Classroom Strategies for Delivering Effective Instruction Management and Academic Achievement

Dear Editor,

Learning effectively from lectures and smartboards may help learners succeed as they master the skills required for academic progress. Generalizing skills and transfer of learning to real-life situations becomes challenging if primitive pedagogy is used to accommodate students, both neurotypical and neurodivergent. The heterogeneous development of students within a specific grade is unequivocal. The elementary/daycare settings bring together a diverse group of learners with differences in milestone progression and mention Mitchell in Teacher Education and Special Education. ¹ Establishing effective instructional control over the entire classroom becomes challenging as the variation in learners continues throughout the elementary level (Grades 1-8). Instructions for learners are established with verbal directions, schedules/routines, roles, and responsibilities within the school or daycare settings. Classroom organization for behavior management and academic progression is required for a meaningful learning experience.

Modeling a teacher can be overwhelming for early learners, whereas learning alongside a peer can strengthen students’ imitation and improve interest during the task. Acquiring age-level functional and academic skills can accelerate within the classroom as positive group dynamics are established. Seating arrangements with peers who can assist and support learners with needs (autism, learning disabilities, other exceptionalities) as the physical configuration of the peer groups are in proximity to each student’s instructional needs with the educator. ² The desks are put in rows, semi-circles, clusters, and other orientations for the peer groups to interact and maintain compliance with the instructional boundaries set in the classroom. Setting events in the classroom provides structure for the learners to navigate through their duration at the school and helps teachers avoid undesirable behaviors during educational interactions. Instructions draw the attention of learners in a group and facilitate academic achievement with suitable approaches parallel to the age and needs of the learners. The use of action songs, visual schedules, or display of responsibilities can help the learners orient themselves with the required behavior even in the absence of adults supervising the class.

Verbal Instructions

Some of the following example phrases can be used or other similar instructions can be useful for early learners:

❖ Criss-cross apple sauce (to establish sitting tolerance)

❖ Have a bubble in your mouth (develop listening and stop talking)

❖ Use your walking feet (to avoid running)

❖ The line is moving and counting the number of students (to stand and follow the line)

❖ Hands-on top, let me stop (transition between activities)

❖ Use your words (to stop fighting, hitting)

❖ See you later, alligator (teacher transitions between subjects)

Visual Instructions

Visual communication supports all the learners to communicate and express themselves within the classroom. Visual prompting easily connects learners with the information presented and is portable to other environments for regulating desirable behaviors. Some of the mentioned visual strategies can be specifically helpful for students with autism to develop higher-functioning gifted abilities (savant) and extraordinary skills substantiates the International Journal of Scientific Research (2018). ³

❖ Visual calendars (help students with calendar calculations)

❖ Photographs of individual students (visual memory, sequencing)

❖ First-then sequence cards/boards (transitions between teachers, subjects, and settings)

❖ Wall displays (activity completion and builds competence between peers)

❖ Vowel valley with mirror: phonics, blends, diphthongs

❖ Storing learning objects with labels (navigate group/individual tasks with independence)

❖ Choice boards (to understand likes and provide a choice between tasks)

❖ Emotion thermometers (to regulate emotions and feelings of learners)

❖ Voice levels: 0—no talking, 1—whisper voice, 2—̀ talk, 3—outdoor (maintain noise levels within classroom)

❖ Visual task sequences (dressing, gym time, meal-time)

Errors are how students practice and unequivocally attain the skills needed for grade level. Mistakes are found among students as they tend to gain mastery over a skill and acquire feedback from the teacher. Reciprocal efforts from students and teachers help facilitate error correction for conceptual and behavior management constructively. The learning process happens around the teacher-student interactions during mistake correction and establishing adaptive attitudes for different solutions mentions teacher and teacher education. ⁴ Support teachers provide with open and positive communication enhances error-handling in learners as they explain their misconceptions (self-advocacy).

Trust-friendly classrooms encourage adaptive, motivational, and cognitive responses in young learners to treat mistakes as opportunities for learning. The stimulus conditions within the classroom can be enriching as learning with multisensorial experiences and differential instructions are made available for different subjects like math, science, and literacy. Students develop higher thinking skills as they understand the reasoning and logic behind the progression of the difficulty levels in the concepts. The maximum use of visual, group/peer groups, sensory, and positive error climates reduces maladaptive interaction between early learners entering the phase of schooling. Instructional control over any group of learners can be fostered if the classroom management is efficiently organized.

“What makes a child gifted and talented may not always be good grades in school, but a different way of looking at the world and learning.”

- Chuck Grassley