Outstanding teachers identify
teachable moments in order to convert knowledge or skill gaps into “Aha!
Moments” for students. A key to
producing teachable moments is guided practice.
Guided practice is the process of providing students with the
opportunity to apply what they learn soon after learning it, and then providing
them with feedback on the correctness of their application with suggestions
designed to help them improve their technique and reasoning.
Teachable moments occur when a
student requests their teacher’s input, indicating a state of mental and
emotional readiness to learn exactly what the learning objective specifies. Ideally, the lightbulb illuminates when the
explanation is clear. This causes the
student to think: “Aha! Eureka! Now I understand. This makes sense to me!”
Legendary basketball coach John
Wooden used a performance modeling approach (M+M-M+) which serves as an
impactful illustration of “guided practice”.
When coaching a player, Wooden showed what the exemplary model (M+)
looked like, then he showed the player’s current performance (M-) to reveal the
gap, and finally he showed the exemplary model again (M+). Recognizing the gap between current
performance and the positive model helped players refine their technique. In a similar manner, teachers can use Wooden’s
approachto empower students to correct any errors in reasoning by
providing:
(M+)
the correct reasoning (i.e., worked example, video clip, role model)
(M-)
the incorrect reasoning (to help the student identify the flaw in their
reasoning)
(M+)
a repeat of the correct reasoning
For students to be receptive to detailed explanations and feedback, they need to believe that the teacher has their best interests at heart, will not embarrass them, and that revealing their errors will not negatively impact their grades. During guided practice, help them understand specific errors, and provide actionable feedback and coaching in a safe psychological zone (i.e., avoid embarrassment). Compassionately demonstrate the correct reasoning and help the student identify any errors or gaps in reasoning. When a student invites you into their learning space and requests your input, take immediate action to optimize learning. Pounce on the teachable moment by answering students’ questions immediately and providing clear explanations, analogies, and feedback. Before you finish the feedback, ensure that the student understands and can apply the correct reasoning.
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About the
Author
Michelle’s education includes a Certificate in
Industrial Organizational Psychology and an M.S. in Human Resources.
During her years as the Service Quality & Training Director of Greenleaf
Hospitality Group, she planned curriculum and delivered face-to-face
instruction for entry-level personnel, supervisors and managers. As an
education consultant, she has facilitated focus groups, strategic planning
sessions, professional development workshops, and executive coaching for school
superintendents and principals. She has also contributed to the
development of assessments to hire teachers and principals. In her
leisure time, she has accumulated significant instructional experience from her
time as a coach. Recently, Michelle co-authored a book for educators
called Create Aha! Moments: Tips for Teachers. This beautifully written book shares how to
help students learn more and remember longer.
Trust is at the heart of teaching and learning in the classroom.
Trust and credibility form a necessary foundation for strong teacher-student relationships. To create a safe psychological space for learning, teachers need to ensure that students feel a sense of safety and belonging in the classroom. Ideally, all students would have their survival, safety, social, and self-esteem needs supported by their family, friends, and school community. While we may not control what is going on outside the classroom, we can take measures to create a safe psychological space for learning inside the classroom. Part of our purpose as teachers is to support our students’ overall well-being so that they can focus their energy on learning.
As a starting point, we need to understand what roles and
circumstances comprise students’ lives outside of school. One way to do this is to ask students about what
they like to do on weekends, vacations, or special occasions with family or
friends. The answers to these questions
provide snapshots of their lives outside of school. More opportunities to learn about students as
individuals can come about by asking them to create collages, write in journals,
or share their likes/dislikes (e.g., favorite foods, hobbies, sports, and more)
or hobbies.
Integrating the demands of school and home life is just as
important for students as it is for teachers.
Asking about a student’s life at home can help you understand who forms their
support system. For example: Where do they live, who they live with, and who
are their caregivers? What
responsibilities do they have at home? Do
they have siblings? Do they eat dinner
as a family? Who are their best friends (and
why)? Do they take care of a family pet? Answers to these questions describe the fabric
of the student’s social network. When
asking these questions, be compassionate and express a genuine interest. Learn something new about your students’ home
lives but take care not to turn the conversation into an interrogation.
