Mysyk

Joseph Mysyk
EDTL 2760
Janice Menzie
11/29/16

BP 10: How do we design instruction that sticks?

Are teachers giving students an opportunity to understand the material fully and in a way
that the students will remember?
Do students understand material better if they teach it to themselves or through the
guidance of a teacher?
Are teachers grabbing the attention of their students from the very beginning of class?

I choose these questions due to what I have observed during my final weeks of field experience
at Perrysburg Jr. High. During these final weeks I have been paying less attention to how Mr.
Kruger acts in the classroom, but focused more on the students and what makes them perk up
and seem interested and what makes them lose focus. While I also focused on the class as a
whole, I specifically payed more attention to students like myself who have ADHD to see what
makes these students drift off during a lecture and what specific things makes them snap out of it
and seem to really grasp the words that the teacher is saying. While observing these students all
three of these questions have come to me and as I began to work with the students more closely I
was able to find the answer to all of them. For what I have seen it is not necessarily what the
teacher is teaching that makes students pay attention or not, but how they teach the material and
interact with their students.
Are teachers giving students an opportunity to understand the material fully and in a way that the
students will remember?
The job of a Jr. high school History teacher is to provide students with a solid understanding of
Social Studies and prepare them to learn this at the high school level. Educators are required to
inform their students of specific aspects of history, that they must understand to succeed in Social
Studies at the high school level. However, some teachers are not as motivated as others and they
teach to their students in a way that gives them the information that they need, instead of
teaching to students in a way they will make them successful. Mr. Krueger does an excellent job
of teaching for the success of his students, while also meeting his requirements. Before Mr.
Krueger begins each class he pulls me aside and explains to me exactly what he will be doing in
that class that day and why. He has a game plan, he knows what the students need learn and
exactly how he needs to deliver the message to them. After he figures out what parts of the
lessons he needs to focus on, he pairs students together based on their skill level in his class. He
will then make the groups work on small activities and have them go over the material together
for then the students can compare ideas and help each other to understand what is going on.
Many teachers do this, but once they put the students into their groups they will retire to their
desks and focus on other things such as grading papers. Mr. Krueger is not this type of teacher.
He is constantly bouncing around the class room and actively participating in these groups. He
doesnt just help them, but he emphasizes the question why which forces students to explain
what they mean and have better understanding of what they need to know. Mr. Krueger also
enjoys showing movies in his class. Students enjoy movies because they are a fun way to

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understand the material that they are learning. Movies allows students to see first had exactly
what was going on and make mental connections to the material that they are learning. But some
students see movie days as time to sleep because their teachers put the movie on and no longer
pays attention to their class. What makes Mr. Kruger different from these teachers is that he will
stop the movie and ask his students to explain a scene and if the students cannot he will give a
simpler explanation of what is going on in the movie. This is something that all teachers need to
incorporate into their style of teaching. Students develop a better understanding of things when
they are challenged by a teacher and forced to explain their ideas. In the article Five Standards of
Authentic Instruction it restates this by saying that, Social support is high in classes when the
teacher conveys high expectations for all students (Newmann, 1993). So in conclusion, for
teachers to allow students to understand the material fully, they need to constantly interact with
their class and give them opportunitys to challenge their own answers.
Do students understand material better if they teach it to themselves or through the guidance of a
teacher?
This question came to me while working with a group of students on a group project where they
were preparing for a debate between the patriots and the loyalists. And while observing these
students over the past few weeks, I found that both were to be true. When students were put into
groups and were told to work on assignments and fill out notes, they were able to collaborate
their work and find the correct answers. They were also able share their opinions on certain
subjects, which sometimes would lead to a debate over who was correct. This conflict over who
was right would make the students reader deeper into the text to find the answers and prove
themselves right. Not only did this make the students learn more, but it gave them something to
look back on when trying to remember the information. The article Five Standards of Authentic
Instruction also says agrees with this statement saying, Sharing is best illustrated when
participants explain themselves or ask questions in complete sentences and when they respond
directly to comments of previous speakers (Newmann, 1993). While this is a great way for
students to learn information it does have its flaws. If the students come across something that
they do both not understand they make completely miss the material. This is where the teacher
needs to get involved. The teacher should be there walking around the classroom answering
students questions and forcing them to explain their answers. This is how all classrooms should
be set up. Allow the students to work together in groups for then they can research the
information themselves and come to their own conclusions and then have the teacher come in to
answer any questions that they student have or explain information that may be confusing to the
students. Once the students have finished this activity, the teacher should then go back and
lecture to the students. This will expand the students knowledge and the student will be able to
participate more because they will already have a foot up on the information that they are
learning! So by flipping the classroom on its head and doing the order backwards, students will
be able to understand the material with more detail, and participate more in class.
Are teachers grabbing the attention of their students from the very beginning of class?
When students walk into their first period class around 7:30 in the morning, they may not be
fully awake and ready to learn. The same is true for classes at the end of the day because students
may be focused on what they are going to do later that day. So the teacher may be teaching to

