Through proper active monitoring a teacher can keep students on-task and just as importantly, keep them accurate in their responses.
When students are working independently on written assignments, the teachers should move around the classroom looking closely at students' work. The teacher should not be seated at a desk. It is not possible to scan student work from one position. The teacher must get close enough to read what students have written. Desks and chairs should be arranged so the teacher has easy access to each student.
The teacher should show that s/he cares whether or not students are getting the material right. Active monitoring is most effective when the teacher appears to be excited about students getting correct answers. Giving recognition to students with correct answers motivates students to care about their work.
The teacher can complete a lot of correcting while walking around the room. The teacher can put a star next to every correct item s/he has looked at on a student's paper. Those items won't have to be reviewed later. The teacher should spend no more than 30 seconds with each student.
An equally important component of active monitoring is to indicate when items are wrong. The teacher should make a mark on the student's paper next to the incorrect item and tell the child something like, "Oops. That one is wrong. Look carefully and try it again."
The teacher can be sympathetic but should NOT stop to teach a student who has made an error. If the teacher teaches students individually, students will learn that they don't have to pay attention in class during instruction because the teacher will help them individually.
If three or more students have the same error, the teacher should immediately stop the class and provide a whole-group correction. The correction should be worded exactly as in the original instruction.
It is critical for the teacher to have a system in place where s/he can frequently reinforce students for following classroom expectations. Here's the rule: The teacher should reward good behavior at least four times as frequently as s/he corrects inappropriate behavior.
The teacher needs to provide consequences for students who are not on task. The teacher can take a point as part of the Teacher-Student game. The teacher can say something like, "Gee, I'm sorry you're not working, I get a point. When I see you working, you can get a point."
Mastery is at the core of all Direct Instruction (DI) programs. Each DI program is constructed using a small-step design that ensures that all students can be taught to mastery every day if they are placed properly in the program. Only 10-15% of a DI lesson contains new material. The rest of the lesson reviews or applies material taught in previous lessons so students can master the material and perform correctly on every task or exercise by the end of a lesson.
Appropriate placement is critical to teaching children to mastery. If students are placed in material that's too difficult for them, the amount that students have to learn is much greater than 10-15% of a lesson. They cannot master the material in a single day when there is too much that they do not know.
Students should be placed at a lesson where they can perform correctly on every item the first time they see it, at least 70% of the time for new material and 90% correct on the review material and applications that have been taught previously. If students have these first-time correct response rates, by the end of a lesson they will be able to learn the material they didn't get right the first time. Teachers will have enough time to correct errors that students make, and students will be able to absorb the new material presented in each lesson.
Teaching to mastery has several important benefits to students. Students who master material in a lesson can more easily learn new material. The skills and concepts students acquire provide a very strong foundation for learning new skills and concepts. Students' self-esteem increases when they master material presented to them. They are confident that they will be able to learn new material. They know they are successful. They look forward to going to school, participating in groups and doing their assignments.
IMPORTANT: Assigning students material they can't understand can be very punishing to them. Forcing a 3rd grade student with beginning decoding skills to read a grade-level text, for example, communicates to the student that s/he can't read nearly as well as many other 3rd graders. The overall message is that the student is deficient, which can lead to serious self-image problems. Students who are put in material that is too difficult for them often generalize from their experience and anticipate that they will fail on any new material they encounter. Conversely, students who are placed in material they can master in a reasonable amount of time develop very positive self-images. They anticipate that they will master any new material they encounter, and they are ready for the challenge!
This category examines reading interventions, curricula, and outcomes and include students in pre-K through 5th grade. Direct Instruction curricula include: DISTAR Reading, Reading Mastery, Corrective Reading, Horizons, and Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.
This category examines reading interventions, curricula, and outcomes and include students in grades 6-12. Direct Instruction curricula include: DISTAR Reading and Corrective Reading.
This category examines mathematics interventions, curricula, and outcomes and include students in pre-K through 5th grade. Direct Instruction curricula include: Connecting Math Concepts
This category examines mathematics interventions, curricula, and outcomes and include students in grades 6-12. Direct Instruction curricula include: Corrective Mathematics
This category examines writing interventions, curricula, and outcomes and include elementary and secondary students. Direct Instruction curricula include: Reasoning and Writing and Expressive Writing
This category examines language interventions, curricula, and outcomes and include early elementary students. Direct Instruction curricula include: DISTAR Language and Language for Learning
This category examines spelling interventions, curricula, and outcomes and include elementary students. Direct Instruction curricula include: Spelling Mastery and Spelling Through Morphographs
This category examines interventions, curricula, and outcomes across multiple subject areas (e.g. reading and mathematics) and include elementary students.
This category examines interventions, curricula, and outcomes across multiple subject areas (e.g. reading and mathematics) and include secondary students.
This category examines findings and longitudinal outcomes of Project Follow Through.
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WHAT MATERIALS ARE NEEDED TO IMPLEMENT DI AND THE NIFDI MODEL?
During the first year of implementation, you will need two categories of Direct Instruction materials: programs to use with the majority of your students, and programs to meet specific needs. All materials you use for the first year teach language arts: reading, writing, thinking and speaking.
Programs for the Majority of Students
Programs to Meet Specific Needs
All of the above materials are published by SRA/McGraw-Hill and may be purchased online at www.sraonline.com/directinstruction
