Quality learning
activities not only increase the amount students learn but also reduce
behavior problems and create happier students. This lesson provides
information on ways that teachers and paraeducators make instructional
time in the classroom more productive and rewarding.
Strategies for
increasing and maintaining active learner involvement are important
to establishing an effective classroom. Students who are actively
involved in learning activities benefit more from learning time. Learner
involvement includes time spent listening to the teacher or paraeducator,
time spent attending to activities and most importantly time actively
participating in learning by asking and answering questions. The following
provide suggestions for strategies to increase the students' active
involvement in learning activities.
- Give complete
and specific instructions;
- Provide practice
at the appropriate levels of difficulty;
- Make sure
student learning efforts are correct;
- Provide alternative
activities for students who complete assignments early;
- Actively involve
students in the lesson; and
- Use attention
to increase performance.
Give Complete
and Specific Instructions
Paraeducators are
often asked to introduce instructional activities or to help clarify
directions for students. Clear directions are essential. It is easy
to misinterpret difficulty with directions as noncompliance or a behavior
problem. Try to avoid the following when giving directions:
- Chaining
- In a series
of instructions, students remember the first and the last or are
so confused they don't know what to do.
- Vague
- Don't give
directions without a concrete activity/action.
- Questions
- Student may
think they have a choice or that you don't really mean it.
- Directions
followed by a reason
- Students remember
the reason and forget the directions so give reasons first then
directions.
Try using the following
suggestions when giving directions to students:
- Make sure
you have the students attention before giving the directions. Ask
for a response from the student to make sure he/she is listening;
- Review as
necessary prior to giving directions. Provide a connection to past
lessons;
- Be simple
and specific. The directions must include all necessary information
without including extra information;
- Use positive
directions, tell each student what you want them to do rather than
what you don't want;
- Include examples
and modeling of the behavior or activity; and
- Be ready to
reinforce the student when they follow the directions. Use praise
more frequently when teaching a new task or behavior.
Provide Instructional
Activities at Appropriate Level
Learning activities
which are too difficult or too easy make poor use of instructional time.
A key to high involvement of students in learning activities is the
appropriateness of the timing and design of the lesson. Key decisions
about what learning activities take place are the responsibility of
the teacher. In order to make good decisions about the instructional
process, the teacher must have information about how effective learning
activities are. The following ideas provide the paraeducator with background
information regarding how the teacher attempts to provide learning activities
which are at an appropriate level for each student. The paraeducator
should be aware of these ideas when carrying out lessons and provide
feedback to the teacher regarding the effectiveness of the lesson.
Fundamental
Steps in the Instructional Sequence
Well designed learning
activities involve the following steps:
- Review
- Students
review previously learned material.
- Present
New Content/Skills
- Teacher
presents new content or skills. Often this includes explanation
and modeling.
- Guided
Practice
- Students
are allowed to practice skills with considerable feedback from
the teacher and/or paraeducator. Emphasis is on shaping the skills
and avoiding practicing errors. Practice may be broken down into
intermediate steps.
- Feedback
and Corrections.
- Students
are provided with feedback and retaught until they have learned
the skill.
- Independent
Student Practice
- Students
are asked to practice the skill to develop mastery and efficiency.
Focus may shift to speed and accuracy.
- Weekly
and Monthly Review
- Skills are
routinely reviewed and generalized to new settings.
Skipping steps or
moving too quickly through the sequence can cause students to have learning
problems and lose interest in the materials.
Practice at
the Right Level
Independent practice
must be designed correctly to maintain interest and involvement.
- Precede independent
practice with supervised practice;
- Know that
the student can do all components before letting him/her practice
alone;
- Provide work
that is challenging, but not too difficult;
- Do not give
unnecessary "busy work" to occupy time. Develop additional activities
which are relevant learning activities; and
- Do implement
peer tutoring, small group discussions and activities to keep a
students' attention on-task.
Avoiding Boredom
Maintaining student
interest in learning activities is a key factor in learning involvement.
Students may tire of activities before they have mastered the skill.
To avoid students loosing interest in learning activities:
- Provide a
feeling of progress:
- when work
is difficult or new, more frequent feedback and positive reinforcement
may be necessary
- make goals
accessible, show the intermediate steps to the goal
- make it
easy to see progress
- Provide challenges:
- Find the
right level of difficulty. Providing information to the teacher
is especially important in this area.
- Provide variety:
- in level
of challenge
- in presentation
- in materials
- in grouping
Adjust to meet
individual students' needs
Often lessons must
be adjusted to accommodate the learning or behavior needs of individual
students. Rates of learning can be increased by effectively matching
the lesson to individual students. The following are examples of areas
which might be adjusted in a lesson to meet the needs of students.
- Vary the amount
of praise;
- Vary the order
of presentation;
- Vary the amount
of practice at each step;
- Provide time
for questions; and
- Monitor each
student's knowledge.
Provide Alternative
Activities
One of the biggest
challenges of working with groups of students is keeping them all working
productively. The organization and scheduling of the classroom, and
adjusting for individual student differences, means that all students
do not require the same amount of time to complete activities.
As one means
of dealing with this issue many teachers provide students with independent
work folders. These folders contain learning activities which are
individually tailored to the students' needs for practice. The material
in the folder is work which students can practice without additional
assistance from the teacher or the paraeducator. The work in the folder
must be directly related to the current learning objectives for the
students. Students utilize the time between activities to work in
the folder. This might include the time when the student finishes
an assignment ahead of other students, or when a student has a question
and is waiting for the teacher or paraeducator to respond. The folders
allow the student to work productively while they are waiting for
the teacher or other students.
