Sopheaktra Chan

Notes from Act of Teaching

I. Chapter 6
Conversation Starters:
Normally considerable attention is devoted to ensuring that
pre-service teachers know how to plan instruction in great
detail.
Regardless of your personal predispositions, you will be
expected to plan lots of things including classroom arrangement
(placement of furniture, equipment, materials, displays),
classroom routines an d rules (student movement, how
materials will be distributed, how attendance will be taken), but
most importantly, le arming experiences.
Pros and Cons of Instructional Planning:
Businesslike and adaptable/flexible teachers, described in
Chapter 10, seem to obtain greater student achievement
through either more precise or flexible planning.
Planning Is Especially Beneficial for New Teachers:
four reasons why:
1) you will have little or no teaching experience to draw
upon
2) understandably, you will be apprehensive and unsure of
yourself and your teaching skills. Well-conceived plans
provide a great deal of personal security and confidence
and even add to your enthusiasm. You feel relaxed and
good to go!
3) you likely will not know what students are expected to
know and do.
4) given time to think and plan, teaching will be more
creative and fun. Corny, but remember, only birds can
wing it.
planning instruction is considered so important, student
teachers and beginning teachers are advised to plan teaching
events in considerable detail, leaving little or nothing to chance
Deciding What to Teach:
Of the planning decisions teachers make, the first is
determining what to teach. That choice is pretty much fixed by
the state and the school district in which you work. However, as
you will see later, teachers occasionally have their way.
THE FORMAL AND TAUGHT CURRICULA:
Thus, there are two kinds of curriculum: (1) the formal, required
kind following from work done by state standards and school
district curriculum committees and resulting in documents such
as state guidelines, local curriculum guides, and other
documents and (2) the taught curriculum that includes items
from the formal curriculum teachers actually teach plus anything
else deemed important by the teacher.
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Instructional Objectives:
An instructional objective describes what learners must know
and be able to do. Specific objectives are much like
benchmarks
Additionally, you probably noticed the four specific instructional
objectives inspire different kinds of learning-cognitive,
humanistic, and behavioral
The first two is aimed toward cognitive leaning, the third
toward humanism tic learning, and the last behavioral learning.
THE KINDS OF OBJECTIVES WE USE RESULT IN THREE DIFFERENT KINDS
OF LEARNING: COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE, PSYCHOMOTOR:
Cognitive Domain; Educational objectives in the cognitive
domain cause learners to engage in mental or intellectual
tasks.
Affective Domain Bloom calls a second type or domain of
learning outcomes "affective." The affective domain deals with
attitudinal, emotional, and valuing goals for learners.
Psychomotor Domain According to Bloom, objectives in the
third, or psychomotor, domain relate to learning physical skills.
Courses in child or adolescent psychology taught you that as
children grow, they are able to accomplish successively more
complex physical tasks.
Writing Specific Objectives:
Every objective should contain an A, B, C, and D
where A stands for the audience the objective is written for. In
the objective above, the audience, A, is the learner.
B stands for the behavior expected of the learner. In the
objective above, the behavior, B, is the learner who will identify
every verb. Table 6.2 contains a list of verbs that can be used to
attain learning outcomes at various levels of each of Bloom's
three instructional domains.
" C stands for the condition under which the learner identifies
every verb. In the objective above C is "Given a paragraph."
"' D stands for the degree of proficiency or correctness that the
learner must display. In the objective above the degree of
proficiency, D, is circling each verb correctly.
THE VALUE OF SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
It is beneficial to have clear, specific learning objectives in mind
and, as mentioned in Chapter 4, to communicate them to
learners so that they are aware of what they are expected to
know and be able to do. If you do, students will learn more.
Additionally, such careful attention to detail will give you greater
security, especially in your first years of teaching.
Preparing Instructional Plans of Varying Duration:
THE "LONG AND SHORT" OF PLANNING
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PREPARING LONG-RANGE PLANS: YEARLY AND SEMESTER

