Instructional Delivery

The standard of Instructional Delivery ensures that educators possess and use an assortment of instructional strategies to address the needs of students. To demonstrate the standard, teachers must utilize diverse pedagogical methods to create an engaging classroom where students remain active participants in learning. Educators who fail to include creative and varied classroom activities cannot hope to meet students’ needs or inspire curiosity and motivation. The importance of this standard, thus, rests with the reality that teachers who effectively incorporate many different instructional methods produce active learning opportunities, engage all students, and embrace differentiated instruction.

Technology

  • The use of technology in the classroom, particularly the ActivBoard and document camera, allows students to become active participants in any activity. For some lessons, the use of worksheets can turn into a hands-on experience by using the pen and other features of the ActivBoard.
This photo shows how a worksheet can become a more engaging activity using the document camera and ActivBoard. The students were able to follow along with counters at their desk.
A student using the ActivBoard to play “Dog Bone Math” during math centers.

Creative Instructional Methods

  • Working with manipulatives, such as giant blocks, increases student engagement in activities and retention of certain concepts. Making an abstract concept come alive with moveable objects allows students to become active participants in their learning.
Two students during a partner activity where they used the dots on the dice to determine who had more, fewer, and same as.

Differentiation

  • Instructional delivery requires that teachers effectively transfer the differentiation in their planning to the actual classroom lessons. If the differentiation planned for does not correspond to delivery in the classroom, students’ needs will not be met and they will not be actively engaged in the content.
Working with students during reading groups. Students in this group are focusing on lowercase letters and sounds through sorting pictures and fonts.
This reading group is focusing on uppercase letters only, and they only sort fonts. The books in this group are at a different level than the other groups as well.

For further discussion, see my Professional Practice Standard paper.