Raven's Guide to Special Education: Teaching

Teaching

Planning | How to start teaching | Organizing instruction
Presenting lessons | Specific methods | How to motivate

Teaching is a complex process in which teachers use a variety of methods to present information and evaluate the extent to which their students have learned it. Teachers provide information through books, television, computers, lecturing, discussing, and tutoring. They evaluate student progress by using immediate questions, tests and quizzes, special projects, and reports. Some methods are better than others. A teacher can decide the usefulness of any one method by answering the following questions:

Does the method let you adjust for the abilities and needs of different students?
Does it encourage students to become involved in learning activities?
Does it permit adequate coverage of the content to be learned for all students?
Does it allow you to adequately monitor student progress?
Does it assist students who do not learn from the initial procedure?
Does it provide adequate practice to let students consolidate and integrate skills?

Planning

Regardless of the method used, planning is essential for effective teaching. It helps you present lessons sequentially so that your students can master simpler skills before having to deal with more complex ones. Planning helps you stay organized, maintain classroom discipline, and develop activities that will make your students successful. You also need to plan to individualize instruction for students who are not succeeding as well as for those who need more challenging work. Here are some specific suggestions:

Set clear goals that are specific and challenging but not too difficult. When planning your lessons, focus on what your students should be able to do when you finish teaching, rather than on what you are going to "cover." Let them know your goals and objectives before every lesson, orally and in writing.

Create exciting lessons that get your students actively involved rather than just sitting at their desks listening. Ensure that the work you assign is neither too hard nor too easy. Give all of your students enough time to finish their work and give fast workers enrichment activities. Avoid overusing worksheets and other handouts.

Develop a behavior management plan in advance so that dealing with misbehavior will take minimal time from actual teaching. (The Discipline Web page includes detailed information about dealing with student behavior.)

How to start teaching

Decide on your teaching priorities so you can spend time on the most important instructional needs. Have needed materials readily available so that your students do not lose time looking for materials and so that they can quickly go from one activity to the next. Give them clear, simple instructions for each assignment and make sure that everyone understands. When you do this, you will increases the amount of time you have for teaching since your students will not repeatedly ask for directions.

Let your students know how much time is available for completing each learning activity and what to do when they finish. Use a timer or other reminders with students who have problems with time schedules or work habits. It is difficult or confusing for some students to resume an incomplete assignment, so whenever possible, require students to finish a task before beginning another one. Make sure that the length and complexity of the assigned tasks are appropriate so that your students can complete them.

Organizing instruction

Effective teachers organize lessons and activities so that their students are attending to academic tasks and engaged in learning for as much of the available time as possible. One way to increase instructional time is to closely follow your lesson plans and to allow only short breaks in instruction for interruptions and transitions between activities.

Teaching in small groups is another way to increase learning time. Grouping allows you to work directly with a larger number of students, and it may be more effective than individual instruction in teaching students with disabilities.

A third way to increase instructional time is by tutoring, which can effectively develop students' sight vocabulary, reading fluency, spelling skills, and basic math facts.

Two main types of learning take place in a classroom: lessons presented by the teacher and independent seat work. Seat work is more difficult for keeping students on-task. Managing seat work requires that you circulate around the room to assist and monitor your students. Use seat work for drill and practice, rather than for new instruction.

Hold your students accountable for their assignments. Keep track of the work they finish and require them to turn in assignments that are neat, accurate and on time. Have them redo assignments that are unacceptable.

Presenting lessons

Presenting lessons can be viewed as a four-step process:

Anatole France

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.

Review what your students learned the previous day, tell them what you expect for the lesson, and prepare them for lessons that will follow.
Model the concept, rule or procedure you are teaching, give several examples, and ask your students to respond to what you have presented.
Give them additional opportunities to practice and correct their errors. Go over difficult concepts or skills until they respond correctly most of the time.
Give them progress tests to evaluate their mastery of the concepts and skills.