What Master Teachers Do Differently

Master Teacher. I hold this term in greatest reverence. I don’t use it lightly. The article I read about what exactly Master Teachers do is exactly what we should all be doing. 
Master teachers were defined as such by their ability to present new material, check for understanding and support students. The researchers broke down what Master Teachers do into 10 parts.

Master Teachers

1. Begin the lesson with a short review of the previous lesson. Researchers found that review helps with the fluency of recall and that practice was paramount in order for retention and recall of material to occur. It is noted that this review only needs to be 5-8 minutes. This will allow you to review the concepts and vocabulary that was introduced.

Master Teachers         
          Present new material in small steps with practice after each step. Research proves that we can only                handle a few bits of information at a time. We need to master step one and then move onto step two.               It is suggested for optimal learning that students be taught in mini-lessons with lots of examples. For               example, a 20 minute lecture with a demo, questions and working examples. Master Teachers provide  additional explanations, many examples and sufficient instruction for students to be successful independently. An area that Master Teachers are proficient at is “teacher model and think aloud.” They will tackle a problem for students to watch and talk about their thinking as they solve the problem.  

Master Teachers

1.  Ask a large number of questions and they check the responses of all their students. It is proven that questions help students practice new information and connect new material to their prior learning. Students need to practice new material. Master Teachers manage this by spending more than ½ the class lecturing, demonstrating and asking questions. There are two types of questions that Master Teacher employ:
   1.  Factual Questions: fact based answers, ex: What is the temperature outside?
   2. Process Questions: These are designed to test knowledge depth about a subject and the student’s ability to analyze it. 

    
    All students are  involved in answering questions. Some ways to encourage this: tell your answer to your neighbour, summarize the concept, “me too” hand wave. 

Master Teachers

1. Provide models. By providing students with models and worked examples Master Teachers recognize that they can help students learn and solve problems faster. Students require cognitive support to help them learn a new concept. Master Teachers do this by modelling and thinking aloud when solving a problem. These worked examples allow students to focus on the specific steps to solve problems and it reduces the cognitive load on their working memory. Master Teachers provide the prompt, they model the answer, they provide guided practice and then they supervise their student’s independent practice. One way they aid in this process is by providing partially completed problems in which students had to complete the missing steps.

Master Teachers

1. Guide student practice. Master Teachers spend more time guiding student practice of new material. Students need to spend additional time rephrasing, elaborating and summarizing new material in order to store it in their long term memory.  Rehearsal helps students access this information. Master Teachers facilitate rehearsal process by asking questions.  Good questions require students to process and rehearse the material. This rehearsal is enhanced when they are asked to summarize main points and when they are supervised as they practice the new steps. Master Teachers know that students are most successful when given small amounts of material at a time. Master Teachers know that students are more successful in guided practice and when more time is spent checking for understanding. When sufficient instruction is provided during guide practice students are better equipped to work independently. 

Master Teachers

1. Check for student understanding. By checking for student understanding at each point teachers can help students learn material with fewer errors. Master Teachers frequently check to see if all students are learning. It is important to not ask, “Are there any questions?” Instead ask students to summarize, repeat procedures, instructions, ask them to think aloud as they solve a problem and/or defend their position - orally.

Master Teachers

1. Obtain a high success rate. They feel that it is important for students to achieve a high success rate during classroom instruction. Master Teachers are able to limit misconceptions by providing guided practice after teaching small amounts of new material and checking for student understanding.

Master Teachers

1. Provide scaffolds for difficult tasks. The teacher provides students with temporary support and scaffolds to assist them when they learn difficult tasks. A scaffold is defined as a temporary support used to assist a learner. Master Teachers gradually withdraw scaffolds as learners become more competent. Students may continue to rely on scaffolds when they encounter particularly difficult problems. Providing scaffolds is a form of guided practice. Scaffolds include: modelling steps by the teacher, thinking aloud by the teacher, tools such as cue cards or checklists model of completed tasks so students can compare their own work and anticipate possible errors and warn students about that. Master Teachers provide an exemplar as much as possible.

Master Teachers

1. Require and monitor independent practice. Students need extensive, successful independent practice in order for skills and knowledge to become automatic. Independent practice is necessary because practice is required for students to become fluent and automatic in a skill. 

Master Teachers

1.  Engage in weekly and monthly review. Master Teachers recognize that students need to be involved in extensive practice in order to develop well connected and automatic knowledge. Students need extensive and broad reading with extensive practice to develop well connected networks of ideas. The more they rehearse and review information the stronger the interconnections between material become. Master Teachers will review previous week’s work every Monday. They will review the previous month’s work every fourth Monday. Research shows that classes with weekly quizzes score better during the term and that if material is not adequately practiced or reviewed it is easily forgotten. ​

That's My View from the 86th Pew,
​Michelle