what they need to do differently to do better next time. 

5. Focus specifically on what a student needs to be successful in today's lesson because you can't fill all of their gaps, cover all their weaknesses, or teach them all the skills they lack. Your goal in re-teaching is to get 100% of the students ready for today's lesson. 

6. As long as your entire class is working on only one activity at the same time, you'll never be able to maximize learning in your classroom. Students who are ahead can't advance. Students who are behind or struggle won't be able to grasp the skill or knowledge you're teaching. 

(My thoughts- dividing your class is important but management is even more important for effective instructional time.)

7. Nothing is perfect. Don't stress attempting to do it all, but look at your current lessons and ask is there one or two opportunities to maximize instruction that I can build into the plan. 

8. There's isn't a teaching technique in the world that's good enough to use every single day that's why you vary what you do in class and pick and choose techniques to use occasionally.

Follow him at The RTI Guy

I'll blog-review on Five Models of Full-Class Instruction as well as, Instructional Coaching with Reluctant Teachers next...