Teaching Sequence
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Open, Teach, Close

1-21-99: Gregory Aloia of Illinois State University proposed the "Open, Teach, Close" acronym for effective teaching during an April 16, 1998, teleconference entitled "Using the Web to Enhance the Classroom," but the Web is certainly not required for implementing this (below). (Explanations on this page are paraphrases and my own amplifications--EH.)
O_wte.gif (4718 bytes) Objective Open by previewing the lesson and learners' goals.
P Personalize Activate students' prior knowledge, current experience, and even future scenarios.
E Engage Use an activity or probe question.
N Novelty Heighten interest with a slant on your topic that may be new to learners.
T_wte.gif (4022 bytes) Teach Focus learners' attention with definitions, examples, explanations, models, etc.
E Enquire Question learners to see what they understand.
A Activity Have learners do something, but make sure they see how the activity supports the lesson's objective.
C Check Assess learners' gains and clarify where needed, challenge them to see more, and compliment their efforts.
H Help Provide supplementary effort immediately or arrange individual/group time on task asap.
C_wte.gif (4017 bytes) Consolidate Summarize and synthesize.
L Link Echo the "personalize" step to make connections now that the lesson has been done.
O Objective Make sure learners see how the stated lesson objective has been met--or what remains on their part to meet it.
S Stimulate Hype the next lesson.
E End Leave learners feeling positive--or at least determined and able to handle the logistics of any follow-up they need to do on their own.
 

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