Instructional Strategies and Methods

Today I found a great site for instructional strategies and methods. The site simplified all the 5 parts of strategy and listed quite a few methods as well as giving useful sites to visit with very useful information. I am going to copy and paste a post I made today to the rest of the class as I feel it will be useful for future reference:

I guess it's true that when confronted with lemons you should make lemonade. Just when I started to panic about losing a book I find a gem of a source on a site. I am going to post the instructional methods found on the site I posted for everyone and then choose a few that I like as a student and ones that I use as an instructor and new ones that I hadn't even considered.

A Listing of Instructional Strategies and Methods

[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/direct.html ]Direct Instruction


 Possibilities include
 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/structuredoverview/index.html ]Structured Overview

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/lecture/index.html ] Lecture

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/explicitteaching/index.html ]Explicit Teaching

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/drill/index.html ]Drill & Practice

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/compareconstrast/index.html ]Compare & Contrast

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/didactic/index.html ]Didactic Questions

 Demonstrations

 Guided & Shared - [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/guided/guided.html ]reading, listening, viewing, thinking


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[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/intera.html ]Interactive Instruction


 Possibilities include
 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/debates/index.html ]Debates

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/roleplaying/index.html ]Role Playing

 Panels

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/brainstorming/index.html ]Brainstorming

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/peerpartner/index.html ]Peer Partner Learning

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/discussion/index.html ]Discussion

 Laboratory Groups

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/think/index.html ]Think, Pair, Share

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/coop/index.html ]Cooperative Learning Groups

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/jigsaw/index.html ]Jigsaw

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/psolving/index.html ]Problem Solving

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/structuredcon/index.html ]Structured Controversy

 Tutorial Groups

 Interviewing

 Conferencing


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[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/indirect.html ]Indirect Instruction


 Possibilities include
 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/psolving/index.html ]Problem Solving

 Case Studies

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/readmeaning/index.html ]Reading for Meaning

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/inquiry/index.html ]Inquiry

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/reflectivediscussion/index.html ]Reflective Discussion

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/writinginform/index.html ]Writing to Inform

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/formation/index.html ]Concept Formation

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/conceptmap/index.html ]Concept Mapping

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/cattain/index.html ]Concept Attainment

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/cloze/index.html ]Cloze Procedure


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[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/indepen.html ]Independent Study


 Possibilities include
 Essays

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/cai/index.html ]Computer Assisted Instruction

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/journal/index.html ]Journals

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/logs/index.html ]Learning Logs

 Reports

 Learning Activity Packages

 Correspondence Lessons

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/learningcontracts/index.html ]Learning Contracts

 Homework

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/researchprojects/index.html ]Research Projects

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/assignedqu/index.html ]Assigned Questions

 Learning Centers


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[ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/experi.html ]Experiential Learning


 Possibilities include
 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/fieldtrips/index.html ]Field Trips

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/narratives/index.html ]Narratives

 Conducting Experiments

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/simul/index.html ]Simulations

 Games

 Storytelling

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/focusedimaging/index.html ]Focused Imaging

 Field Observations

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/roleplaying/index.html ]Role-playing

 [ http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/synetics/index.html ]Synetics

 Model Building

 Surveys

For direct Instruction I would say that I do quite a bit of drill and practice. When teaching a student driving skills ,repetition is a very useful tool. The important thing to remember is to make sure my students are practice the correct techniques because it is just as easy to have bad habits develop as it is good ones. I would also say that Didactic questions are also an important part of my instructional method as I use "WHY" as part of my vocabulary almost as much as I breath.
For indirect instruction I would have to say that problem solving is my favorite method as we are constantly trying to come up with multiple solutions and then trying to chose the best solution to a problem. I found the method called the "Cloze Procedure "o be interesting. In a nutshell it's a way of leaving key words out of a sentence and then have the students see the empty sentence and come up with the words to complete the idea to make the most sense.
Under Experiential Learning I have to say my favorite would have to be field trips. Although we are constantly on a field trip in driver education sometimes where we are going takes on special meaning. Today was a good example of this as we went to Brattleboro to take on the Rotary from all angles. I could sense the adrenalin in the car as we left the parking lot. Great teaching moment. No need to motivate today the field trip took care of that.
As far as Independent Study I would have to say that I am looking forward to my students using blogs in the metabolite sense to review what has been learned and also to see what students might add to the actual activities that we do in the car.
As far as interactive instruction I would have to say that I enjoy using the "Think , Pair and Share". I do this several times during the course of a quarter and it really is neat to watch the students come up with viable solutions to problems. As you can see I really think that the site I posted really put all the information in a neat tidy to use package. Just in case you didn't go to this site I'm going to post it again: http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/index.html

I hope that everyone bookmarks this site as I know you will use it over and over again!!
Believe it or not as I finished reading the Fink article I finally made sense of the whole idea of designing a course by Fink. Up until this time I was in a little fog. The five steps in the initial design phase are: situational factors, learning goals,feedback and assessment procedures, teaching / learning activities and integrated components. The intermediate phase consists of 3 parts: structure for the course, instructional strategy and overall learning activities. The final design phase consists of 4 parts; grading systems, possible problems, syllabus and a plan for evaluation. Constructivism is the main element for Fink lovers to follow in course design.