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their class, but the information could be going in the students one ear and out of the other. From
my own personal experience in high school, I was the student that took a long time to become
interested in what the teacher was saying and I would miss the beginning of most lectures. To
prevent this, teachers need to implement a hook at the beginning of every lesson to catch the
students attention and get them focused on the topics that they will be learning. This hook can
be anything from a small group activity that gets the students blood pumping, to doing activities
such as a Think, Pair, Share. In the reading Preview assignments it says, There is no single
formula for a good preview assignment(Bower, 2010). I 100% agree with this because there are
countless examples of hooks that teachers can do to grasp the attention of their students. Once
the teacher has a hold on the students attention, the student will pay more attention and actually
wind up learning more information. This is one thing that Mr. Krueger does not excel at. While
he does an excellent job of getting the students attention throughout his lectures or activities, he
fails to excite his students from the beginning of class. This is because instead of starting class
with a hook, most of the time he will jump right into the lecture or activity. It is very noticeable
in his first period class that the students are not intrigued early in the morning due to the amount
of heads that are down and lack of participation. This is why a hook is a necessity in the class
room, because without it students could miss a large piece of information.
Field Experience
As I wrapped up my final weeks of field experience I began to have a strong connection to Mr.
Krueger as well as the class. The students were comfortable coming to me for help and I was
able to make a bond with some of the students I worked with. The class is starting to wrap up the
American Revolution and they are now talking about who wrote the declaration of independence
and what it exactly says. My job working with the students was to help them dissect the
declaration into specific sections and be able to present it to the class. I helped them by showing
them how to take the declaration one line at a time a looking for key words that they understood
for then they could piece the rest of it together. I also continued to work with students that have
ADHD. When the class had a test I would take the specific students that have ADHD to a
different class room and I would read them their tests allowed. These students had unlimited time
on tests so for some of them I would purposely take my time reading them the questions and
answers very slow and clear for then they could understand fully what the question was asking of
them. I was also told to assist the students if they seemed to be stuck on an answer, so if I could
tell that they knew what the answer was and they couldnt quiet think of it I would nudge them
into the right direction. Taking these students into a different room and reading them the
questions allowed is a fantastic way to assist these students and it is something that I wish I had
available to me at that age. I became extremely close with these specific students because I could
relate to their struggles and it made me think in new ways to help them succeed. Overall I would
say that I enjoyed my field experience very much and I have learned valuable lessons from both
Mr. Krueger and my interaction with these students, that I will be able to use myself when I am a
teacher.

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Work Cited

Bower, B., Lobdell, J., and Owens, S. (2010). Preview assignment. Bring learning alive!
Methods to transform middle and high school social studies. Palo Alto, CA: Teachers
Curriculum Institute, pp. 22-26.

Newmann, F.M., & Wehlage, G.G. (1993). Five standards of authentic