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Indicator 16 – Demonstrate Skills/Procedures

Delivering Instruction

Coaching Performance

Indicator 16 - Demonstrate Skills/Procedures UETS 4a., 4c., 4d.

Effective teachers help students master skills and procedures by showing students how to do a task through demonstrations, guided practice, using manipulatives, pictures, or hands-on material. The distinguishing feature of this indicator is that the teacher goes through the physical process of demonstrating a skill or procedure that students are expected to perform.

IDEAS/SUGGESTIONS:

  1. Give clear explanations of the thought processes that guide a demonstration you present to a class.
  2. Take the students through the process step-by-step. Model what you expect from the students.
  3. If the procedure is quite long and complex, break the process into parts; having students master one part at a time at first might be appropriate.
  4. Think out loud as you take students through a process; failure to think out loud will hide a critical aspect of the procedure from students.
    • Teacher: Bill, what is the first thing we need to start a good essay?
    • Bill: A catchy introduction that will get the reader's attention.
    • Teacher: Right! Let's write a catchy introduction on the board. That's a good start, but it needs something else. I wonder what that could be, Jill.
    • Jill: It needs the two or three key points that the essay will explain.
    • Teacher: Okay! Examining all of the data we have gathered and analyzing the preliminary ideas about the subject we came up with, we should be able to decide what two or three main ideas we will discuss in the body of the paper.
    • The teacher continues to think out loud while demonstrating the skills and procedures necessary to write a clear essay. The students in this situation are not trying to second-guess what the teacher is thinking but are actually involved in the thought process with the teacher.
  1. Some examples of the teacher demonstrating skills or procedures are as follows:
    • Use a document camera to project the activity so the students can see what the teacher or other students are writing.
    • Show students how to fold their papers to prepare for an activity.
    • Demonstrate the steps in a science lab before having students complete the lab in their groups.
    • Show several methods for solving a math problem before students complete one on their own.
    • Demonstrate the mechanics of shooting a lay-up in a basketball unit. Have students practice the procedure.

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