User:Kilroy/literature

Giving and Checking Instructions
Write your literature review in the third person. Have you ever as teacher had a problem to finish a task with students? The answer may be yes This is informal (nonacademic) language. and this may come as a surprise but almost all teachers may have this problem in class, the problem may be originated by the way teachers give and check instructions. Instructions can make easier or difficult any signature if are not conducted properly, but what can be done to be successful in teaching? The answer will be stated in this article. Your introduction should include your problem, purpose, and thesis statement.

Instructions have been guiding people through years and helped people countless times with any concern; Start a new sentence here. in education instructions is one of the many ways to achieve knowledge effectively depending of the instructor or teacher, so if a teacher or instructor fails when giving instructions to the students the results can be very problematic because students will not know what to do or how to do something because the teacher gave instructions in a bad way. Develop each paragraph of your literature review, making sure you have a topic sentence and at least three supporting sentences: (a) details or evidence that support your topic sentence, (b) analyze or compare and contrast related ideas, and (c) summarize or link paragraph to some other part of your essay.

To avoid giving instructions in a wrong way, researchers have developed some strategies conducted through investigations which have proved to be worth enough to apply in daily activities of the classroom; such strategies showed a difference in real classrooms changing all perspectives of the problem and also discovered that the problem could be even students apart from Professor. Develop each paragraph of your literature review, making sure you have a topic sentence and at least three supporting sentences: (a) details or evidence that support your topic sentence, (b) analyze or compare and contrast related ideas, and (c) summarize or link paragraph to some other part of your essay.

Instructions could be very annoying for students and also for teachers, sometimes we as teachers give instructions with many words and that is not good for students because could confuse during the activity, to avoid confusion teachers should apply the use of key words or very short sentences to make the instructions easy to understand. The use of gestures will make easy the giving of instructions in each step because language is more easily understood in context. Bradshaw, C. English Teaching Professional, (2005)

To go over the main points and help to resolve the problem in classrooms, the strategies to follow in class instructions will be very helpful, and will provide a more efficient learning in students because students (more specifically, young learners) have more problems to retain certain words. This situation that some teacher presents in classes must be inexistent in classes, learning should be smooth and effective and with these strategies there cannot be any problem. Every paragraph of your body should include at least one in-text reference (citation).

Teachers sometimes cause students do not follow an activity due to bad instructions Teachers get frustrated when trying to explain instructions to students and sometimes they know exactly what they have to do but they could only visualize it in their minds. To express something, it requires slowing down and thinking of what the student knows. If teachers give clear instructions students will feel confident in class solving any task quickly.

Teachers face a constant battle when they ask students to work due to confused instructions
Schreiner (2008) in his work claims that “many teachers lament students’ opposition or inability to follow directions”. Avoid runon sentences. Teachers sometimes do not realize that some of the problem might be lying on them at the moment of giving instructions. Is this your idea or someone else's? Present evidence first then analyze. Students who do not follow instructions could be that either they do not listen to them or they do not understand them. Teachers are responsible to give instructions that students can understand in order for them to start working in certain activity. Instructions could be very annoying for students and also for teachers that sometimes give instructions with many words and that is not good for students because could confuse during the activity, to avoid confusion Bradshaw (2005) suggests that teachers should apply the use of key words or very short sentences to make the instructions easy to understand. The use of gestures will make easy the giving of instructions in each step because language is more easily understood in context. Your citations are best presented right after the topic sentence.

The instructions can be given written or verbal but can one of these be more effective than other? Boyle &amp; Lauchan (2010) conducted a research to verify which kind of instruction is more effective in classrooms by completing some tasks, Avoid runon sentences. the results showed that there is a difference in which the verbal instruction showed a significant increase in the number of children who completed the task than the children who got the written instruction. This demonstrates that written instruction is not as effective as verbal; children give more correct responses if the instruction is verbal and as a matter of fact they fulfilled the task. Teachers might eliminate confusions when they give instructions as long as the change the way the give them. To avoid giving instructions in a wrong way, Bradshaw (2005) has developed some strategies conducted through investigations which have proved to be worth enough to apply in daily activities of the classroom; such strategies showed a difference in real classrooms changing all perspectives of the problem and also discovered that the problem could be even students apart from Professor.

