Direct instruction is based on the teacher drilling the new material into the students memory. This enables the students to memorize what they are being taught and then later they can use the material in guided practice and independent practice. This gives the students a chance to practice what they have learned. Direct instruction is the active presentation of information. The anticipatory set is the first part of direct instruction. It is a signal or activity that is used to grasp the students' attention. It also can provide motivational cues as to what the lesson will be about. Pretesting can be used to see how much prior knowledge the students' might have on the topic. Content delivery methods is the next part of direct instruction. I have learned that there are 3 major ways to give the class new material. The first way is to model what they will be learning. Modeling provides students with specific demonstrations of working with the content that they are learning. Content can be modeled by the teacher using a video, a reading selection, or technology such as a cd-rom, or website. Modeling should also provide verbal and visual cues for successfully mastering the objectives in the lesson. Demonstration is another way of delivery the material to the class. Demonstrating is showing somebody how to do something. It is a display given to others of how something is done or how something works. A demonstration is used to cover all of the necessary steps of a lesson in an effective learning order. It gives students the opportunity to see and hear the details related to the lesson being taught. Demonstration also promotes peer learning and critical thinking. The third delivery method is explanation. An explanation is a set of statements constructed to describe facts that clarify the causes, context, and consequences of those facts. Explanation is one of the traditional methods of education. It is widely used by teachers and professors and is expressed verbally. Its structure repeats that of a speech having all characteristic parts followed by arguments and rhetorical questions. It may be constructed as: telling, lecture, narration, exposition, or simple speech. The three major parts of explaining are: explaining what the topic is, explain how it is done, and explain why is it important. There are many ways of integrating technology to enhance direct instruction.
Drill and practice is the next step of direct instruction. Drill and practice enables the children to learn by memorizing and then knowing the facts for later practice through guided practice and independend practice. You can then assess the children to make sure they understood what they have learned in the lesson. This is important because it will enable teachers to see how well they have taught a specific lesson to the class. The number one goal is to make sure everyone will do well on the assessment because that means you have done your job as a teacher making sure that the students grasped the concept of the lesson.
Learning all of these steps and parts of direct instruction has enabled me to prepare myself to create my direct instruction lesson. I think that as a class, we have definitely prepared to do this and practices in many different ways, such as: presentations, smart board games, and class involvement. I think that having a small class really allows each person to pay attention more closely to everything and be more involved as a class. Direct instruction is one of the major parts of teaching.
