Riley Ponton

EDP256

9/26/19

Strategies in the Classroom

The modern-day public classroom is already a source of stress for most students. A trying

environment that most children grow to despise by the time they hit high school, a time of their life that

seemingly defines the rest of it. A child with learning disabilities or inhibitors must cope with the same

struggles of their colleagues, as well as struggles that are unique to them that most other students can’t

understand. I personally suffered from anxiety disorder during high school, which made me hyperactive

in the worst ways; my mind never stopped moving, never decided to ‘chill out’, as so many people told

me. Children in today’s schools face problems like this every day, and modern instructor ethics are only

just now catching up to the curve. Over the past decade or so, educational institutions have developed

two main, overarching strategies for addressing these issues in the classroom: Direct Instruction (DI),

and Strategy Instruction (SI). Each of these approaches have their own goals, and smaller sets of

practices within their respective purviews.

Hypothetically in a classroom of my own, DI would be used to address the issues of no singular

student, but rather attempts to guide instruction of the whole class in a way that both addresses the

needs of the students that need it, and the rest of the class at large. DI is structured in a way to make

the lesson “come full circle”, with concise summaries of both previously learned content and specific

goals in mind for lesson to come. These goals guide and drive the discussion that follows, and during the

final minutes of the lesson, the instructor reviews both covered material and goals, reiterating the core

concepts. The textbook uses the example of a lesson on contractions and apostrophes, using a few key

models, one of which is a Contingency model, one that requires the whole class to perform. If applied
ideally, this model can have the students holding each other accountable for the success of a collective

goal.

Another option for addressing learning disabilities in the classroom is Strategic Instruction (SI), a

model that, rather than being a teacher-based instruction model, aims to directly address the needs of

the student in question, providing a more welcoming environment to suit their needs. To use SI with a

child in my hypothetical classroom would mean that I take a more intimate approach with the students

needs, identifying the specific needs to be addressed, and then following through on items that I can

directly impact/change within my power. Altering seating charts to place students hard of hearing or in

need of more direct instruction, staying after class for even a few minutes to review the student’s notes

and suggest additions, should they have developed difficulty with speech to text practices. Any of these

needs are ones that, while affected by may behavior as an educator, are student-centric, and rely on the

student(s) in question, and their specific needs.

For students not suffering from any acute learning disability, DI would seem like a normal lesson

plan. As long as no factors of the lesson seem stretched from the norm, DI is the least impactful method

on those without learning disabilities. This is another way in which DI and SI differ; DI focuses on altering

instruction approaches to better serve a collection of students, including those with disabilities, whereas

SI directly focuses on a specific student’s educational needs, resulting in the rest of the classroom

accommodating the changes; a student who previously sat in the front of the room may now have to

move to accommodate the student in need. This certainly implies no definite adverse effects by any

means, however it is important to note the differences: DI removes the need of student

accommodation, doubling down on accommodation from the educator, whereas SI divides that burden

among teacher and student.