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Gianna LaMantia

Dr. Vodicka/Dr. Cape

Art of Teaching Music 1

4 February 2019

“Sequencing Instruction” Article by Duke

Although every teacher has their own teaching style, there are important universal steps

to make sure that the students being taught are learning the right way and understanding all of

the concepts that can be demonstrated to be successful in the classroom and in the world. Part of

the responsibility of student success falls on the sequence in which the teacher presents and

teaches a subject. It is the teacher’s job to make sure their lesson is made to fit their students and

their abilities, etc. They have to make sure that they are preparing students for success instead of

preparing them for failure, establishing positive habits about what and how they are learning.

With this, comes six major principles that are important to teaching any concept and creating a

learning process for a certain subject as described by Duke in his article, “Sequencing

Instruction.”

The first of the principles is taking students from an area of the known to the unknown.

Duke suggests in his article to begin by going over or reviewing what the students already know.

This will help the teacher recognize the level that all of their students are starting out in and

estimate how far the students have to go to fully grasp what they need to to move on to the next

level. From here, the teacher should move slowly toward their goal of where the students have

to be with what they need to know incrementally in small steps. It is as if they are adding a new

little aspect of the full concept with every lesson, so each time, it gets just a little bit more
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difficult but not unreachable for all students. As the students participate through the tasks, they

start to develop even more positive habits with their learning as the tasks are made for their

success rather than their failure. In the end, it is a larger probability that students will do well

than not which also creates a positive classroom environment in itself. As a starting point, the

lesson should be started from the beginning every day as it begins with the task that is most

likely to be correct such as the one the students just learned. By going over fundamentals

repeatedly, a consistent routine of technique is created in which more is actually learned and set

in stone the more it is practiced. There is also most likely some things that need to be fixed and

worked on so it is best that the students do well on an obstacle to reach the next level instead of it

causing larger problems along the way and in the long-term as students learn moment by

moment.

The second principle, explains that teachers need to be conscious of the level of

difficulty of the tasks that are given and also the distance of the levels as well. Every step of the

way toward the main goal should be small and steady where demands are limited as things get

more difficult. This maintains the success of the students as they reach the goal. Duke also

mentions that this allows more focus on the repetition of the quality that has to be maintained

from level to level.

The third principle, details the organization of the information presented to students as

they go through the learning process. Duke explains that teachers want to present the most

important aspects of the topic that is necessary in order for the students to succeed. As stated

before, students learn moment by moment, so it is beneficial to present the important information

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that is most useful at the time in order for the students to be ready to complete the task the

teacher has prepared for them. At the same time, in order to be successful, students should

understand the reason or purpose of what they are learning. For example, giving students random

formulas in reality means nothing to them, as they actually really won’t understand what they are

doing. It is like speaking a foreign language that you don’t understand.

The fourth principle describes that there are many different paths to get to one goal.

Some might be great for some students but not for others as everyone learns differently.

Teachers need to find the path that is best for their students and can help them guide their lessons

as best they can. Students also should get closer and closer to the real goal after passing each

task as the ending result is what they are trying to achieve.

Principle 5 brings up the point that not every student will respond to a lesson the same

way. Some students may find the topic or task is very easy while others may have more

challenges. Going from one task to the other is one of the most difficult things even if there is a

set and organized plan all ready to go. In order to help students who are having enough difficulty

with a step in the process where they can’t reach the next level, go back to the step before where

it is clear that those students can understand what they are doing and can complete the task. This

allows the teacher to review and go over some of the fundamentals and get the students back on

track together and try to explain and move on in a different way than before to help the students

continue to progress.

The last principle explains that it is important to repeat good results over and over again

with each task. It makes the concepts even stronger and creates a great finish of the process as it

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really enforces and establishes the new skill in which the student achieved their goal. Because of

this, it is likely that the student can also practice their new skill on their own instead of relying on

the teacher, proving that they really understood and learned the new concept.

I think that the principle that read most strongly to me is principles 1 and 2, where it talks

about learning something in small steps that eventually lead up to the main goal. I have had

teachers in school that teach in this way and I have always found it easier to learn in that

experience. Every time a new thing is added in each step, I am able to stay focused on that one

thing for a while, feeling confident in my other skills to dedicate my attention to adding another

one. In this way, I also don’t feel so overwhelmed when learning this new aspect of the skill.

I didn’t really find any of the principles unclear, but if I had to choose one, I think that

principle 3 was the least clear. In the article, I found it a little difficult to understand what the

purpose of that principle is. I do recognize that there has to be an organized way to present the

information and that it has to be the most important information, but the rest of it is unclear to

me.