#8 – Effective Instruction and Big Words

Texts:

Roy-Campbell and Chandler-Olcott. Chapter 18: “Differentiating Literacy Instruction for Adolescents,” from Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction (2^nd ed.), edited by Hinchman & Sheridan-Thomas

Allington, Chapter 18: “Effective Teachers, Effective Instruction,” from Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice, edited by Beers, Probst, & Rief

Sometimes in the academic world, I’m afraid that if we make education too technical, then we might start seeing students less as individuals and people with potential and more as test scores and standards. Quite honestly, sometimes big words scare me. However, I also believe – as philosopher Martin Heidegger first dictated – that names have power, and the naming of things helps us to understand what they do and mean in our lives. In the same way, the big words of education help us understand better how students learn and how we as instructors can help them along that road. Today, I’m going to look at some of the big words from the reading and break them down to help us understand what they mean for both instructors and students.

In his chapter, Allington focuses on effective instruction within classrooms through the use of diversified methods of instruction. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word effective is chiefly an adjective that can mean “Powerful in effect; producing a notable effect… producing a striking or pleasing impression… Having the power of acting upon the thing designated… instrumental in producing a result” (Oed.com). Among other things, to be effective essentially means to produce a measureable effect. For teachers, it is imperative that they must be effective in teaching their students, all of their students.

This often designates the need for what Roy-Campbell and Chandler-Olcott refer to as differentiated instruction. Essentially, teacher adaptability on a student–to-student, moment-by-moment basis. Sounds exhausting. But it’s necessary. And probably not as difficult as it sounds.

The authors describe their concept of differentiated instruction as being standards-driven. They key is to provide “a variety of instructional strategies for the same specific objective” (Nunley, qtd. Roy-Campbell and Chandler-Olcott). They aim to do this using three key methods, as described below.

• Multiple Intelligences – concept of identifying students’ strengths and the ways they learn best, then providing them with instructional activities that incorporate those abilities. The idea of using multiple intelligences in instruction involves pairing perceptual learning styles (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic) with ways that students process information (verbal-linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic, visual-spatial, musical, logical-mathematical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and existential).
• Universal Design for Learning – “a framework enabling teachers to create instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments promoting high expectations for all learners” UDL draws on 3 primary brain networks: recognition (what), strategic (how), and affective (why). These three networks are intertwined with three key principles to create a customizable learning experience so that each student can find what works best for them: multiple means of representation, multiple means of action and expression, and multiple means of engagement.
• Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol – SIOP is a model for teaching English Language learners in a way that accommodate the language proficiency of students while improving language acquisition. The aim is to accomplish this through interaction between 8 components: lesson preparation, building background, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice/application, lesson delivery, and review/assessment. The key is for teachers to “identify specific language needs required to meet the content objectives” that they create for every lesson.

In his play Henry V, Shakespeare writes:

“That many things, having full referenceTo one consent, may work contrariously;As many arrows, loosed several ways,
Fly to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;As many lines close in the dial’s centre;So may a thousand actions, once afoot,End in one purpose, and be all well borneWithout defeat.”

This is the aim of differentiated instruction: to improve the effectiveness of educational instruction through the use of diverse teaching methods. Or, to eliminate those pesky Big Words, the point is to treat each student as his or her own person and help them learn in their own way, so that both our actions and theirs will be well borne, and without defeat.