Instructional strategies and approaches Essay Example for Free

Instructional strategies and approaches Essay Introduction Careful monitoring of student learning is an essential component of quality education . It is a strong predictor of student achievement as well as a major differentiating factor between effective schools and teachers from the ineffective ones. Monitoring of student learning refers to the various activities pursued by responsible and competent teachers to keep track of student learning for purposes of making instructional decisions and providing feedback to students on their performance and progress in school. Strategies for Monitoring Students. Students have different learning styles which is why teachers should strive hard to find activities that will suit the needs of their students. One way of monitoring students to ensure learning is by asking them questions about the lesson presented to check if they understand it or not. Questioning is a highly effective strategy to draw students into the learning process from the very beginning of a class session until the end. It stimulates their interest in new subjects, ideas and challenges; and it encourages students to be reflective about their own beliefs, assumptions and comprehension of new topics. Questioning conveys to students what they are to learn, what they are to do, and how they are going to do it. Effective questioning involves planning and practice prior to conducting lessons. Questions, oral recitations and other means of calling upon students to demonstrate their understanding of lessons presented are some of the methods teachers used to find out if their instruction is working and effective or if it needs to be explained further or adjusted in some way to ensure learning of students. Another method of monitoring student learning and progress is by supervising their seat works. This activity involves the teacher to circulate or move around the classroom to check how well or how poorly the students are progressing in the task. This is also an opportunity for her to provide a one-to-one instruction to those who need it. Homework on the other hand can be beneficial, neutral, or detrimental depending upon the nature and the context of the homework tasks. When carefully monitored by the teacher, this activity can increase the student’s learning time, thus, may contribute to an increase in the student’s achievement. Homework also helps students gain a positive attitude towards school, toward the particular subject areas in which homework is assigned and toward the homework itself. Daily, weekly and monthly reviews can at the same time enhance the learning of new material if incorporated with questioning and other learning probes. In this manner, the teacher can identify those areas which needs re-teaching. Classroom testing also bear a positive relationship to later student achievement when administered regularly and frequently. Studies revealed that students who are tested frequently and given feedback immediately are found to have positive attitudes toward tests. They regard tests as a facilitating factor to the learning and studying process. Finally, teachers should frequently review student’s performance data to check on their performance and progress. This is conducted for the purpose of identifying who among the students are at risks, needs remediation or a one-on-one teaching. Effective Monitoring Systems Teachers should, before proceeding to the next lesson, determine first whether the students understood her lessons or not. It is very important that students should practice or perform skills in the right way first before introducing them to another lesson or sub-skill. One of the best and most effective ways of monitoring my students is by asking them questions during class discussions. This is not only to draw their attention towards the lesson presented to them, but to also to stimulate their interest to the next topic that I am about to introduce to them. Questioning accomplishes so many things in my students. First, it reinforces or corrects their understanding towards the subject being discussed to them. It also encourages them to engage in active learning. It provides them new information gained from the questions raised and it gives them an opportunity to clarify some points in the subject being discussed. Foremost, it prepares them to learn and apply new skill to new challenges, and thus, extends their way of thinking about life. Questioning does not only broaden my students’ focus on the topic presented to them but it enables me to identify their preparedness to accept new information. This learned information helps me to modify, restructure or change the lessons that I am about to introduce to them afterwards. I also believe in the importance of supervising my student’s seatwork. I see that this strategy initiates more interaction with my students than just wait for them to call me and ask for help. When necessary, I also give extension for those who need extra time to finish their tasks. This is to allow slow learners to cope with the rest of their classmates. Other than providing personalized or one-on-one instruction, time extensions is also helpful and effective as a means to ensure learning in students. When my students are through with their tasks, I always make sure to have them turned in for checking and grading purposes. Monitoring student’s homework is also a great help to ensure learning in students. To be able to reap its benefits, I always make sure that the homework I gave to them are those that are tied to the subject matter we currently studied in the classroom and are appropriate to their maturity level. I use this type of monitoring system as a means of extending student practice time with the new material presented to them. I also make sure that parents get involve in the process, and that they are aware of what needs to be done so that they themselves encourage their child to do the homework. Turned in homework are always graded, commented on and checked before being handed back to students as this would allow my students to review and correct their mistakes. Finally, to check whether my instructions were fully understood or not, I give my students a test or a short quiz to confirm their grasp of the lesson presented to them and to identify as well possible gaps in their knowledge and understanding of the subject area. This also helps me keep track of my student’s learning for the purposes of making instructional decisions and providing feedback on their performance and progress in school. All these strategies are used to be able to make adjustments in my instructions to ensure learning in my students; to determine if the methods I used in teaching them are effective or not and; to identify as well who among my students are at risks, needs remediation or a one-on-one teaching.