Direct Instruction is explicit instruction and not lecturing. This is a teacher-centered approach that was made known by Madeline Hunter. This type of instruction is very effective when teaching basic skills, rote memorization, and procedures. When using this method it is very important to have brain breaks, questions, and modeling. This approach is rather simple, but students could find the lessons to be boring because of it being teacher-centered. In my experience, I really enjoyed using this method. When teaching students basic mapping skills I found it to be very effective. Since they were basic skills, the students did not need a lot of hands-on activities that would allow them to teach themselves, they needed me to show and give them the information. 

Gradual Release Model is the release of responsibility. In this model, the teacher starts with all of the responsibility and then throughout the lesson it shifts over to the students. The outline for this lesson is usually "I do" "We do" "They do" "You do". This is showing the progression of only the teacher, then the teacher and the class, then it moves to students working together, then at the end the students have an assessment to do independently. This model is very effective because it is not solely teacher-centered or student-centered. It is an even mix of the teacher having all the responsibility but then transferring it to the student. I used this model when teaching students about primary sources and I felt my lesson went very well because of it. First I was teaching students and giving them the information they needed, then we did a few examples together, then I gave them responsibility to do one independently. 

A unit plan is a plan that is meant to cover a whole topic of study. These plans outline what the over-arching goal is, and how that goal will be met throughout the whole unit. These plans can be very effective because it can help students understand better or develop a deeper understanding of the topic. There are three types of unit plans: Chronological, Sequential, and Thematic. Chronological shows cause and effect relationships, sequential shows step-by-step or the logical order, and thematic is based on a big idea or question and allows for deeper thinking of complex ideas. In my future classroom I plan to use unit planning. Depending on what is going to be taught, I would like to have experience planning with all three types. The example on the left is the Mesopotamia unit plan that I created. This was a new type of planning for me, but once I started to understand it I really enjoyed putting it together.