“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” - William Arthur Ward

Instruction is the heart of the teaching model--all of our planning, preparation, and plans for classroom management come into play and are put to the test during our instruction. In order to effectively instruct students, we must know how to productively communicate with all students, use questioning and discussion techniques, actively engage students in learning, appropriately use formative and summative assessment, and demonstrate flexibility and responsiveness to students during instruction.

I am an advocate for the Constructivist theory of learning and teaching, in which the teacher acts as a guide, but the student ultimately constructs their own knowledge and the ability to transfer and apply that knowledge to a multitude of contexts. I believe that students' brains aren't simply empty vessels waiting to be filled, and in my lesson planning and instruction I try to reflect that belief. In order to help students construct knowledge, we must give them concrete expectations for learning, clear directions and procedures, and we must anticipate potential student misconceptions and prepare to address them in a way that is appropriate to students' cultures and levels of development. We must also use questions that guide students to academic realizations, reflecting high expectations that suit the context of our classrooms.