Paraeducators
can play an important role in correcting and maintaining the work
in these folders.
Hints for Keeping
Students Actively Involved in Group Activities
While a lesson is
being presented the paraeducator can use a number of strategies to help
keep all students actively engaged in the learning activity.
- Make sure
that students understand the activity and have all materials necessary
before beginning.
- Ask questions
before identifying who will be answering them. This means that each
student will have to think about the question and formulate an answer.
- Ask questions
of all students. Make sure that students realize that they
could be asked a question at any time. You can tailor questions
for particular students but don't identify the student before asking
the question.
- After presenting
the question and allowing all student the opportunity to formulate
an answer as a specific student to respond and give him/her time
to answer.
- Quickly provide
assistance to students who are making errors or who do not know
how to proceed. Allowing students to practice errors is a waste
of instructional time.
- Find ways
to have high levels of student participation by actively responding
to questions. The more students actually use information to understand
or explain a concept, the more actively they are involved.
- Reinforce
student learning often
- Don't let
interruptions disrupt the flow of the activity.
Timings
and Time Limits
The use of timings
and time limits is one way to increase the efficiency of learning activities.
Competing against the clock is often naturally rewarding for students.
It also shifts the focus away from just accuracy to include the rate
of completion. Timings refer to timing how long it takes to complete
a task or set of problems. Time limits means providing a predetermined
amount of time to complete a task. Timings have the additional advantage
of communicating high learning expectations.
Several cautions
regarding timed activities are important:
- Selection
of Activities.
- Care must
be taken to choose the right types of activities. Problems or
activities must be ones the student can complete without assistance
from the teacher or the paraeducator. Problems which are too difficult
or activities which students cannot complete with reasonable accuracy
should not be used in timed activities.
- Clear
Procedures.
- Student
must be clear on the procedures needed to complete the activity
before it begins. Consistency in the way that timed activities
are conducted will help students be familiar with the procedure.
- Minimize
Competition.
- Students
should compete against themselves, not other students. It is important
to emphasize improving skills but minimize the competition among
students for the fastest time or the highest rates of performance.
The difficulty of the problems or the activity can be customized
for each student as necessary. Be prepared to answer student questions
about competition and fairness.
- Supplementary
Activities.
- Supplementary
activities should be planned for those who finish early.
- Recognize
Improvement.
- Maintain
records of student performance and recognize/reward students for
improvement.
Often a regularly
scheduled time is set aside for timed activities. Students learn the
procedures to be followed during the timed activity and these same procedures
are used consistently. Students must be given the opportunity to learn
and practice the procedures used in the timed activities.
Using
Your Attention to Increase Student Performance
The attention provided
by the teacher and the paraeducator influence student behavior. The
teacher and the paraeducator should identify behaviors that they wish
to see maintained and increased in the classroom. Emphasis should be
on providing attention to the students who exhibit these behaviors.
One of the most common mistakes made in classrooms is paying too much
attention to misbehavior. The teacher and the paraeducator should develop
methods for dealing with behavior problems which minimize attention
and time. For additional information on managing behavior please see
Lesson 5: Use of Classroom Rules & Procedures and Unit 5: Behavior
Management.
Characteristics
of Effective Praise
Praise can be made
more effective by observing the following:
- Praise must
follow the "if-then rule". Praise students only if they
are doing what you want them to be doing.
- Include the
student name in your praise. It helps to be specific.
- The praise
should be descriptive. It should let the student know what they
are doing correctly.
- The praise
must be convincing. You should use a tone of voice and body language
which convey that the praise is genuine. The praise must also be
appropriate for the age and grade level of the student.
- The praise
is more effective if it is varied.
- The praise
should not disrupt the class or the lesson.
Sample Praising
The following two
statements are examples of praise which includes the student's name,
is descriptive, and is convincing:
"Steve, you
went from one page right to the next; that's the way to keep working!
"
"Janice, you
capitalized the first word of every sentence, you've really learned
the rule!"
Strategies for
Praising Students
As a paraeducator
you should work on developing the following skills:
- Learn to acknowledge
and attend to positive behavior while ignoring minor problems.
- Learn to move
among students so that you can monitor students work and behavior.
Movement should be at random and should include all students. Take
the opportunity to attend to students and provide praise as you
move around the room.
- Scan the room
frequently from wherever you are in the room.
- Praise students
who are on-task and students who are following the rules and procedures.
If a student is not on-task, first praise students near him/her
who are.
- When you need
to remind a student to be on-task, observe the student and follow-up
with praise when he/she is back on-task.
Avoid Giving
Attention to Misbehavior
When you do have
to remind a student that they are not following the rules or procedures,
the reminder should be quick and unobtrusive. You should give the student
the minimum amount of attention necessary to let them know you are aware
of the problem and to provide a cue as to the appropriate behavior.
You should not spend time lecturing the student or discussing the behavior
with the student. If the behavior continues follow the next step in
the behavior management plan (See also Unit 5: Behavior Management).
Strategies at
the Beginning of the Year
(Emmer, Evertson,
and Anderson;1979) The following are a series of suggestions for dealing
with students and organizing the classroom. You should:
- Maximize contact
with students;
- Monitor students
frequently;
- Intervene
quickly to deal with behavior problems;
- Ensure high
levels of time-on-task;
- Provide frequent
detailed feedback;
- Structure
activities and materials carefully;
- Established
clear routines; and
- Rehearse student
behaviors.
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