When a teacher reads a lecture with the purpose to inform students about new data and make them remember this information better, they are to apply different techniques. Adjusted instruction is the concept which teachers apply at any stage of learning as it helps students remember much information with better effectiveness. However, many teachers face the problem when students experience difficulties in understanding the problem or when students progress at a faster rate than others. Both these problems require a teacher to modify the lesson plans (Borich, 2007).
The only strategy is to be applied as adjusting of the lesson is to be provided by the same scheme. First of all, a teacher should understand who has already coped with the information and have knowledge in the sphere. Then, a teacher should separate students by understanding the material. Those who experience difficulty in understanding the material should be gathered in one group and a teacher should explain to them the information one more time.
Those students who have already understood the lesson should be given an extended activity to enlarge their knowledge. If a teacher sees that some students still have difficulties in understanding the material, they are to arrange an additional time before or after the classes with the purpose to explain the material one more time (Slavin, 2009).
However, this is not the only possible strategy in dealing with legging or progressing students. A teacher may create heterogeneous groups where students who have already understood the material and those who have not caught it yet are going to be in the same group. Giving the task, a teacher allows wiser students to help those who lag. In this case, those students who have already got the material will improve their knowledge while others have a chance to listen to the information one more time using other words and understand it.
There are a lot of different ways that may help a teacher to monitor students. However, some strategies are more effective for adjusting interactive instruction based on an analysis of student performance during different phases of direct instruction. Informal member checks, student summaries of directions, lesson reaction sheets, guided lecture procedure, and think-pair-share are the techniques appropriate for monitoring student performance to adjust interactive instruction based on an analysis of student performance during different phases of direct instruction (Linn, Miller, & Gronlund, 2009).
Informal member check allows the teacher to monitor students’ understanding of the material at each stage of the lesson. Each time a teacher finishes with explaining a concept, students should show either “thumb up” or “thumb down”. This will help a teacher to understand the effectiveness of the lesson. A student summary of directions is the technique that allows both a teacher and students to move ahead. After a teacher explains the instructions, students should recall the information correctly. Lesson reaction sheets are the technique that allows a teacher to understand what students got to know and which information they want to listen to, what problems students have met during the lesson.
Guided lecture procedure presupposes that after writing down the objectives of the lesson presented by the teacher, they just listen without making any notes. At the end of a lesson or any stage when the teacher thinks it is appropriate, students may be asked to make notes of the information they have remembered. The think-pair-share technique allows students to think about the aspects considered in class and develop a topic for discussion. Then students may discuss the chosen topic and after that, they should dwell upon the problem in front of the whole class. The whole class is involved and a teacher may see how the general information is perceived (Schumm & Vaughn, 1997).
The use of informal member checks and think-pair-share monitoring techniques may help a teacher re-teach or assist those who have problems. When students show that they have problems in understanding some material, a teacher may divide the class into groups and each group will develop a topic for presenting before the whole class. After the information is considered, students should discuss their topic. This allows those students who have already understood the information to repeat it one more time and those students who have problems with understanding listen to it. The combination of the monitoring strategies allows teachers to apply the adjusted instructions method as well.
Students repeat the information presented by the teacher one more time. It allows weaker students to listen to the data one more time and to try to understand it better. Teachers should pay attention to the fact that they have an opportunity to check students’ knowledge and help those who lag behind. The combination of strategies is effective and should be applied while lessons for making those varied.
Reference List
Borich, G. (2007). Effective teaching methods: Research-based practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Linn, R., Miller, M., & Gronlund, N. (2009). Measurement and assessment in teaching. (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Schumm, J. S., & Vaughn, S. (1997). Are they getting it? How to monitor student understanding in inclusive classrooms. Intervention in School & Clinic, 32(3), pp. 168-172.
Slavin, R. (2009). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (9th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.