Near the beginning of the school year, introduce yourself to
students’ parents or guardians as early as possible—maybe even prior to the
first day of school. Resourceful teachers
initiate team-oriented relationships with parents and guardians for the purpose
of supporting student success. Experience
offers this wisdom: It is best to start
off on a positive note at the beginning of the school year, before much has
happened to produce misconceptions about behavior or learning dips. Plus, when we seek to build rapport with
parents under problem-free circumstances, we can earn trust upfront and establish
a common goal of acting in the student’s best interests. Building a welcome bridge between school and
home can improve communication and enhance the student’s learning and growth. Overall, relationships between parents (or
guardians) and teachers can represent a shared purpose of helping students
succeed in school and in life.
During school
we can build and maintain a positive rapport with students in numerous ways. When students enter the classroom, we can ensure
it is a welcoming environment. A simple
greeting, acknowledging students as they enter the classroom is a great way to
consistently reaffirm social acceptance and express interest in the daily progress
of their lives. While they are in the
classroom, we can strive to keep them physically comfortable and mentally
active by ensuring that the temperature and air quality in the classroom is
acceptable. Providing comfort includes letting
students move around the classroom as they learn, not just sitting in place the
whole time. To be prepared for
emergencies, it is a good idea to keep extra snacks, socks, t-shirts, essentials,
etc. because these will prove useful if students are hungry or if they have a trouble
keeping their clothes clean. Finally, we
need to make ourselves approachable by discreetly taking care of students’
requests for assistance in a timely manner.
Sometimes
the little things we do matter the most.
Let students know you care through your words and your actions. Students enjoy hearing how much you care
about their learning and well-being every day.
Based on age level, encourage students to act responsibly and take care
of their health to the best of their ability.
When they are lacking in hygiene, maybe they need access to supplies or
a washing machine. Be prepared to help students
to the best of your ability because providing a safety net can prevent a
student from going through tough times at school. At school, it is important to do everything
in our power to help students stay on track with their education by ensuring
they have enough food/water, friends, guidance, and resources to “be well and
learn” in school.
Building trust
with students increases their motivation to come to class and learn from you. Getting to know students is fun to do because
they become more engaged in class. Do
not be surprised if students would like to have an opportunity to get to know
you as a “real” person. Little by
little, teachers can choose to share appropriate information with their
students about their pets or favorite foods or hobbies outside of school. When you create opportunities for students to
learn about you and each other, they will be able to build positive
relationships that can make them feel good about school.
Our positive
interactions with students help us affirm our role as caring adults in their
lives. Developing strong relationships
with students means that they will know that you have their best interests at
heart. When basic human needs are met, students
will be ready to listen and learn during instruction, guided practice, and high-quality
feedback. Knowledge begets credibility,
but trust is at the heart of teaching and learning.
About
the Author
Michelle’s education includes a Certificate in
Industrial Organizational Psychology and an M.S. in Human Resources.
During her years as the Service Quality & Training Director of Greenleaf
Hospitality Group, she planned curriculum and delivered face-to-face instruction
for entry-level personnel, supervisors and managers. As an education
consultant, she has facilitated focus groups, strategic planning sessions,
professional development workshops, and executive coaching for school
superintendents and principals. She has also contributed to the
development of assessments to hire teachers and principals. In her
leisure time, she has accumulated significant instructional experience from her
decades as a coach. Recently, Michelle co-authored a book for educators called
Create Aha! Moments: Tips for Teachers. This beautifully written book shares how to
help students learn more and remember longer.
Observing students during guided practice can reveal a quizzical
expression, a sigh, a squeezing of the eyes, a head in hand, an arm extended,
glancing at others’ work, a shoulder shrug, staring off into the abyss, a fist
or a palm up. All of these cues have
something in common. These cues signal a
teachable moment when a student is ready to learn. Stated more plainly, these cues signal teachable
moments.
In a teachable moment, a student is ready to understand
exactly what you want them to learn based on the instruction you have
provided. The student lets you know in
some way, either verbally or non-verbally, that she needs some help to
understand the correct reasoning or skill.
At this point, your student knows that she is lost although she
attempted to apply the steps and now, she needs directions to reach the
learning goal. It is up to you to
diagnose “where” the student is, where she needs to go, and how to show her the
way.