The importance that teachers gave to the children influences the way teachers give instructions. As Boyle (2008) highlighted the importance of the cognitive aspects for children’s ability to motivate themselves to learn depending on their attributes for success and/or failure. With this is clear that the psyche of the students or children brings consequences to their performance and learning, teachers have to be aware of the minds of the students to fulfill any task.

Teachers who say bad instructions face classroom troubles
How teacher may notice that they are giving instructions in the wrong way? Linsin (2009) establishes some aspects to notice that teachers are giving bad instructions. One of the reasons students do not follow directions is originated by the fact they mentally move on before you finish giving them and once they think they know what to do they are gone, as a result, students they can stand up and start talking to their classmates or star the activity, look at a partner or the material to work with even while the teacher is still giving the instructions, but some minutes later, they will ask about what they have to do.

Some of the mistakes may happen because of the use of language; it is a common mistake to overuse too many words in one sentence to say something even with beginners, as Swift said change your commands to short sentences for better comprehension. This can help teachers to ease the process of understanding instructions. The speed of speech can be modified to make more comprehensible the instruction, slow down slightly when necessary.

Another trouble in classrooms occurs when the activity is long and complicated and teachers tend to explain the whole activity, dividing the instructions in parts will make easier the activity doing step by step the activity than doing all by listening to the whole instruction at once. The use of L2 (English) can be complex for students in the first day, even if they do not know anything about English is good to use English but with easy words. Even though the use of L1 (Spanish) is not forbidden, teachers can make use of it but don’t overuse it, it must be fades gradually to do not depend of it.

All bad instructions that teachers give have a psychological side, regarding to Collier (1996) suggests that mistakes of children who do not follow instructions is due to the use of “do not”, such negative instructions will not work on children and will disobey any order teacher ask to do. This can be originated since children of lower ages misunderstand negative instructions or directions.

Another common mistake is trying to reasoning with children; Collier (1996) found that children of six does not know and does not care about abstract future consequences and only cares about what is already happening, even if the children are a bit older they may understand at once, but not twice due to the children’s mind in which their mind only understand to themselves making teachers wasting priceless time. Avoid one-sentence paragraphs. '''Follow the MEAL plan, for example. Each paragraph should have at least four sentences.'''

Sometimes children are yelling or making mischief and teacher says to stop and they will not do it not even if the teacher starts shouting, regarding to Windel (1996) he said that “When a child doesn't respond the first time it is told to do something, parents often repeat the request over and over until they finally lose their temper and start shouting. The message you give your child when you let her tune you out many times are that there's no need to pay attention to you until you're screaming”.

Ultimatums and threats are the last source to obtain something, but with children this only gets worse. Collier (1996) said that being impulsive and using ultimatums are useless with children because they do not listen to these commands, if teachers use ultimatums during class will make a no-win situation since children will feel that are getting forced to do something, they will not give in and only get angry focusing only on the anger than in the order teacher gave.

Teachers can use different strategies to give clear instructions
Instructions is a very wide-ranging field because they conduct all the themes or topics people want to learn, anyone could learn by themselves but instructions could make easier the learning process. Instructions involve more than just steps to do or learn something, there are different kinds of instructions for all kinds of people, since persons are different, instructions are also different and to find which one suits better to a certain “learner” is the purpose of this research.

As many things in this world are different, instructions vary in two types: instructions between activities and instructions to organize an activity. The first one involves basic forms of daily language like “take out your books!” “Stop talking now!” and the second type is language used to prepare student for an activity such as pair work, team game, etc. as in TPR (Shaw, 2005). Peer instruction has been adapted in institutions; Crouch & Mazur (2000) stated that is the ease of adjusting peer instruction to the local context. Inquiry – based instruction makes the learner to find a problem and makes the student to find a way to solve it using previous knowledge. Applying these strategies the teacher has more freedom at giving instructions letting the student do all the work and maybe the teacher working as a guide.

Also information for children has to be short and direct to don’t confuse them, instructions for children must be clear because they process too much information during instructions and including only the information they will use in the activity is more than enough for them to do not confuse them, the use of simple vocabulary will make easier the process.

The use of key words when giving instructions facilitate the process when giving instructions, regarding to Thaine (2007) the attention of children grows with time so it is important to keep sentences of instructions short, breaking their instructions in short sentences and each containing a key word is the way to start giving instructions with no problems. With this the instructions become easier and teachers save time for the class.

