Introduction

 

Declaration of Independence

Teachers and parent-teachers can't go it alone. They need good materials to assist them. With good materials students will work independently and will persist at their work. With good materials your teaching task is manageable.

It is virtually impossible to individualize instruction without individualized learning materials. Having students work on their own is a hallmark of individualized instruction.

Section I provides background. Section II makes suggestions about how teachers can best manage students' independent work. Section III provides lists of available independent-learning materials. Section IV is a list of the publishers referred in Section III.

Plan:

Section I

1. Background: Principles of Teaching Two Kinds of Assignments

2. Assigned School Work: Part of a Continuum?

3. Mastery: Is It Practical?

4. School Work: Do Students See It as Purposeful?

5. Asking Students Questions

6. Whole Class Instruction: Is It Out of Date?

Section II

1. Strategies for Managing Students' Independent Work

2. Choosing Work According to the Curriculum

3. Test Often, Test Widely

4. Keeping a Studious Classroom

5. Obtaining Student Commitment to Independent Work

6. Providing for Student Management of Classroom Materials

7. Choosing Learning Materials for the Independent Learner:

8. Using Trade Books

9. Using Workbooks/Kits/Centers

10. Using software

11. Using the Internet/On-line Services

12. Sending Independent-Study Work Home

Section III

1. Learning Materials for Independent Learners

2. Learning to Use Computers/Using Computers

3. Foreign Languages

4. Language Arts/Reading/Literature

5. Library/Work/Study Skills/Research

6. Logic/Critical Thinking/Creative Thinking/Art/Interpersonal Skills/Across the Curriculum

7. Mathematics

8. Science/Health/Social Studies/Environment

INDEPENDENT-STUDY COURSES

1. Independent-Study Courses By Correspondence

2. Courses on the Internet/On-Line

3. Internet Resources for Students

Section IV

1. List of Publishers

2. Teachers grades 5-12: willing to try out my reading comprehension tests?

3. Test Directions

Section I

 

1. Background: Principles of Teaching. Two Kinds of Assignments

 

Teachers make both closed and open assignments.

Closed assignments are a follow-up of material taught. Often, they are practice. All students do the work of the assignment in the same way. Examples of closed assignments are:

-  Do all the calculations on page 120 of the book.

-  Write the transcription twenty times as carefully as possible.

-  Memorize the poem on page 50.

Open assignments provide for student diversity. Examples of open assignments are:

- Write a half page about your weekend.

- Find three new words in the dictionary and write sentences using them.

- Continue working in your workbook.

Using the techniques taught to the whole class, draw a picture with crayons illustrating the season. Although closed assignments are necessary for the sake of mastery, they do present problems:

- Students vary in how long they take to complete an assignment. Take an example. The teacher teaches a whole-class handwriting lesson on forming the capital B. Posture, hand position, and how the pencil is held are all taught in the lesson. The students are then given an assignment to practice the formation of the capital B. The fast students get the work done in short order. The slower students complete only part of the assignment.

What should be done with the students that finish the work quickly?

Should the laggards be required to complete the assignment?

This frustrating situation exists every day in every classroom in the world. There is no excellent solution. However, the students are least frustrated when the work seems easy to them. Rather than gearing the assignment for the average student, the teacher can gear the assignment for the below average. Students who complete the work quickly can turn to open assignments.

The effect of this is that the slowest students work on closed assignments most of the time, while the fastest students work on open assignments most of the time.

 

2. Assigned School Work: Part of a Continuum?

The great thing about a textbook, workbook, or kit is that is continuous - the student can see that he or she is progressing systematically. Each assignment relates to what came before and what will come ahead. Students see the educational purpose of textbooks, workbooks, and kits.

Teachers who teach from a textbook have the problem solved of how to organize work so that it is continuous.

There is a problem in the more open style of teaching found often in elementary schools. Usually, textbooks are used in some subjects, such as math and spelling. Occasionally, social studies, science, language, and health textbooks are used. However, when a decision has been made not to use a textbook as the organizing structure for a school subject, what can a teacher do to make the work continuous and to have students see it that way?

One technique is to use a syllabus and to share it with students.

Another technique is to use contracts. The assignments are all listed together, and the student progresses from one to the next. Either the student or the teacher puts initials next to each assignment as it is completed. ............