Addressing Lesson Pacing Issues

Lesson pacing can be of concern to teachers as they begin to implemet PowerTeacing.  The main goal of active instruction is to give students an overview of the targeted lesson objective so that they can, within their teams, work together to construct their own meaning of the topic or task at hand.  To thelp transition the responsibility of learning to the students consider the following:

Teachers can promote an awareness of strategies for thinking by teaching their students to refl ect on every phase of the problem-solving process. During Active Instruction, the teacher should use Think Alouds to model specifi c questions during his or her own problem-solving process. This process helps to make the invisible work of thinking visible and explicit and helps all students to understand that, as thinkers, they are in charge.

Asking questions prior to demonstrating a specific skill or process prepares the students for the problem-solving experience, promotes reflection upon the skills necessary to solve the problem, and more specifically, helps the student recall previous knowledge and make generalizations. As teachers model processes, highlighting the problem-solving process helps students refl ect on the various skills and knowledge needed to solve the problem and monitor their own progress. By reviewing the processes, students gain insight into their general level of understanding as well as their ability to make comparisons and generalizations about particular problems.

Below are some sample questions that can be used to direct teachers’ Think Alouds as they introduce, model,
and review specifi c skills or processes to the students.