Zheng Lu Jia

Dr. Sponagle

The Act of Teaching Ch.6-8

March 31, 2017

Chapter 6:

Outline:

- Pros and Cons of Instructional Planning

- Planning Is Especially Beneficial for New Teachers
- Deciding What to Teach
1. State Standards and How They Are Developed
2. What State Standards
3. What Happens at the School District Level
4. The Formal and Thought Curricula
5. The Power of the Curriculum
- Instructional Objectives
1. What Instructional Objectives Look Like
2. Instructional Objectives Differ in Two Ways
3. Some Objectives Are General, Others Are Specific
4. The Kind of Objectives We Use Result in Three Different Kinds of Learning:

Cognitive, Affective, Psychomotor

5. Another Way of Classifying Learning Outcomes
- Writing Specific Objectives
1. The Value of Specific Objectives
2. When Are Objectives Good?
- Preparing Instructional Plans of Varying Duration
1. The Long and Short of Planning
2. Preparing Long-Range Plans: Yearly Semester Plans
3. Preparing Unit Plans
4. Preparing Lesson Plans
5. Evaluating Lesson Plans
6. The Backward Design Idea of Lesson and Unit Planning
7. Resources Useful When Planning
8. Collaborative, Cooperative, or Team Planning
9. Comparative Planning
- Some Final Thought
Notes:

- States establish guidelines or standards indicating what students should know and be able

to do. Furthermore, most states require students to pass proficiency tests based on the

standards. Failure to pass a test can result in non-promotion.

- When a goodly number of students do not pass a test it may be that what is learned and

what is tested are different: there is lack of alignment.

- An instructional objective describes what learners must know and be able to do.
- 1. Objectives-Indicate the lesson's objectives
- 2. Resources-Denote resources and materials to be used
- 3. Set Induction-Describe how the lesson will be introduced
- 4. Methodology-Describe how teaching and learning will take place
- 5. Assessment-Make clear how student learning will be determined
- 6. Closure-Provide for lesson ending
- 7. Reflection-Conside the lesson's effectiveness
- The first task of planning is determining what it is that you are responsible for helping

students to learn.
- The second task of planning is the preparation of instructional objectives that clearly

indicate what students are expected to know and be able to do.

Reflection:

It is hard to start a unit plan. There are plenty of thing need to be prepared. Absolutely,

unit plan is extremely important both for teacher and student. And if I would miss three most

important things in designing a unit plan, it would be not that bad as well as it was. When teacher

prepare a unit plan, the following three elements should be concerned predominantly, objectives,

delivery, and assessments.

Chapter 7

Outline:

- Presentations: Teaching as Telling and Showing

1. What Is a Presentation?
 2. Purpose and Characteristics of Teacher Presentations
3. Good Presenters
4. Good Presentations
5. Computer Presentations: Pros and Cons
6. When Teacher Presentations Should Be Used
7. Limitations of Presentations
8. Summary on Presentations
- Discussion: Learning through Informative Interaction
1. What Is a Discussion?
2. Purposes and Characteristics of Discussion
3. Good Discussion Leaders
4. Good Discussions
5. When Discussion Should Be Used
6. Research on Discussion
7. Limitation of Discussions
8. Summary on Discussion
- Independent Study: Teaching as Giving and Guiding Seat Work and Homework

Assignments
1. What Is Independent Study?
2. Purpose and Characteristics of Independent Study
3. Good Independent Study Leaders
4. Good Independent Study
5. When Independent Study Should Be Used
6. Limitation of Independent Study
7. Making Good Homework Assignments
8. Summary on Independent Study
- Individualized or Differentiated Instruction: Tailoring Teaching
1. What Is Individualized Instruction?
2. Purpose and Characteristics of Individualized Instruction
3. Types of Individualized Instruction
4. Good Users of Individualized Instruction
5. Good Individualized Education Programs
6. When Individualized Instruction Should Be Used
7. Limitations of Individualized Instruction
8. Summary on Individualized Instruction
- Matching Instructional Alternatives to Learners
- Overview of 31 Instructional Alternatives
- Using Technology in Teaching
1. Selecting Quality Software and Websites
2. Utilizing Digital Content
3. Get Better Prepared for the Digital Age
- Some Final Thoughts

Notes:
 - A presentation is an informative talk a more knowledgeable person makes to less

knowledgeable persons.
- The purpose of a presentation is to inform an audience of certain facts, ideas, concepts,

and explanations.
- Good presentations have three parts: preparation, delivery, and closure.
- Good presenters are often friendly, humorous, enthusiastic, and verbally fluent.
- A discussion is a conversation wherein students, or students and teacher, interact to share

information, ideas, or opinions, or work to resolve a problem.