During the giving of instructions, the order has to be in a logical way, students and especially children do not pay attention when are doing something else, Bradshaw (2005) recommends dividing instructions in steps that students can understand and teacher does not get confused. Gestures can be an additional solution to attract students’ attention when giving instructions; this is because language is understood in a better way by the context, the key of an effective instruction relies on the use of gestures during steps.

Once the teacher is ready to give instructions, the best way to start is to be evident that you are going to give instructions. Bradshaw (2005) stated that asking for attention and silence are the choices a teacher has to attract students’ attention. To do not miss students’ attention the use of pauses with gestures will aid to clarify the instructions, monitoring will aid when the teacher is giving instructions, repetition of instructions can be conducted to make sure all students are following the teacher during the instruction.

To reinforce the instructions the explanations can be conducted with the help of a student, teacher alone by demonstration, etc. Bradshaw (2005) recommended that the teacher always check the instructions. Teachers tend to ask if everyone understood the instruction or if there are any doubts but this is not enough to check if students know what they have to do, this happens because they will say that they understood to do not seem to be like dumb or even as a way to avoid laughs at them, to avoid this, if teacher ask to one or two students about what they have to do can make the difference and make all students get the missing ideas.

Conclusion
The information gathered in this document was designed to bring a wide point of view of the problem stated that teachers face, giving and checking instructions in the opinion of some researchers, teachers, psychologists, etc. This literature review hopes to bring something more than just an idea of the common issue that teachers may face in their classes. Information that will aid to make easier the activities and the learning process will be more effective. The problematic described above is true and that means a big obstacle in the lessons of the teachers. Bad instructions can be originated as said by Collier (1996) it is originated or can be detected in the psyche of the children, the core of their thoughts and behavior. With this information the psyche of the children can be manipulated to our advantage to obtain what is necessary to avoid any kind of problem in the classroom. It is stated that the bad instructions can be originated from the way teachers proceed to give and check instructions, Linsin (2009) talks about the issues in which most of the teachers get involved offers an explanation of how do they happen and how can be solved. Most of these issues are in the way teachers show their attitude in class, a teacher must be strong enough to keep quiet the class and flexible to help students in any concern. The giving and checking of instructions is not as short as any simple problem, Bradshaw (2005) refers to the giving of instructions as a sort of steps, and those steps are divided before, during and after the activity. With this it is possible for the teachers to measure several aspects of the class and the flaw points of the teachers can be restrained to give and check effectively instructions. All the strategies and theory collected in this document serves as a guide for those teachers who have been in problems, the main objective is to show in a brief way different perspectives of the problem, how it is originated and how can be avoided. All authors coincide that all resides in the “instruction” itself but being deeper, the instruction becomes in how teachers give instructions and also to whom. It has its steps and aspects to consider, even if the topic is difficult, students do not like to pay attention, correct instructions can aid to make more effective the classes.

Anotated Bybliography
Boyle, C. &amp; Lauchan, F. 2010. Can teacher instructions be improved to enhance task completion by primary schoolchildren? In this article Boyle and Lauchan show the impact of the research in which children's performance is different with oral instruction than written instruction. The research focuses in the results of the investigation. The authors took the information through the research. This article is useful for the research and for the information cited. There is no limitation on the article. The research can be applyied in classroom for my topic. The article will be useful in my research.

Boyle, C. 2006. Improving children’s attainments, motivation, and self-esteem. Proceedings of the British Psychological Society In this article Boyle mentions the difficulties and achievements of the children's mind. The data in this article was gathered by the author though an investigation. This article can be useful to check other theories and use them as citation for my research. It is focused on the field of psychology but still useful. The research can be developed in classrooms from EFL to check its effectiveness. This article will not form a support of my research but could be useful as a citation from other theories.

Bradshaw, C. (2005) Giving great instructions. http://es.scribd.com/doc/3177832/Giving-great-instructions In this article Coralyn Bradshaw shows a sort of steps to avoid problems when giving instructions in classrooms. The information gathered was brought over the years Coralyn spent training teachers during her career to help those teachers who face problems in classes at the time of giving instructions. The article focuses on some sort of steps before and during the classes’ activities to avoid mistakes and doubts according to the activities. The article is useful bus only as a support of the research with the steps procured. The limitation of the article is that it does not show some evidence that these steps are effective in classrooms. The article is useful but not the main source of information I need for my research.

