OVERVIEW OF STRATEGY 6
Strategy 6 is “Design focused instruction, followed by practice with feedback.”
Strategy 6 was previously called “Teach students focused revision.” Chappuis changed strategy 5 to encourage teachers to diagnose student learning needs and changed strategy 6 to encourage teachers to think about student learning needs and design instruction that will provide students to practice and revise their work before work in graded.
Chappuis has noted that often teachers struggle to find the time to provide the needed practice with feedback and to allow students time to practice without grading the practice activities. She proposes that teachers follow these four steps when designing instruction.
- Think about what you learned about students’ needs in Strategy 5.
- Focus on just one error/misconception.
- Design instruction that addresses that need.
- Provide practice with feedback on that one area before grading.
Researchers suggest that we can design focused instruction in several ways: effective practice experiences, teaching students to engage in focused revision of their work, using a rubric to analyze strong and weak work, and providing more experiences to learn the correct concept. Each of these methods can be used to address specific learning needs. What are some other ideas about how to provide focused instruction?
UNPACKING STRATEGY 6
Effective Practice Sequence and Experiences
Focused Practice Matters
Focused practice has a major impact on achievement. Several conditions are required for practice to actually happen and for practice to be effective. Ask participants if they meet the requirements and if they think their colleagues meet the requirements.
We need to provide practice – how it is designed, what we ask students to do, and how we respond has a major impact on improvement.
Using Strategy 6 requires:
- a belief that further instruction will benefit students.
- willingness to devote time to increasing achievement.
- a repertoire of instructional strategies for the targeted learning needs (discovered in Strategy 5).
- willingness to allow students practice without a grade.
Characteristics of Effective Practice
Chappuis lists three characteristics of effective practice. Students who struggle need (1) spaced practice, (2) practice that focuses on mastery, and (3) practice that scaffolds their learning so they experience incremental and steady growth. What are some examples of effective practice experiences that help your students?
Example task: Compare/contrast rights and responsibilities of citizens in two countries – focus on rights of one country and then second country, then focus on responsibilities of each, and then focus on similarities and then differences.
Success Principles for Practice
Mike Rutherford echoes Chappuis’ characteristics of effective practice and adds several other success principles.
| Chappuis | Rutherford |
|---|---|
| Spaced practice | Spaced practice |
| Students focus their attention on mastery |
|
| Produces incremental growth | Challenging but attainable practice |
| Provide descriptive feedback | Provide high quality feedback |
| Practice in multiple domains | |
| Increase energy and motivation | |
| Move to elaborated practice quickly |
Focused Revision of Work
Another strategy for focused instruction is focused revision. Chappuis emphasizes the importance of focusing on just one aspect of quality rather than many different components of quality. She and other researchers also advise that using an anonymous work sample allows students to critique the sample with a partner and to revise the sample or create a plan for revising it with more objectivity and less personal risk. Then they can apply the same process to their own work.
Rubrics with Strong and Weak Work
Another strategy is to involve students in the development of rubrics by watching a performance or looking a student work. They can develop a list of quality indicators and then analyze strong and weak work to further develop the rubric. This process of creating a rubric and using it to analyze work helps students become more assessment capable.
To see more about using rubrics, head back to the previous lesson on rubrics: https://www.moedu-sail.org/topic/extending-strategy-1/
Provide More Experiences to Learn the Correct Concept
Another way to design focused instruction is to provide more experiences to learn the correct concept. How would you provide more experiences to learn the concept (e.g. experiments, graphic organizers that clarify the concept, manipulatives, etc.)?
Coaching Companion
Video: Five Steps to Revision: Using Warm and Cool Feedback