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Brett Hewitt

Book Review: Classroom Instruction that Works - 11 views

TEMS520 bookreview

started by Brett Hewitt on 20 Feb 12
  • Brett Hewitt
    #1 Brett Hewitt on 20 Feb 12
     
    The book, Classroom Instruction that Works, is organized into several different sections or topics. Inside each of these there are ideas deemed important under the heading of the section. These are usually ways of accomplishing the task that is the heading for each section. For example, the heading for one of the sections is summarizing and note-taking. Inside this section there are several bolded headings that give teachers strategies to get students to take proper notes. I really liked the way the sections were set up like this. It basically gives you a step-by-step approach of how to accomplish each of the tasks that make up the headings of the different chapters. Also, each section gives ideas of what you should teach students not to do. Finally, there are figures inside of each section. These are usually examples of the strategy that was previously described in the text of the book. The figures are also sometimes research of how effective these strategies have been.

    The main topics in the book are organized into twelve different sections which are as follows: Applying the Research on Instruction; Identifying Similarities and Differences; Summarizing and Notetaking; Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition; Homework and Practice; Nonlinguistic Representations; Cooperative Learning; Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback; Generating and Testing Hypothesis; Cues, Questions and Advance Organizers; Teaching Specific Types of Knowledge; Using the Nine Categories in Instructional Planning. The main idea of these sections is to give readers ideas of how to equip students with the ability to accomplish these tasks. The authors use research and experience to present different methods for ways to teach the various topics. They present explicit directions of how to use each of the different strategies throughout the book.

    I found this book to be very informative. It has a lot of information that can be applied on a daily basis in teaching. There are many different ideas that I have applied, but one that I really took to heart was providing timely feedback to students. In the book it tells just how important it is to provide feedback in a timely manner to improve students' learning. This completely makes sense. If students don't get feedback on their work until you have moved on in the learning, they aren't going to get nearly as much out of it. I have made an effort to provide feedback quickly by returning papers to students by the next class. This has elicited many more questions from students, which is definitely a good thing. Before this, students just kind of glanced at their papers when they received them and had very few questions. This is just one example of a strategy that I have acquired from this book. There are many others. The strategies from this book were very well described in detail. I was never left guessing as to how to accomplish any of the tasks that had been presented. I would definitely recommend this to someone, especially if they were new to teaching.

    Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: Research based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

     http://www.amazon.com/Classroom-Instruction-That-Works-Research-Based/dp/tags-on-product/0871205041
  • Gina Dettloff
    #2 Gina Dettloff on 22 Feb 12
     
    Dear, Dear Marzano - oh how close we have all become, right? Brett, I am glad that you picked this book. I think one of my pet peeves as a student is getting papers back so late that you no longer remember- or care - about the grade or content. I only hope that I can "walk the walk" as a teacher - it won't be easy always submitting papers in a timely manner. I'm glad that it is a commitment you are so focused on making. Good for you.
  • Linda Clinton
    #3 Linda Clinton on 26 Feb 12
     
    Please know that I genuinely am trying to get everything back within a week. Really, I am! ;)

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