"The Master Teacher knows specific actions enhance clarity. These actions make it more probable that more students in our classroom will understand our instructions." -The MASTER Teacher, Inc. c2000
From the Master Teacher Series:
Seven Techniques to Make Your Instruction Clear
1. When you give instructions, avoid asking students to "get started quickly." Otherwise, many students begin before you even finish giving the instructions.
2. Practice your presentation before you give students instructions. Rehearsals reveal flaws that almost guarantee misunderstanding. Determine what you want said based on what you want done.
3. Always start with the simple to complex route. Start with the basics before moving to the complicated part of your instructions. Give students time to ask questions. If you don't provide time for their questions early on, it increases the likelihood of misinformation, and students may not understand.
4. Providing well-organized and relevant background information almost always aids understanding. Having students write down the steps they must follow to complete an assignment or project before they begin, lays the solid foundationn necessary for students to perform the task properly.
5. Try and provide students with both written and oral instructions. However, never hand out the written instructions before you deliver the oral instructions, Also, do not communicate anything in one communication that isn't the other.
6. When repeating instructions to the class, which is inevitable at some point, be careful abut changing the wording the second (or third) time around. To achieve clarity, you must not vary from the last set, unless, it is because there was an error. In this case, it is important to clarify the error as soon as it is recognized.
7. Lastly, when finished giving instructions, ask students one specific question: "What do you need to do?" This will confirm whether students have enough information to know exatly what to do... and exactly what you expect. Further, ask a number of students exactly the same question and go from there.
Education is not filling in a pail but the lighting of a fire.
-William Butler Yeats, Irish Poet
From the Master Teacher Series:
Seven Techniques to Make Your Instruction Clear
1. When you give instructions, avoid asking students to "get started quickly." Otherwise, many students begin before you even finish giving the instructions.
2. Practice your presentation before you give students instructions. Rehearsals reveal flaws that almost guarantee misunderstanding. Determine what you want said based on what you want done.
3. Always start with the simple to complex route. Start with the basics before moving to the complicated part of your instructions. Give students time to ask questions. If you don't provide time for their questions early on, it increases the likelihood of misinformation, and students may not understand.
4. Providing well-organized and relevant background information almost always aids understanding. Having students write down the steps they must follow to complete an assignment or project before they begin, lays the solid foundationn necessary for students to perform the task properly.
5. Try and provide students with both written and oral instructions. However, never hand out the written instructions before you deliver the oral instructions, Also, do not communicate anything in one communication that isn't the other.
6. When repeating instructions to the class, which is inevitable at some point, be careful abut changing the wording the second (or third) time around. To achieve clarity, you must not vary from the last set, unless, it is because there was an error. In this case, it is important to clarify the error as soon as it is recognized.
7. Lastly, when finished giving instructions, ask students one specific question: "What do you need to do?" This will confirm whether students have enough information to know exatly what to do... and exactly what you expect. Further, ask a number of students exactly the same question and go from there.
Education is not filling in a pail but the lighting of a fire.
-William Butler Yeats, Irish Poet
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