Collier, L. (1996) how kids learn to follow directions. http://www.pediatricservices.com/prof/prof-07.htm In this article Lisa Collier annotated some advices that teachers as well as parents should consider while giving instructions to children. The author got the information through years by personal experiences with her own children and students. The research focuses on the very deep aspects of children (feelings and mind). The article is useful and worth to mention in my research because the advices stated is what I need in my research and classmates from professional practices. It gets limited only in the psychological field but still useful. The author indicates how children act and respond through certain commands more effective and how do they feel when they get a command. The article is based on the very foundation of psychological issues and shows some effective ways to keep children in what we need to obtain from them.

Crouch, C. &amp; Mazur, E. (n.d.) Peer Instruction: Ten Years of Experience and Results In this article Catherine Crouch and Eric Mazur shoe the peer instruction applied in classroom with students who study algebra, calculus and physics. The authors use data gathered from researches did in classrooms using peer instruction. Their research focuses on how students improved with peer instruction in classrooms in which subjects were mathematics and physics. The article could be useful in which their method (peer instruction) can be applied in the classroom in which I am going to do my research. It has limitations like the research is done with students which study other subjects instead of English making it a bit difficult to assimilate and compare with my research. The authors indicate that their research was developed to help this students for their subjects in which they observed problems. This article will be a bit useful but will not be my main support for my research because of the focus of the research.

Kirschner, P. (2006) why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: an analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching. In this article Paul Kirschner review the advantage of guided instruction in classroom. The author use data from other authors to maintain his theory. His research focuses on show how it is the guided instruction in classroom better than others and how can be supported with other theories. This article can be useful to check other theories and use them as citation for my research. It is not well focused on classroom children. The research is is extensive and can be developed in classrooms from EFL to check its effectiveness. This article will not form a support of my research but could be useful as a citation from other theories.

Liruso, S. &amp; Villanueva, E. (2003) Giving oral instructions to EFL young learners. In this article Susana Liruso and Elba Villanueva suggest that EFL students have problems at the time when teacher gives instructions to children. The authors use information gathered in a survey done through a research in classrooms. Their research focuses on the teachers whose instructions are not effective and create confusion in classroom and what sould be done to avoid it. The article is very useful for my research, theory and questionnaires will make easier my research. Its main limitation is that only focuses with EFL students from Argentina but still useful. The research also gave as a result the development of a language component in teacher preparation programs. This article is very useful to use as main resource for my research because it contains everything what I will use.

Lisin, M. 2009. How to Get Students to Follow Directions. Retrieved from: http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2009/12/19/how-to-get-students-to-follow-directions/ In this Article,it is mentioned some possible strategies to apply during classes when givin instructions. The data collected in the article is a gathering from his years of experience as a teacher. It focuses on use certain skills to give instructions in a correct way avoiding any problem.The article is very useful form the research and contains valuable data for my classes. The article gives certain advices of experience of the author. This article is very helpful because it contains a lot of information that is required.

Swift, S (n.d.) Giving and checking instructions. http://www.eslbase.com/articles/instructions In this article Sue Swift, mention some ways to give instructions properly. The data used in the article are guidelines developed by the author during the years as an ELT teacher. The article focuses on aiding with guidelines in the problems that teachers get involved when giving instructions. The article is useful but only as a support of my research; it provides the necessary information to complement the research. The main limitation of the article is that it is short; the author brings a brief selection of guidelines that all teachers with problems at the time of giving instructions face in classrooms and this article boasts to be useful as a support of the research because of the strategies stated in the article.

Missing Schreiner (2008) and Thaine (2009).

Windell, J. 1996. Children Who Say No When You Want Them to Say Yes: Failsafe Discipline Strategies for Stubborn and Oppositional Children and Teens. In thi article James Windell shows some aspects of the child's mind and how do they behave in certian way and what can be done to deal with children. The article was done through the investigation conducted my Windell. The article focuses on give aid to the adults who seek to control children when they do not behave in a good way. The article is useful though it talks about psychology. The limitation is the field of psychology but still can be applyied to teaching. The article is useful for my research anyway.