Whole-class instruction is often provided through teacher-led direct instruction. With minimal differentiation content, supplemental materials or textbooks are used to provide these instructions. Regardless of where a particular student is, the teacher provides the same lesson to the entire class. These lessons are prepared in such a way that an average student can easily understand.
The Teaching Process
If many students do not understand certain concepts, then teachers reteach those topics and thus throughout the lesson evaluate understanding. Some student learning activities are designed to build on previously designed skills and to practice new skills. To help students in maintaining their proficiency in using previously learned skills, whole group instruction plays an important role.
Unlike small group or individual instruction, whole group instruction does not take much time to plan and is quite easy too. It takes one plan to address the whole group while it takes multiple plans to address small groups of students. Thus there should be two-part planning for the whole group. Firstly, the lesson should be developed in such a way that engages the students throughout the lesson. Secondly, the concepts should be taught in such a way so that students can grasp it easily. This two-part planning helps in decreasing the amount of time required for reteaching
The First Step in a System
Introducing new material whole group instruction is a terrific tool. In a whole group setting, an opportunity to present the basic material to students is provided to the teacher when the new concept is introduced. If the lessons are dynamic and engaging, then through whole group instructions, students can easily understand these new concepts. It is very cumbersome and repetitive to introduce a new concept to the small group. Every student is however exposed to new topics and information through whole group instruction
In every class, some students understand the concepts quickly and easily, while some take a little more time. Thus, a baseline for learning and assessment is determined by the whole group instruction. Throughout the whole group lesson, both formal and informal assessments should be conducted in the class by the teachers. In the case of little or no feedback, then teachers should try again with a different approach. And when the majority of students have understood the topic, then the teacher should begin with individual instruction
Teaching and the teacher are effective when the small group instruction follows the whole group instruction. Firstly, whole group instruction must occur, which should be immediately followed by small group instruction. Small group instruction allows the teacher to identify the weak students and help them to understand the concept with a different approach. It also makes the concepts learned in a whole group setting, stronger.
