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B. Types and Sources of Instructional Resources
 

       In the PEPE teacher evaluation interview, teachers are asked how they make decisions about instructional methods and resources and why they have made those decisions. That question is the key to this module.

        Making decisions is a natural part of life. One of the most important decisions faced by you as a teacher is how to select instructional resources Image file that ensure or enhance instruction. You implement the curriculum adopted by the school district in which you teach, using state approved and district approved textbooks and other resources provided to you. However, you are responsible for student learning, and that involves going beyond the resources provided, if necessary, to create active, motivating learning experiences for your students. When you choose instructional materials, they should be chosen on the basis of their contributions to the learning outcomes rather than on the basis of availability or ease of use.
   
         Instructional materials should relate directly to the purpose(s) and objective(s) of the lesson; extend content or provide for remediation, reinforcement or enrichment. They should be appropriate to student differences such as ability, achievement, interests, and learning styles.
   
 
       Therefore, regardless of the instructional method used in the classroom, teachers must consider each of the following before selecting instructional resources:
* The objectives: What skills/concepts do the lesson objectives specify for mastery?
   
* The students: How many students are there? What are their general characteristics (such as grade level) as well as their ages, socioeconomic status, previous experience, and any special needs they may have? What specific knowledge or skills do they already have? What are their learning styles and preferences? For instance, do they prefer audio materials, visuals, interpersonal experiences, or hands-on learning?
 
* The learning environment: Is the space large enough to allow you to conveniently divide the students into small groups? Will it allow the students to work individually without distractions?
   
* The available resources: What resources are available (including materials, equipment, funds)? What are your limitations? How much time would the use of a particular resource require?
   
          Instructional resources include items purchased, prepared or assembled for student use as well as those needed by the teacher for his or her own use during instruction. A list of resources needed for a lesson should be included in the lesson plan. Resources needed for a unit of work should be listed in the unit plan.
   
         Materials selected for student use should be consistent with the Image students' levels of comprehension, ability and responsibility. Examples of resources for student use include handouts, study guides, bibliographies, project guideline sheets, books, workbooks and resource materials for students; computers and software; other technology such as printers, scanners, calculators, PDAs, and various other items or equipment specific to a subject area; e.g., art, music, vocational studies.
   
          You will need to gather and prepare resource materials for yourself that will help you prepare for instruction or that you will use during instruction. These could include transparencies and overhead projector, notes, texts or other printed resource materials, pictures, posters, charts, maps, globes, computer and computer programs/software, smart board, filmstrips and/or films and projection equipment, audio tapes, video tapes, VCR, DVD, television, tape player, laboratory equipment, supplies.
 
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Instructional Resources Beyond the Student's Textbook

 

        There are several categories of resources available to a teacher that go beyond a textbook. They include:
   
 
*

Textbook Support Materials. Suggested activities, learning experiences, and resources are commonly found in the Teacher's Edition. The publisher of the textbook series may also have additional support materials available, such as blackline masters of practice materials/worksheets, workbooks, overhead transparencies, diagnostic and assessment materials, and record-keeping materials. The school may have purchased additional supplementary "extras" such as kits, charts, cards, audiocassettes, games, computer software, and videos. For primary children, there may be "big books" that are a component of the reading series. Textbooks from other publishers can also be good resources.

 
   
* State-approved Curriculum Guides. The curriculum guides approved by the state and local school boards commonly include subject-specific, grade-specific course goals and a fairly detailed outline of curricular content. Recommended instructional activities, an annotated bibliography, and annotated lists of films, filmstrips, videotapes, computer software, and other instructional resources are usually included as well.
   
* Workbooks. Workbooks can be used for student follow-up activities. Students can work on different exercises or use different workbooks. Workbook activities should be checked for accuracy and should emphasize higher order thinking and problem solving rather than rote learning, not busy work where students mechanically follow directions and are required to exercise little thought or originality. Be careful in selecting workbooks or worksheets. Many are lacking in motivational qualities, as well as higher order thinking skills.
   