- Good discussions include preparation, delivery, and closure.
- Independent study includes any school-related assignment students do more or less alone.
- Good independent study includes preparation, delivery, and closure.
- The teacher's role in individualized instruction is to know and care about the diversity of

students and to see that the learning tasks are varied or modified for each individual.
- Good individualized instruction programs are tailored to meet individual learners'

strengths and needs, permit considerable autonomy, result in greater equity, and have no

damaging or harmful side effects on students.

Reflection:

I just got known that there are many good instructional modes can be used in my class. I

prefer to the instructional mode of discussion and independent study. I used discussion mode in

my Mandarin class. And it went well. The key of making a good discussion is to give students a

related and interesting topic and the clear instructions.

Chapter 8:

Outline:

- Cooperative Learning: Teaching Learners to Like and Care for One Another
1. What Is Cooperative Learning?
2. Purpose and Characteristics of Cooperative Learning
3. Some Variations on the Theme of Cooperative Learning
4. When Cooperative Learning Should Be Used
5. Limitations of Cooperative Learning
6. Summary on Cooperative Learning
 - Discovery Learning: Figuring Things Out for Yourself
1. What Is Discover Learning
2. Purposes and Characteristics of Discovery Learning
3. Good Facilitators of Discovery Learning
4. Good Discovery Learning
5. Facilitating Discovery Learning Online
6. When Discovery Learning Should Be Used
7. Limitations of Discovery Learning
8. Summary on Discovery Learning
- Constructivist Teaching and Learning: Problem solving under Teacher Guidance
1. What Is Constructivism?
2. Purpose and Characteristics of Constructivism
3. Good Constructivist Teaching and Learning
4. Good Facilitators of Constructivist Learning
5. When Constructivism Should Be Used
6. Limitations of Constructivism
7. Summary on Constructivism
- Direct Instruction: Teaching in the Most Efficient and Effective Way
1. What Is Direct Instruction?
2. Purpose and Characteristics of Direct Instruction
3. Examples of Direct Instruction Programs
4. Good Direct Instructors
5. Good Direct Instruction
6. When Direct Instruction Should Be Used
7. Limitations of Direct Instruction
8. Summary on Direct Instruction
- Is There a Single Best Instructional Alternative?
- Some Final Thought

Notes:

- Cooperative learning describes instructional procedures that place learners in small work

teams that are rewarded for what they collectively accomplish.

- Good leaders of cooperative learning are able to get students to work together, are

competent presenters, effective organizers, and good work coordinators; and they are able

to identify and help students and teams having difficulty.

- Cooperative learning has certain limitations. It requires higher-achieving students to

assist low achievers and presumes high achievers are willing to do so. Additionally, since
 cooperative learning is a group activity, substantial teacher monitoring is necessary to

keep teams on task.

- Discovery learning takes place when students are presented with experiences and are

asked to derive their own meaning and understanding from them.

- Purposes:
1. to provide students with the opportunity to think for themselves in order to figure

something out.
2. to help students discover how knowledge is gained
3. to promote higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
- Among the limitations of discovery learning are that not all things are amenable to

classroom discovery, some discovery is too complex for K-12 student minds, and time

constraints often limit the ability to explore.

- A constructivist lesson has identifiable parts: purpose of the lesson (a challenge),

establishing groups and group activities, bridging, question posing, exhibits, and

reflection.
- Direct instruction is one of several terms used to describe the sequence of instructional

events.
- Direct instruction teachers provide strong academic direction, have high expectations that

students can and will learn, make students feel psychologically safe, urge them to

cooperate, hold them accountable for their work, and closely monitor and control

students' behavior.

Reflection:

In my opinion, discovery learning is pretty similar with discussion learning. Teacher

should set an interesting topic, and motivate student to explore it by using the knowledge what

they have had. It would be a quite useful learning style, as long as teacher use it wisely. For

many students would like to express their thoughts in the class. Somehow, they would like to
show their talent to others. When they discovered the new knowledge, they will have a great

achievement.