As her teacher, you know the path. You’ve seen students ascend the ladder of
reasoning and you know where the “trouble spots” (i.e., frequently made errors)
are located. Provide an explanation of
the correct reasoning in language she understands, then help her see the gap
between incorrect and correct reasoning, and have her demonstrate that she
understands the correct path. Once she has
the breadcrumbs to follow, she will be eager to try and experience
success. Provide opportunities for her
to practice this again until she consistently demonstrates correct
reasoning. Later, as her confidence and
mastery grows, she will be able to show you the way she “solves” the
problem.
For more ideas on how you can create teachable moments with
your students, check out “Create Aha! Moments:
Tips for Teachers” on Amazon .com.
About the
Author
Michelle’s education includes a Certificate in
Industrial Organizational Psychology and an M.S. in Human Resources.
During her years as the Service Quality & Training Director of Greenleaf
Hospitality Group, she planned curriculum and delivered face-to-face
instruction for entry-level personnel, supervisors and managers. As an
education consultant, she has facilitated focus groups, strategic planning
sessions, professional development workshops, and executive coaching for school
superintendents and principals. She has also contributed to the
development of assessments to hire teachers and principals. In her
leisure time, she has accumulated significant instructional experience from her
decades as a coach. Recently, Michelle co-authored a book for educators
called Create Aha! Moments: Tips for Teachers. This beautifully written book shares how to
help students learn more and remember longer.
We felt that “forgetting” was such a significant pain-point
for teachers and students that we wrote a pivotal chapter on this topic in our book,
“Create Aha! Moments”. The main reason
we want to minimize forgetting is because students need to remember what they
have learned over the course of the school year and perhaps for their lifetimes. As far as teachers are concerned, it is not easy
to go through the process of periodically reteaching previous lessons. For students and teachers, reteaching adds
significant time pressure to an already jam-packed semester and workload. Helping students recover from gaps in their
knowledge can become time consuming and slow everyone down, leading to a lack
of enthusiasm about school.
Like an illness, forgetting interferes with the education
process. What is forgotten is unknown
until the information is needed—at which point, it requires diagnosis and
treatment. Rather than having to go
through the angst of reteaching a lesson, forgetting could be minimized with methods
utilized for prevention. Teachers can help
students minimize forgetting, especially of the important information by
providing multiple doses of practice that require information retrieval. Educators call this “retrieval practice”.
Retrieval
practice thoughtfully spaced over time is called distributed practice. It is even more effective than unplanned
retrieval practice because it ensures that information is recollected and
applied at regular intervals to minimize forgetting. We advocate in
favor of distributed practice because systematic retrieval practice strengthens
neural pathways in the brain and ensures your students have the foundational
knowledge in place to move on to the next lesson. In order to make this happen, simply create
questions and administer them on a schedule that provides retrieval practice at
regular, common sense intervals.
While planning your lesson, consider what questions or
exercises work well for helping your students remember the main points from
your lesson. Provide these sets of questions
to help your students maintain their knowledge base. Distributed practice helps students ensure that
they can recall important information that is going to be relevant in upcoming
lessons and useful in their lives. Initiating
distributed practice will eliminate a lot of stress for students and for you
too. Consider the time and effort saved
from not having to reteach a lesson multiple times, especially when students may
have mastered the concepts at one time, but have forgotten important details.
To learn more about how to minimize forgetting, read about
the benefits of distributed practice in Chapter 3 of the “Create Aha! Moments:
Tips for Teachers” book. This
information could greatly aid your efforts to help students remember what you
taught and secure their confidence as well as their ability to retain
information for future use. Use distributed
practice and take advantage of a friendly strategy that will save you time and effort
while helping your students make healthy progress.
About the
Author
Michelle’s education includes a Certificate in
Industrial Organizational Psychology and an M.S. in Human Resources.
During her years as the Service Quality & Training Director of Greenleaf
Hospitality Group, she planned curriculum and delivered face-to-face
instruction for entry-level personnel, supervisors and managers. As an
education consultant, she has facilitated focus groups, strategic planning
sessions, professional development workshops, and executive coaching for school
superintendents and principals. She has also contributed to the
development of assessments to hire teachers and principals. In her
leisure time, she has accumulated significant instructional experience from her
decades as a coach. Recently, Michelle co-authored a book for educators
called Create Aha! Moments: Tips for Teachers. This beautifully written book shares how to
help students learn more and remember longer.
Why it is necessary to prepare for guided
practice?
What are some things to consider when
formulating a set of learning activities for use during guided practice?
