For this week’s Teach-Now activity I was tasked with recording myself using the gradual release of responsibility method (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983). In short, this method involves a focus lesson (i.e., “I do” part) where the instructor walks through their thinking and demonstrates how to complete some task. Next, teachers conduct guided instruction (i.e., “we do”) with their students and complete some task together, which can serve as formative assessment. After this, collaborative learning (i.e., “you do it together”) occurs where students work together to apply what they have just learned. Finally, during the independent work phase (i.e., “you do it alone”) students are given a task to complete and another chance to demonstrate understanding.
This method is quite familiar to me as a university English language teacher as it is similar to the task-based approach and scaffolding in language teaching. As such I was able to incorporate the gradual release of responsibility to students regarding the zero conditional in English grammar, as they too are familiar with this instructional model.
To begin my lesson I first explained to my students that the zero conditional is used to express ideas that are generally true. Next, to demonstrate my thought process I explained that “If I have an exam, I study a lot” in response to a question inquiring about such. Within my explanation I made it clear that I must use the simple present in my answer for it to be the zero conditional. Overall, as this is simple if-then logic and that I was able to clearly demonstrate how to construct this type of sentence on the blackboard, the students responded and understood the objective of the lesson well.
Next, for the “we do” component I wrote “What do you do when you are lonely” on the board and completed a sample answer while eliciting ideas, vocabulary and the correct grammar from the students. This part was successful as well as I had just demonstrated how to do this a few moments before. In Japan students tend to be a bit reticent so the answers took longer to emerge than a typical class in the USA, but I was confident they had a good understanding of the zero conditional pattern.
Continuing on, I moved to the collaborate part of the strategy by assigning them in groups to complete a series of questions in their textbooks. To complete this activity properly, students had to read the question as well as write down their partners’ answers to further demonstrate competency of the subject matter. As I walked around the classroom I heard most students confidently reading the questions and jotting down answers. Some common mistakes, however, included forgetting to use the simple present throughout their answer as well as being at a loss for certain vocabulary.
After this collaboration, I tasked the students with independent work by having them write three more questions regarding the general behaviors of their partners. My thought process here was that if the students could reverse-engineer their replies by making inquiries, it would be further proof of understanding. Once again after completing their questions the students interviewed their partners.
Overall, while the gradual release of responsibility method is a nice fit for the language teacher’s classroom, the independent work phase is not ideal. The reason for this is that language is best learned though practice, which is of course speaking with at least one other person. In other tasks such as teaching multiplication, for instance, it would be more appropriate to ask the students to complete an assignment on their own, but I try to not do that too much in my courses. Having said that, short essay composition is a subject area in my course which I would indeed find the “you do it alone” phase to be most appropriate.
References
Pearson, P. D. and M. C. Gallagher, “The Instruction of Reading Comprehension,” Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8, 1983, pp. 317-344.