Monday, April 12, 2010

Marzano’s Classroom Instruction that Works

Never reading or hearing about Marzano and his book, Classroom Instruction that Works, I was actually surprised to realize after researching that I actually use all nine of his strategies in my daily teaching. Marzano touches on nine different teachings and practices that can be applied to teaching in order to increase students’ learning. Marzano points out that “The art of teaching is becoming the art of science.” Marzano and his coauthor feel that if you utilize these strategies you should be able to meet the needs of a diverse group of students. Below are a brief summary of the nine strategies for instruction.
First is Identifying Similarities and Differences, which focuses on the mental processes that students can use to restructure and understand information. This strategy results in a deeper understanding of the content. The second strategy is Summarizing and Note taking; this requires the ability to synthesize information enhancing one’s ability to understand specific content areas. Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition addresses students’ attitudes and beliefs. When students are rewarded or praised for achieving specific goals it increases their achievement level. Homework and Practice provides opportunity for review and applying knowledge. Marzano says a student needs to practice a skill 24 times to reach 80% competency. Next is Nonlinguistic Representations which allows students to enhance their ability to understand information in greater depth by using mental images. Cooperative Learning provides children with an opportunity to interact with each other. Grouping should be varied both formal and informal. Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback is another strategy. This establishes a direction for learning. This strategy allows students to separate what they already know from what they want to learn. Generating and Testing Hypotheses includes several processes: system analysis, invention, experimental inquiry, decision making, and problem solving. The last strategy is Cues, Questions, and Achieved organizers gives students a preview of what they are about to learn or experience helping them activate prior knowledge. Questions focus on what is most important.
While some people feel that Marzano’s strategies are practices already used in most classrooms, the book supports these practices with research that proves they work. The book is full of tested strategies that are great for teachers who want to service all children to the best of their ability. While some may say the book is too dry and research based, the research backs that the strategies and practices are indeed effective. As far as the effectiveness of these strategies with 21st century teaching there are many ways to adapt and enhance these basic teachings with technology.
There is an article online called Integrating Technology into the Classroom using Instructional Strategies based on the research from: Classroom Instruction that Works. This article gives server technology based resources for each of the nine strategies that you can click on and use in your classroom. For example strategy number one, Identifying Similarities and Differences, breaks their technology sources down into the categories of Comparing: Venn diagrams and a comparison matrix, classifying: word sort, leaf classification and classifying critters, Creating Metaphors: metaphors and four box synectics, and Creating Analogies: analogy webs to name a few. Another PowerPoint presentation online about Marzano’s EST and 21st century teaching gives ideas like twitter assignments where students twitter to a friend, a summary of last night’s reading assignment, twitter to their parents what they learned in school today, and twitter to the librarian why Wikipedia is not a great source for research. All these ideas are still using the basis of Marzano’s strategies just adapting them to the changing curriculum. After researching my interest has definitely been peaked to take a deeper look into the book and possibly read it for myself! So, will you be picking up a copy of Marzano’s book?

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