Instructional Strategies: Advanced Organizer

Direct Instruction

Unique & Necessary Elements:

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Knowing your learners (their needs, knowledge, and learning styles)

Resources available (time, space, instructional needs)
Difficulty/Complexity of the concept

What is the purpose of this method?

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To give students the most direct & accurate understanding of a topic using visual and audio communication.
Focuses solely on the teacher to achieve time and content efficiency.

When should this method be used, and why?

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When efficiency of learning is a chief concern direct instruction is among the most efficient
When content difficulty exceeds student ability to self-navigate (which is frequent).

How might it enhance the understanding of content being taught?

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Teacher maintains highest communication ability in the classroom, can convey ideas in numerous ways to
achieve student understanding.
Teacher maintains high level of content accuracy, as opposed to self-learning / collaborative-learning, where
students have higher error rates.
Teacher has significantly higher resources at his or her disposal to aid learning visually.

What are 4 examples of specific topics from your content that would work well with this method?
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Teaching measurement: Demonstrating use of tools such as the Caliper and Micrometer
Engineering Design Process. Educating students on the separate components, and how this process is different
from the Scientific Method.
History of Engineering
Introduction to Electrical Engineering. Unlike much of physical engineering, electricity cannot be seen in a
traditional classroom. Only via established laws can students develop reasoning on the tenets of the science.

Two advantages for using this model:

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Extremely efficient
Highly accurate
Teacher-focus aids classroom management
Emphasizes listening skills

Two disadvantages for using this model:

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Highly dependent on student attention spans.

Students may have difficulty writing notes and listening simultaneously. (Organizers necessary)
Least interactive teaching method
Puts ELL students at distinct disadvantage as all students must listen at teachers pace.