PLANS
PREPARING UNIT PLANS
PREPARING LESSON PLANS
EVALUATING LESSON PLANS
THE "BACKWARD DESIGN" IDEA OF LESSON AND UNIT
PLANNING
COLLABORATIVE, COOPERATIVE, OR TEAM PLANNING

Reflection on Chapter 6

After I read chapter 6 of Act of teaching, I learned that in order to teach well

in class we teacher must be planning well. The planning is very useful and help the

teacher a lot. In the planning for teaching, should meet the objectives. There is unit

planning, effective planning and lesson planning. Planning can be hard at first but

once you master it, you will start to like planning things ahead because it helps to

guide your way and help direct your path in teaching. The strength that I have in

planning is that I can think fast for what I going to do with my students but for the

weakness I have a hard time describes it down on the lesson plan. However, I did

learn a lots from this chapter and I am looking forward to apply them in my

teaching. If I manage to apply them well, I think I will become a good teacher in the

future.
Sopheaktra Chan

II. Chapter 7-8

Chapter 7
Presentations: Teaching as Telling and Showing:
A presentation is an informative talk a more knowledgeable person
makes to less knowledgeable persons.
The purpose of a presentation is to inform an audience of certain
facts, ideas, concepts, and explanations.
GOOD PRESENTERS: should be friendly, humorous, enthusiastic,
verbally fluent (in other words, talk effortlessly and smoothly), and
clear
GOOD PRESENTATIONS:
1. Preparation Getting ready for the presentation is key
2. Delivery When we talk about "delivery," we are talking about a
teaching performance, about the presentation itself.
3. Handout: You have undoubtedly attended presentations where
the presenter distributed handouts containing an outline or
related information
4. Closure: A summary of the qualities of good presenters and
good presentations is contained in Table 7.2. This is one of
several tables contained in this and the next chapter that you
will want to keep handy for future reference.
COMPUTER PRESENTATIONS: PROS AND CONS: Computer programs
are available that permit teachers to add all kinds of visual and
auditory aids to a presentation.
WHEN TEACHER PRESENTATIONS SHOULD BE USED: It is most
appropriate for you to present knowledge to your learners when (1)
they don't know much about what is to be learned, (2) the new
knowledge is not available in a better, more understandable form (e.g.,
in a book), (3) the knowledge need not be remembered for a long time,
or ( 4) the knowledge is a basis for what will be explored later in
depth.
Discussion: Leaming through Informative Interaction:
A discussion is a situation wherein students, or students and a
teacher, converse to share information, ideas, or opinions or work to
resolve a problem.
Purposes of Discussion A discussion can serve a variety of purposes:
to review and extend what students have learned in order to ensure
their mastery of a subject
Characteristics of Discussions We can consider discussions on the
basis of a number of attributes or characteristics: the interaction
pattern, group size and composition, and group arrangement.
GOOD DISCUSSION LEADERS:
you must be a facilitator, human relations expert, clarifier, and
summarize
Independent Study: Teaching as Giving and Guiding Seat Work and Homework
Assignments:
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Independent study is any assignment learners complete more or less

on their own. Examples of independent study include; reading, writing
a composition, rehearsing words for a spelling test, and preparing a
report.
Purposes of Independent Study; Teachers use independent study for
many reasons, some more justifiable than others.
Types of implement Study by type of independent study, we refer to
whether the teacher prescribes the work assignment or learners freely
choose it.
Teacher's Role as with presentation and discussion, the objective of
independent study is to facilitate students' learning and satisfaction
Individualized or Differentiated Instruction: Tailoring Teaching:
Individualized instruction and differentiated instruction are terms used
to refer to any instructional maneuver that attempts to tailor teaching
and learning to a learner's, or a group of like-learners', unique
strengths and needs
The Project Method: Self-Directed Learning: The Project Method is
defined as: Teaching by engaging students in a long-term activity in
which they gather information and develop a product of some kind,
such as a written report, oral presentation, or model
Matching Instructional Alternatives to Learners:
In the first study, 91 suburban elementary teachers received
information about four different kinds of hypothetical students. The
information portrayed each of the students as either (1) high ability-
independent, (2) high ability-conforming, (3) low ability-independent,
or ( 4) low ability-conforming. For example, the hypothetical high
ability-independent learner was characterized as follows:
Overview of 31 Instructional Alternatives:
Academic games or competitions
Brainstorming
Cases
Centers of interest and displays
Colloquia
Constructivism
Contracts
Cooperative learning
Debates
Demonstrations
Direct instruction
Discovery
Discussion
Drill and practice
Field observation, fieldwork, field trips
Independent study or supervised study
Individualized instruction
Learning modules
Sopheaktra Chan

