Week 3 General Methods

I am a little behind on my blogs for right now.
Week 3 was 9/13-9/19 and was an overview of lesson planning and its structures and models of instruction.
I was having trouble keeping the terminology straight: what is a model? a method? a strategy?
But I understand now.
The best image is an inverted triagle with four divisions. The broadest segment is the models. A model is only one of four instructional practices: behavioral, information processing, social interaction, and personal.
A slightly more narrow section represents the instructional strategies: which are either two or five categories. For the 2: direct or indirect, with 4 strategies being included under the heading of indirect. For the 5: direct, indirect, interactive, experimental (process not product), and independent study.
An even more narrow category represents the instructional methods, the actual manner in which instructional environments are created. There are many of these and they are found under each instructional strategy. Our readings had very explicit and comprehensive diagrams that were very helpful in learning these distinctions.
Finally, the most narrow category are the skills being taught. These are the most specific instructional behaviors.
We also had the opportunity to practice writing learning objectives. These are tricky to draft in a logical way so that they can actually be implemented. We have the MSMC model that is very helpful. I keep that model on my desk and refer to it often. Drill and Practice- an instructional method under DI!

All of these categories are related and all of them serve different instructional purposes.
Since direct instruction is the most commonly used strategy, we will spend the next two-three weeks on learning and practicing how to employ DI.
This was a good review!
Wendy