BRES TIP OF THE MONTH
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
Instructional Delivery: how lesson summaries can help students make connections and retain
essential content
SCENARIO
Consider the three following scenarios and ask yourself, “Which one is the most effective at
ensuring students comprehend the lesson objective and retain the information and why?”
Background: The class is finishing a lesson on how to find the lowest common
denominator. Independent practice has just ended and the teacher is about to transition into the
next reading lesson.
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Scenario One: After independent practice the teacher says, “All right class, take 60 seconds to
silently return to your seats and put your math workbooks away. Then please take out your
independent reading books. It is time to begin guided reading rotations.”
Scenario Two: After independent practice the teacher says, “All right class, take 60 seconds to
silently return to your seats and put your math workbooks away. Let me quickly summarize the
steps to finding the lowest common denominator.” The teacher completes one problem at the
board to review the process and says, “Now take one minute to turn and talk to your partner
about some of the ways we can use fractions in our daily life.” After one minute the teacher cold
calls five students to share examples. After cold calling the teacher says, “Now take one minute to
independently write one or two sentences on our essential question: how can finding the lowest
common denominator help us compare fractions?” The teacher circulates and checks student
responses, unwrapping misconceptions as necessary. After one minute, the teacher cold calls
four students to read his/her written responses to the essential question. The entire lesson
summary process takes five to six minutes.
Scenario Three: After independent practice the teacher says, “All right class, take 60 seconds to
silently return to your seats and put your math workbooks away.” Sixty seconds has elapsed and
all students are at his/her seat with desks cleared. Then the teacher says, “OK to summarize, we
learned how to find the lowest common denominator from a group of fractions. This is important
because without a common denominator which is the same number for a group of fractions, we
can’t successfully compute or compare them.” The teacher does one quick problem at the board
to review the process. The entire lesson summary process takes two to three minutes.
TIP OF THE MONTH
BRES Effective Teaching Framework, Big Rock Three: Instructional Delivery
Summarize lesson content and key ideas at the end of each lesson. Ensure students can make connections from the
daily lesson objective to the unit objective(s) and essential question(s) and can articulate real-life applications as
demonstrated in scenario two.
WHY
Taking time to summarize daily lessons increases the chance students will comprehend and retain lesson content. In
addition it is another opportunity for the teacher to check comprehension of the material at a deep level of
understanding. Finally the teacher’s lesson summaries can serve as a model to students on how to effectively
summarize, a key skill that will help them academically through college and in their daily lives.
HOW BRES CAN HELP
BRES and the school leader work together to implement Big Rock Three: Instructional Delivery in the BRES
Effective Teaching Framework, more specifically – e (application) - to help the school leader and leadership team
support staff on lesson summarizing and effective delivery. You can reach us at: bigrockeducation.com/contact for
information.
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