Teacher Awareness Series I: Article Three – Language of Instruction

by Jean Schedler, PhD Educational Consultant

Welcome to the third of five articles focusing on what we as classroom teachers/clinicians can do to increase our awareness of our students’ learning profiles.

The first article discussed teachers establishing eye contact with the students.

The second article focused on the importance of having students repeat or summarize their understanding of directions or major points of a lesson.

Hopefully you have had time to practice both activities: establishing eye contact with your students when you speak and having students repeat or summarize their understanding of what you have said, because this third article builds upon these teacher skills.

Language of Instruction refers to the oral or speaking language (not written) that a teacher uses during class instruction.

Language of Instruction includes the words, sentence length, volume, and amount of talking that is done by the teacher – especially when giving directions or teaching new material.

Students who struggle in school, are often the same students who become “lost” or “confused” trying to determine exactly what is important in a lesson or exactly what is expected in terms of homework.

If the student does not understand the vocabulary or terminology, he will fail to comprehend. If the student can not “follow” the multiple step oral directions, he will become confused.

If the teacher is “talking over” other classroom noise, a student may be unable to attend to what the teacher is saying.

If the teacher maintains a constant “chatter” in an attempt to re-emphasize directions or content material, a student may be unable to determine “what is important”and what is clarification or reiteration, and subsequently become “lost”in all the oral language.

Basically, the question is… do your students understand and process what you/the teacher is saying? And if not… why not?

During this next week, set out to answer the question posed above. Begin by establishing eye contact with your students.

If you have good eye contact – especially with the struggling students you identified when working with Article One in the series – you will be able to notice when a student begins to look confused or uncertain in terms of what is being said by the teacher.

When you notice a student looking confused or uncertain, take a moment to have the student repeat or summarize his understanding of what you/the teacher just said. If you have practiced repeating and summarizing when working with Article Two in the series, your students will be comfortable with this task.

From asking your students (who appear confused) to repeat or summarize – see if you can determine what it was about what you were saying that might have confused the student.

Does the student need more practice in an underlying skill, does the student need short simple sentences during directions, does the student need a quiet environment during directions or instructional time?

Identify one thing you/the teacher can do differently, in terms of “language of instruction” to facilitate learning in students who struggle. Share this with a colleague.

To learn more about Dr Schedler’s September 2009 Workshops and Trainings in Reading Intervention materials (Sonday System) contact Read Auckland at: info@readauckland.co.nz or call 09-529 1381.