In a typical high school lesson, teachers have between 45 and 70 minutes to complete a series of activities that, among other things, require that students learn something brand new, digest it, reflect on it, and perform a task using it.
Accomplishing all of that takes skill, discipline, consistency, and an effective plan. Among the many lesson models supported by research is a five-step plan that includes 1) Anticipatory Set, 2) Presentation of New Material, 3) Guided Practice, 4) Independent Practice, and 5) Closure.
Part of this and nearly all lesson models is time allotted for “guided practice,” the phase of the lesson in which the teacher guides students through new material before they can practice it on their own. Teachers make guided practice effective by doing five things.
Remind Students of the Lesson Objectives
All lesson components need to be tightly aligned to the objectives of the lesson. An explicit reminder when the guided practice phase begins will make the activity relevant to the students and fit it in to a clearer picture of what teachers expect of them. Being clear about what students are responsible for learning gives them what instructional experts have called, “executive control,” or the ability to “make a selection of “strategies appropriate to the learning task.”
Immediately and Frequently Check for Understanding
Students are doing something new for the first time, and during the process they need to know from the teacher if they are performing the task correctly. Teachers also need to know if all students are meeting the cognitive demands of the lesson.
Slow and deliberate, a good pace should offer teachers time to let students know where they are right, and where they might be veering. A rule of thumb for teachers to follow is that 80% of students demonstrate understanding before continuing. This check on understanding can be very informal and random, but reliable in the context of the lesson.
Give Non-evaluative Feedback
Checks for understanding necessarily result in feedback, which is crucial at this point. Feedback should be non-evaluative – that is, accurate and objective, but without consequence. The assessment will come later, so scores can wait, too. With non-evaluative feedback during guided practice students can correct work or make improvements without the anxiety of their efforts going into a grade.
Make Tasks Interactive
Teachers must make it clear to students of the expectation to participate in guided practice. Gary Borich, a leading educational researcher, has said, “Active engagement in the learning process at an appropriate level of difficulty must be a goal of every lesson, because without it little or no learning occurs.” One way to attain the appropriate level is to have a student lead the practice, while the teacher guides him through it.
An important aspect of interactivity is the security students need to ask questions. Guided practice needs to be a safe zone for all types of questions. If done properly, students have just been presented brand new material – their nascent understanding develops in unique ways, and they need to be able to form and mold that understanding by testing it against their existing schema.
Teachers, then, should set up systems that encourage questions, like requiring that students pose questions publicly by voice or privately on paper. Points can be awarded for good questions. Asking students to think of questions that someone younger might have can also get them to develop inquisitive habits.
Scaffold Class Activities
Scaffolding simply means that the appropriate supports are in place to enable student learning in the most efficient way. Graphic organizers, vocabulary lists, Venn diagrams, and sentence stems are all examples of scaffolding that could be used during guided practice sessions.
For instance, a social studies lesson on how Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points influenced European opinion in favor of a peace settlement could include the presentation of a document with excerpts from Wilson’s speech. During guided practice, she could use a table with six key points on the rows, and the main belligerent nations in columns, explaining how each point was viewed by each country.
Guided practice can be the crucial link from showing students what they are supposed to do and seeing them actually do it. Following the above five guidelines will result in good guided practice. Good guided practice will facilitate real learning.
References
Borich, Gary. Effective Teaching Methods, Sixth Edition. Columbus, Ohio: Prentice-Hall/Merrill . 2007
Gagne, R., Briggs, L., Wager, W. Principles of Instructional Design, Third Edition. New York: Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 1988.
Harmin, M. Inspiring active learning: A handbook for teachers. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1994.
Richard Stowell - Rich Stowell teaches educational technology at the University of San Francisco and high school math at a charter school in Richmond, ...
