Supportive Instruction/ Guided Practice
Supportive instruction/Guided practice is used to:
have students practice with the teacher the skill, strategy, or concept
clarify students’ understanding by asking questions and providing instruction
assess students’ understanding of the skill, concept, or strategy using conversations and observations
respond to prior assessment of students' understanding provide on the spot feedback
Teacher: Planning for Supportive Instruction/Guided Practice
Prepare any additional scaffolding that may be necessary due to assessments of the explicit instruction
Carefully prepare for discussion with questions that can stimulate students to think reflectively about what they are learning and are being asked to do.
What the teacher is doing
Modelling the skill, concept or strategy using additional mentor texts while students participate in the process
Asking follow up questions to foster rich discussions so that students make connections to their own reading and writing
Providing a learning experience, or a discussion format, that students can follow when they discuss texts in small groups
Developing and practicing a discussion protocol
Providing multiple opportunities for student discussion and engagement (e.g. using one’s additional language skills)
What the students are doing
Making connections to their background knowledge (and language or culture) and their own reading and writing (in different languages)
Participating in the teacher’s modeling of the task
Asking questions related to the learning experience
Engaging in discussion in pairs, small group, and/or whole class about the learning experience
Transferring their skills and knowledge from previous learning experiences
Teacher Reflecting on Supportive Instruction/Guided Practice
Consider the impact of supportive instruction/guided practice in developing students’ skills and knowledge.
Develop further mini-lessons to support or extend learning based upon assessments of students’ learning
Identity if students need further time to think (Think-Pair-Share), discussion phrases, and/or scaffolding in order to improve their academic language skills.
According to the research,
Students experience increased achievement from:
● high-quality discussions about text. The active participation of students makes the most difference in students’ comprehension.
● the teacher guiding the students’ attempts at using the strategies through prompts, noticing the approximations that learners are making and providing additional modeling when needed.
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