Unit 1: Meet with the Teacher
What happens at this station?
Using data from formative assessments, you may notice that a few students are having a hard time grasping a certain concept. Or maybe there is a common error that is being made among a majority of your students that you would like to clarify. Perhaps your students are doing well overall, and you'd like to review a prerequisite skill before teaching a new skill. You can even teach a mini lesson at this station to cover a small amount of new material. This is the station where such ideas can be addressed. The "Meet with the Teacher" station can be used for differentiation, individual support, remediation, or review before students move on to an independent or collaborative station.
Objective:
- Learners will be able to identify the purpose and importance of the Meet with the Teacher station in a blended learning lesson.
- Learners will understand how to incorporate differentiation at the Meet with the Teacher station.
Direct Instruction & Differentiation:
The image on the left represents a suggested model for direct instruction. This model also allows for differentiation to support struggling learners.
I do: Although all students may not need an explicit model (for example, if this station is used to review a concept they already learned), most students will still benefit from watching and listening to a few examples. If this station is being utilized to teach new material, students should follow along for enough examples until they start to grasp the material.
We do: Teachers can elicit lots of student participation within the "we do" portion of this model to receive some feedback and ensure that students are understanding the material. Allowing students the opportunity to explain their own understanding will be helpful to themselves, their peers, and the teacher. At times, students may understand their peer's explanation of a concept better than the teacher's explanation!
You do: After the teacher models a few examples and students talk through some more as a group, students can then work on a set of problems independently to test their knowledge. These questions can gradually increase in difficulty to provide an entry level for all ability levels. If it is clear that a student is still not understanding the material or able to work independently, the teacher can provide one-on-one assistance. If all students are able to work independently, the teacher might choose to check in with students at another station.
Still confused about the I do, we do, you do model? Watch this YouTube video: I do, we do, you do
Mini Lesson:
If the Meet with the Teacher station is used as an opportunity to teach a mini lesson on new material, teachers must consider how long the mini lesson will take along with the opportunity for students to try some problems to practice the new material. Practice problems could be incorporated into the next station that students would rotate to after the Meet with the Teacher station, however there will be a group of students that starts at that station who will not have the guidance of the direct instruction from the teacher. This is something to consider when forming the groups of students for the stations: is there a group of students that could attempt to figure out the new material collaboratively? Read more about groupings of students in Unit 5: Designing your own Blended Learning Lesson.
Activity: Journal Prompt
Are there concepts that your students would benefit from reviewing and re-teaching? Is there a new concept that could be taught in a shorter amount of time that would work well in a stations lesson?
Answer these questions in the Google Form below:
Additional Resources
- Here is an article about direct instruction: Direct Instruction - A practical guide to effective teaching
Return to the course overview page here: Sarah Garber's Mini-Course on Blended Learning
Move on to Unit 2: At your Table
