Instructional Strategies - DeRoma

The proposed lesson will incorporate elements of direct instruction and constructivism. This format was chosen because of time constraints. In a longer lesson, some of the direct instruction might be replaced with additional open-ended activities.

At the beginning of the lesson, participants will complete a poll to see how much they remember about open and closed questions from the previous Adobe Connect session. They will then view a short PowerPoint presentation about three strategies for improving questioning.

Students will then be given an opportunity to apply their knowledge to a real world scenario during a video analysis activity. While viewing a five-minute video clip of a science workshop, they will be asked to identify some of the questioning strategies from the PowerPoint presentation. They will also be challenged to generate some of their own questions. This video analysis activity will help participants make connections between theory and practice.

Because collaboration contributes to community building in an online environment, small group discussion will be a key part of the lesson. This is particularly important in a course devoted to improving instructional strategies. Interaction with classmates will help participants to solidify their understanding of the lesson content.

Throughout the lesson, the instructor will model good questioning practices by asking open-ended questions and incorporating adequate amounts of wait time. Furthermore, the instructor will encourage student discussion by redirecting some of the participants’ questions to the whole group. These strategies will be used to demonstrate how educators can serve as facilitators of student learning rather than acting as the “sage on the stage.”

Due to the short nature of the lesson, the opening poll will serve as the only formal assessment. However, participants’ answers in the class discussion will be used for formative assessment. All participants will be encouraged to participate in the discussion, and the instructor will call on participants who do not raise their hands. Based on the depth of the participants’ answers, the instructor may choose to provide some additional information about questioning strategies or pose some additional clarifying questions to the group. At the end of the lesson, all participants will have the option to download additional resources via a file share pod.