What do I need to do during guided practice?
I know my subject matter pretty well, so why do
I need to prepare questions and explanations for guided practice?
How can guided practice be used to identify and facilitate
teachable moments?
What is guided practice?
When is it used?
During a lesson, guided practice provides students with an
opportunity to demonstrate understanding and apply new information immediately
after instruction while their teacher is available to help them learn. Guided practice provides teachers with an
opportunity to observe students’ performances and nip errors in the bud before
incorrect reasoning or confusion can take root.
Why is guided practice essential to learning?
To develop correct reasoning, there needs to be a
coordinated effort between teacher and student.
As an illustration, consider how novice swimmers benefit from practicing
under the guidance of an instructor when learning how to swim the front crawl
stroke. Similarly, classroom students benefit
from receiving immediate feedback and making corrections based on what their
teacher observes them doing. Like
swimmers, learners are adapting to many factors as they practice, i.e., direction
and distance to the goal, depth, complexity, actions, cause & effect, and
risk of failure. Therefore, before
investing too much effort learners naturally consider: “If I flail, is someone
here to help me?” Ideally that person is
a “more knowledgeable other” who can serve as a guide—like a teacher, parent,
or tutor—to help the student straighten things out.
During guided practice, the message from the teacher to the
learner is: I am willing to help you,
but for you to reap the greatest benefit, you need to do the work
yourself. The student needs to invest
learning time. Like a swimmer taking
swim lessons, the student has to intentionally put forth effort. This effort is an investment of energy that
demonstrates the learner’s commitment to learn and that she values the information. The student’s performance allows the teacher
to see a demonstration of what the learner can do as well as where she is
struggling. Through observation of the
student at work the teacher can see what the student knows and understands before
providing an explanation or feedback to help her close the performance gap.
Why it is necessary to prepare for guided practice?
You know the adage: “to
be forewarned is to be forearmed.”
Advance preparation allows you a cognitive cushion of preparedness. When students spring questions on you, you
can remain calm and smile to yourself as you share well-prepared, clear
explanations and activities out of your “tool bag” to deepen understanding and
create “Aha! Moments”.
To make the best use of guided practice time with students,
it is extremely helpful to prepare in advance.
It makes sense to do this during lesson planning. The primary reason for advanced preparation
is to have time to craft questions and activities that will make learning errors
“visible” during guided practice time.
As you develop questions and activities for guided practice,
consider common errors and prepare clear explanations designed to help students
identify any errors and understand correct reasoning. To ensure deep thinking, design questions that
connect new knowledge and the student’s relevant prior knowledge to the maximum
extent possible as this will strengthen neural pathways for correct reasoning and
make the lesson more memorable.
What are some things to consider when formulating a set of
learning activities for use during guided practice?
The lesson objectives from your curriculum
document
The main learning points your will cover with
this lesson
Useful terminology to post as “new vocabulary”
Connections you want to make with the learners’
relevant prior knowledge, interests, age and life context
Carefully designed questions which can produce
visible evidence of correct or incorrect reasoning
Clear answers, analogies, metaphors and
demonstrations which illustrate evidence of correct reasoning and/or skill
Common errors and how to spot them; how you will
monitor student’s work.
What to include in your teaching tool bag for this
guided practice session: Thoughtful explanations,
correct reasoning, concrete examples, and live and pre-recorded performance
demos that you could use to illustrate perfect performance
Feedback to help learners recognize gaps and actions
students can follow to close any knowledge gaps
What do I need to do during guided practice?
During guided practice utilize thoughtfully chosen activities
that reveal errors. Be observant. When you see that a student needs guidance, compassionately
help the student identify the knowledge gap and understand correct reasoning versus
incorrect reasoning. Then, ensure the student
can demonstrate the correct reasoning or skill—effectively closing the
gap. Your main goal during guided
practice is to ensure students can consistently demonstrate correct reasoning to
meet their target learning outcomes while developing students’ competence and confidence.
I know my subject matter pretty well, so why do I need to
prepare questions and explanations for guided practice?
