Megan's Reading Response 4

I did some research on direct instruction. In a direct instruction lesson: the teacher usually spends some time lecturing; then the teacher guides the students through a complex problem, with the problem broken down into simple steps; then the students are given, one by one, the simple steps to carry out on their own; finally, the students are given one or many sample problems to accomplish on their own. For direct instruction the teacher is in control. To use this method well there are many things one can do. You should often summarize what the students will be learning. Bring in various materials to work with and various activities. Ask the students questions. When asking questions one should call on the student, instead of a volunteer. Then after the student answers they should give constructive feedback until they get the right answer or another student does. At the end of the lesson the students should have some sort of an assessment to show they learned that day. I think that direct instruction is used often in a theatre classroom. In theatre there is a change of pace quite often. One day you could be reading and writing and the next you are memorizing, improving, acting, directing, or even designing. The instruction is constantly being changed. Also at the end of every lesson there is always an assessment. This should always be implied in every lesson so that the students are assessed with what they learned that day. It also seems this kind of instruction uses a lot of hands on with the teacher facilitating each part. This also happens constantly in theatre.