Mastery learning. Etc

Using Technology in Teaching:
Technology certainly has changed how students learn and teachers
teach. Software programs have long been available that permit kids to
learn online using tutorials (e.g., Spanish for young children), practice
(e.g., multiplication), or engagement in a simulation (e.g., building a
city).

Chapter 8
Cooperative learning: Teaching learners to like and Care for One Another:
Cooperative learning describes instructional procedures that place
learners in small work teams that are rewarded for what they
collectively accomplish. The purpose of cooperative learning is to
engender in students a collective caring, an "all for one, one for all"
philosophy. Principal characteristics include small, heterogeneous
teams and tasks that revolve around either mastering some knowledge
or skill or participating in a group academic project. Cooperative
learning
Good leaders of cooperative learning believe in its purpose; they are
able to get students to work together, are competent presenters,
effective organizers, and good work coordinators; and they are able to
identify and help students and teams having difficulty.
Discovery learning: figuring Things Out for Yourself:
Discovery learning takes place when students are presented with
experiences and are asked to derive their own meaning and
understanding from them. Its purposes are (1) to provide students with
the opportunity to think for themselves in order to figure something
out, (2) to help students discover how knowledge is gained, and (3) to
promote higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and
evaluation
Constructivist Teaching and learning: Problem Solving under Teacher
Guidance:
A constructivist lesson has identifiable parts: purpose of the lesson (a
challenge), establishing groups and group activities, bridging, question
posing, exhibits, and reflection.
Direct Instruction: Teaching in the Most Efficient and Effective Way:
Direct instruction teachers provide strong academic direction, have
high expectations that students can and will learn, make students feel
psychologically safe, urge them to cooperate, hold them accountable
for their work, and closely monitor and control students' behavior.
Good leaders of direct instruction are enthusiastic, warm and
accepting, humorous, supportive, encouraging, businesslike, adaptable
or flexible, and knowledgeable.
Good direct instruction has three phases: preparation, delivery, and
closure. The preparation that direct instruction teachers engage in is
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not clear. We can only assume it equates to preparing a good

presentation. In DISTAR, preparation requires being well acquainted
with the teacher's instructional manuals. Delivery requires some very
major tasks including (for most variations) collection and review of
previous work, re-teaching when necessary, presentation of new
material, teacher-guided practice and, finally, independent practice
until 80 percent or higher proficiency is achieved.
Is There a Single Best Instructional Alternative? Some Final Thoughts:
Generally, research on direct instruction is encouraging. All of its
variations have been investigated; with the possible exception of the
Mastery Teaching Program, they have proven to be more or less
successful in increasing academic achievement in the basic skill areas
such as reading and mathematics.
All notes from are from chapter 7-8 of Act of Teaching Book.
Sopheaktra Chan

Reflection on Chapter 7-8

After reading these two chapter of Act of teaching, I learned that in order for

teachers to teach the students well and run the run classroom smoothly. They have

to have lots of classroom management. In chapter 7 talked about the Presentation

while teaching students. This chapter help guided and tell me how to be a good

presentation and the benefit of a well prepared Presentation. Presentation is part of

the teaching method that every teacher need to master it because they will be the

one that leading the students. However, in chapter 8 talked about the teaching

method that teachers should apply them in their classroom. Both the teachers and

the students need to have cooperation learning system, discovery learning

technique, constructivist teaching and learning and direct instruction. If we manage

to apply this method in the class, the class will prosper and grow. Moreover, the

students will learn quickly and have a good relationship between teachers and

between their friends. Also, the teachers job will be easier.

Sopheaktra Chan

Act of Teaching Book

Chapter 10