Preparing for guided practice is essential because then you
can focus on observing students to see small changes in their expressions and
body language that indicate when one of them needs your help. Your state of readiness means that during
guided practice, your tool bag is stocked with further examples, explanations,
and learning activities that make sense for learners to use for relevant, meaningful
practice. A huge benefit of this is that
your students’ trust in you will grow as they observe you welcoming their
errors and helping them correct their reasoning! Simultaneously, their confidence in their own
ability to learn and apply new knowledge will also grow. The production of teachable moments comes
from utilizing thoughtfully designed learning activities and your preparedness to
create “Aha! Moments” at the precise moment when you students are ready.
How can guided practice be used to identify and facilitate
teachable moments?
Guided practice immediately following instruction allows
students the chance to practice applying new knowledge, experience successes
and make visible errors. When a student
is struggling with a particular concept, a teacher can notice small changes in
expression or body language signaling that he needs help. At that point, the observant teacher uses
these cues to recognize a teachable moment.
When a teachable moment occurs, the teacher is able to promptly facilitate
learning. During guided practice, the
teacher has time to work with students, take advantage of teachable moments, and
help students understand correct reasoning.
About the Author
Michelle’s education includes a Certificate in
Industrial Organizational Psychology and an M.S. in Human Resources.
During her years as the Service Quality & Training Director of Greenleaf
Hospitality Group, she planned curriculum and delivered face-to-face
instruction for entry-level personnel, supervisors and managers. As an
education consultant, she has facilitated focus groups, strategic planning
sessions, professional development workshops, and executive coaching for school
superintendents and principals. She has also contributed to the
development of assessments to hire teachers and principals. In her
leisure time, she has accumulated significant instructional experience from her
decades as a coach. Recently, Michelle co-authored a book for educators called
Create Aha! Moments: Tips for Teachers. This beautifully written book shares how to
help students learn more and remember longer.
You believe education is a calling. You want to help students learn and grow. You feel certain that, as a teacher, you can make a difference. Turning “A” students into “A+” students is probably not how you would define the purpose of your role. More than likely, you teach because you enjoy helping all students learn and grow. You believe in the importance of developing young people into productive members of society.
An ongoing, life-fulfilling reason to pursue a profession is the intrinsic satisfaction gained from performing that role. Other factors for choosing a particular job include salary, benefits, location, and vacation. While you may enjoy having summer vacation each year, how do you stay inspired during the school year to spring out of bed each morning excited to teach?
Many teachers say that the joy of teaching comes from seeing the lightbulb “go on” over a student’s head. As a teacher, you have the opportunity every day to help students learn, and develop their reasoning skills to become creative, expansive thinkers who will venture farther and faster into the world and contribute more than preceding generations. You envision a future when your students can build, pioneer, create, explore, expand, lead, collaborate, help, fix, run, save, and perform excellent work that justifies their commitment and exceeds the demands of their education.
Teachers matter! Teachers guide learners’ growth and empower them to become critical thinkers. Teachers who create more “Aha! Moments” in the classroom positively impact students’ motivation, efforts and educational outcomes.
Perhaps today, students have only to learn the distributive property in your pre-algebra class. However, when you help a student learn and grow you are helping a member of a future generation build a bright future—20 years from now—that you might get a glimpse of…when you see one of your former students thriving as an entrepreneur or another who became a teacher because of you. At the end of the day, you feel pleased that your students are doing well. Each night, after the homework is checked and the lesson plan is reviewed, you can rest with a satisfied smile at the notion of creating more “Aha! Moments” tomorrow.
For technical information and tips, a book titled Create Aha! Moments is available for purchase on Amazon.com. The subject matter applies to all content areas and grade levels as it addresses how to meet learners’ needs for relevance, importance, and meaning. Happily, the creation of “Aha! Moments” can bring more joy of learning and teaching to classrooms everywhere—and make a positive impact on your well-being and life satisfaction.
About the Author Michelle’s education includes a Certificate in Industrial Organizational Psychology and an M.S. in Human Resources. During her years as the Service Quality & Training Director of Greenleaf Hospitality Group, she planned curriculum and delivered face-to-face instruction for entry-level personnel, supervisors and managers. As an education consultant, she has facilitated focus groups, strategic planning sessions, professional development workshops, and executive coaching for school superintendents and principals. She has also contributed to the development of assessments to hire teachers and principals. In her leisure time, she has accumulated significant instructional experience from her decades as a coach. Recently, Michelle co-authored a book for education called Create Aha! Moments: Tips for Teachers. This beautifully written book shares how to help students learn more and remember longer.
