The General Instructional Model: Beginning the Lesson

An effective introduction to a lesson draws students into the lesson, focuses their
attention on the new content to be learned, and relates that new material to content
already learned.

PREPARATION

Introductory Review - refreshing students’ memories and setting the stage for new
learning.

Resnick and Klopfer (1989) - “people are not recorders of information but builders of
knowledge structures. To know something is not just to have
received information but also to have interpreted and related it to
other knowledge”

Introductory Focus - is the process teachers use to introduce a learning activity.

It provides two functions:

• To attract students’ attention

• To provide a context for the topic being studied.

A Sensory focus - provides students with something to see, hear, feel, smell, or even
taste as they begin the lesson. The concept is borrowed from cognitive
learning theory and is a type of orienting stimulus. Most common type
of sensory is visual.

Hunter (1984) - used anticipatory set for introductory activities that focus student
attention on the material to be presented, reminding them of what
they already know and stimulating their interest in the subject.

Advanced Organizers

David Ausubel (1968) – He advocated the use of advance organizers, introductory

Statements that framed new content and related it to content
Students already knew.
 Advance organizers are effective for a number of reasons: (1) focus student’s
attention on the topic at hand, (2) inform them where the lesson is going, (3) relate new
material to content already understood, and (4) provide structure for the subsequent
lesson.
Whatever the form the introductory focus takes, the fact that this information is
written on the board or projected overhead provides better focus than the same
information on individual sheets provided for the students. If students are looking down
at their desks, the teacher cannot tell if they are looking at the sheet or are looking down
because they are not paying attention. When the focus is at the front of the room, the
teacher can monitor students’ attention through eye contact, which is one of the major
ways that researchers assess student engagement. If the teacher finds that students are
not looking at whatever is being displayed for them, the teacher can adjust the lesson to
regain their attention.

PRESENTATION

Presenting Content

Madeline Hunter (1984) - called “input,” where the teacher presents the new
information or skills that the students are to learn.

A common method of presenting content is the lecture. Lecture, method of

instruction, endures primarily because of its simplicity. It place students in a passive
role, allow inattention, and low levels of engaged time often result.

APPLICATION

Active Student Involvement

Regardless of student’s ages, the topic, or specific teaching strategy, effective

teachers maintain high levels of students involvement in their learning activities

Practice and Feedback

As students learn new content and skills, they need opportunities to try these out
and interrelate them. Practice provides students opportunities to try out and test their
grasp of new content on their own. Feedback is any information about current behavior
that can be used to improve future performance. Through interactive practice and
feedback, teachers give students opportunities to consolidate new learning, reinforce old,
and eliminate errors and misconceptions. The form that these interactive practice and
feedback sessions take depends on the type of content being taught. Skills-oriented
lessons provide students with practice in performing the skill, while concept-related
lesson focus on positive and negative examples of the concept.
 Effective feedback has four characteristics:

• It is immediate.
• It is specific.
• It provides corrective information.
• It has a positive emotional tone.

Teacher Praise - the most common form of positive feedback.

- teachers simply tell students when they’ve given a good answer or
done good work.

Review and Closure

Closure is a form of review that occurs at the end of a lesson, when the topic is
summarized and structured. It allows students to leave the class with a sense of the day’s
content and what they were supposed to have derived from it.

EVALUATION

Assessment - is the process of gathering information and making instructional decisions

based on the information. Its basics purpose is to gauge the learners’ progress and
provide feedback for both the teachers and students.

Different forms:

• Quizzes
• Tests
• Homework
• Writing Assignment
• Projects
• Work samples