Element 19

Helping Students Practice Skills, Strategies, and Processes

Practice is the gradual shaping of a skill, strategy, or process over the course of multiple repetitions to some level of proficiency.

Practice of critical content is an ongoing, gradual release process that begins with students acquiring and processing the facts, concepts, or principles underlying some type of procedural knowledge, observing a proficient model, and then practicing to proficiency.

~ Dr. Robert Marzano and Kelly Harmon

Desired Effect

Students perform the skill, strategy, or process with increased confidence and competence.

Purpose

Automaticity of skills, strategies, and processes
Providing opportunities for students to practice skills, strategies, and processes are focused on moving students toward automatic retrieval and efficiency by growing their competency.
By the teacher moving from highly structured opportunities that are closely monitored to an increased level of fluency and independence, the students are able to shape their use of a skill, strategy, or process.

Teacher Evidence for Helping Students Practice Skills, Strategies, and Processes

Student Evidence for Helping Students Practice Skills, Strategies, and Processes

Engages students in massed and distributed practice activities that are appropriate to their current ability.
- Guided Practice
- Independent Practice
Guides students to generate and manipulate mental models for skills, strategies, and processes.
Employs "worked examples".
Provides opportunities for practice immediately prior to assessing skills, strategies, and processes.
Models the skill, strategy, and process.

Performs the skill, strategy, or process with increased confidence.
Performs the skill, strategy, or process with increased competence.
Shares artifacts and formative data which demonstrate fluency and accuracy are increasing.
Explains mental models

Scale

Strategies

Structure practice sessions spaced closely together. .
Plan for practice sessions that are gradually less structured and more varied. .
Plan for practice sessions that help students develop fluency. .
Consider cooperative learning strategies for practice activities. This can occur once students have engaged in some form of individual practice and then collaborate with peers to check their work and dialogue about what led to their correct/incorrect answer.

Resources