Independent Practice
Independent practice is used to:
● assess students’ mastery of a skill, concept, or strategy
● provide meaningful feedback on students’ attainment of the learning target
● give students voice and choice in the demonstration of their learning
● allow students to reflect on their learning to increase student accountability and skills’ transfer
Teacher: Planning for Independent Practice
● Provide explicit instruction on the expectations and criteria for success, either through co-creation or teacher-selected criteria
● Determine which skill or strategy is the focus of the independent practice and how students will communicate their learning
● Plan whom to confer with while others are practicing independently
What the teacher is doing
● Conferring with students in regard to their independent practice
● Offering feedback on their learning
● Assessing students’ mastery of a skill, concept, or strategy
● Planning further learning experiences if more practice is needed, or if learning can be extended
● Asking and answering questions about the students’ processes
What the students are doing
● Making decisions about how to best represent their learning
● Engaging in independent reading and writing
● Reflecting on their processes to develop their meta-cognition
Teacher: Reflecting after the students practice independently
● Based on the information gathered through independent practice, identify the next steps for instruction.
● Depending on students' understanding, there may be a need to return to explicit instruction and/or provide multiple opportunities for students to show what they know and can do
According to the research,
Students experience increased achievement when teachers:
● know when it is time to stop practicing. Practicing is vital to help students remember, reinforce, and apply their knowledge and skills, but too much may impede learning. "Less is more" may be the rule when students have demonstrated that they have mastered a skill
● watch for clues from students that show when and how much teacher assistance is needed. Scaffolding should be removed gradually as students demonstrate mastery and are no longer provided when students can perform the task independently.
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