Skill-Based Instruction
What is meant by "skill-based" instruction?
Teachers who deliver skill-based instruction use content as a way to teach reading, writing, and speaking in a discipline. For students learning in this academic environment, content knowledge is gained through the application of various literacy skills. LiteracyTA's Instructional Roundtable guides teachers as they teach critical skills like note taking, silent reading, and group work. The "Roundtable" also offers strategies for student engagement and provides "on-the-ground" advice from teachers in the field.
Purpose-Driven Reading
Purpose-Driven Reading begins with text selection. When selecting a text, look to your learning outcomes and course objectives for guidance. We want to select texts that lend themselves well to the teaching of specific academic skills while exposing students to a wide range of expository texts studied in the discipline. Once we have selected a text, we must make clear to our students how we want them to read it. Clear, deliberate reading prompts will help students read and understand the text, maximizing their comprehension and retention.
When selecting texts for pedagogical purposes, we will want to ask questions like...
What types of texts should my students read?
What types of texts are studied in my discipline?
What is the purpose for selecting these texts?
How should my students read the texts I assign?
What do I want my students to know and be able to do as a result of their reading?
Instructional Compass
The instructional compass is an essential element to skill-based instruction. There are three important parts to the instructional compass: first, explain what students have learned thus far and then describe what they will learn going forward; second, articulate the purpose and learning goals for the lesson; third, define expectations for classroom behavior and performance. Providing this guidance will help establish an effective tone for the lesson and help students orient themselves in the learning process.
Pace and Practice
Pacing is critical to any lesson. A well-paced lesson includes benchmarks, a mixture of independent and collaborative learning environments, and multiple opportunities for students to practice the skill(s) they are learning. Students should move in and out of learning experiences (like lecture, pair-share, silent reading, or writing-to-learn exercises) every 5 to 7 minutes. And with every activity, students should practice skills like active listening, note-taking, active reading and critical thinking.
Model and Support
Students need a range of support in the following three areas: reading, writing, and speaking. We should model how we want our students to read, write, and speak so that they can meet our expectations. Providing linguistic models is another good idea. Our students are not exposed often enough to the types of academic language we expect from them. Linguistic models can be delivered verbally or in writing. Providing models for literacy development and literacy tools like note taking and collaborative groups will increase students' ability to perform well in all academic environments.
Engagement
We should do our best to engage as many students as possible in the learning process. This can be achieved through effective questioning techniques, engagement strategies, and the expectation that everyone participates. Creating this culture of participation ensures that students engage in the lesson, creating a lively, collaborative environment.
Explicit Instruction
We want our students to master the skills we teach and transfer what they have learned into other academic and professional environments. To build mastery of a skill, we must explicitly teach how a skill (like "Marking a Text") is used, why it is used, and when it should be used. Once students master a set of skills, they will be able to independently select and strategically apply the skills they have learned.
Advice from the Experts
This component of the Instructional Roundtable offers advice from teachers in the field. Click on the different skills on the left to learn more about skill-based instruction.
