Practice
Guided practice
Guided practice involves the teacher:
- starting with simplified material
- completing a number of problems on the board and discussing the steps
- questioning students at different levels of complexity
- monitoring the answers of the whole class
- inviting students to come to the board and complete problems, discussing their strategies and procedures (this allows students to view additional models and have strategies and procedures explained by their peers)
- organising students to work together in pairs or groups and explain the material to one another.
Independent practice
Independent practice involves students engaging with learning from the earlier phases of the instructional sequence, with the teacher monitoring their work. Practice of facts, concepts, strategies and procedures should be planned and implemented over time and be applied to as many relevant situations as possible.
Independent practice involves the teacher:
- determining whether the students have acquired the required knowledge, skills and understanding before proceeding with independent practice
- identifying the step of the learning sequence at which a student is working
- carefully selecting examples specific to what the student needs to practise
- providing individual students with sufficient time for practice on particular aspects of the content
- monitoring student work.