 
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*        Journals and publications of professional organizations. (See References and Resources at the end of this module.)
   
* The classroom. A classroom library can offer interesting and instructional material to provide introductory, background, or follow-up information. Resource materials could include books, brochures, magazines and journals, filmstrips, and computer programs. Specialized classrooms such as science laboratories or gymnasiums offer specialized resources, some of which could have value to instruction in other settings.
   
* The school. A school library/media resource center usually contains books, audiovisual materials, projected and non-projected visuals, audio media, films and videos, computer-based instructional resources, simulations, and games. The school building and/or grounds often become a site for exploration and learning.
   
* The community. In addition to making available speakers who visit the classroom, the community offers opportunities for students to leave the classroom to study real processes, people, and objects that might include libraries, museums, zoos, businesses, farms, factories, government services, and monuments. The community can be an "after school" resource for students, as well as a "during school" resource.
   
   
 

Media Resources
 

        There are also several types of mediated resources that a teacher can select or create to deliver or augment instruction. Audio media, visual media, and specialized media are briefly discussed below.

Audio Media

        Audio media convey information by sound. Some of the audio media that you might find in your classroom or in the school's library/media resource center are phonograph records, audiotapes (either pre-recorded or blank), compact disks that contain music, speeches, drama, poetry, animal and nature sounds, student presentations, etc. Many teachers create audiotapes of lictures, project directions, student presentations, or other content for student use - particularly students who are aural learners (those who learn best by listening). There are several advantages to appropriate use of audio media:

      1.

They are inexpensive.

   
      2. They are readily available and simple to use.
   
      3. They can be used by students who do not read.
   
      4. They are essential to learning for aural learners (those who learn primarily from listening).
   
      5. They can record student presentations for playing back.
   
      6. They can present stimulating verbal messages from well-known people from the past or present.
   
 

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Visual Media 

        Projected visuals include slides, overhead transparencies, and computer-generated PowerPoint or other presentations that can be projected (onto a screen, whiteboard, wall or other plain surface). Some of the items listed below under "Non-Projected" can also be projected (graphic materials, still pictures, maps, etc.). DVDs and videocassettes typically contain visual presentations, as well as aural ones.

        Non-projected visuals that might be available in your classroom or in the school's library/media resource center include:

  chalkboards,
  multipurpose boards (such as white boards),
  bulletin or display boards,
  graphic materials (drawings, charts, graphs, posters, and cartoons),
  still pictures (photographs, postcards, illustrations from periodicals and books),
  flip charts (commercially prepared or blank),
  maps and globes,
  models (a three-dimensional representation of something not visible to the student , such as a replica of the human ear, that may be smaller, larger, or the same size as the real thing),
     and
  realia - real things including animals, plants, artifacts, coins, and minerals.
   
  Specialized Equipment/Resources
 

        Specialized instructional resources range from several types of calculators that might be used in mathematics and science classes to specialized machinery and equipment applicable to vocational education programs to kilns and other resources for an art class to specialized equipment essential to special needs students.

        While we won't try to describe and discuss these resources here, other teachers, instructional supervisors, and building and system administrators should be able to assist you in identifying, locating, and selecting resources to enhance instruction in special settings and content areas.
   
 

Some Considerations in Selecting Certain Visual Equipment and Resources
          Selecting visual resources isn't a matter of simply grabbing what is available. Consideration needs to be given to what the resource can and can't do and how to best use it.
 

 

Chalkboard
   
      *

Most students find it difficult to think while they are copying material..
Image file
   
*       Students need time to copy.
   
* Advance preparation is helpful unless constructing lists produced by class discussion.
      * The chalkboard is best used for essential textual information, not everything the teacher wishes to say.
   
      *

Use of color (in the chalk) can add interest, identify groups, or provide emphasis.
   
 
Overhead Projector
   
       In addition to the items listed above for Chalkboards,
   
*

They can be used in normal room lighting..
   
*

They allow teachers to face their students.
   
*

They can display more than just writing or spontaneous drawings: slides; silhouettes; graphs; small, opaque objects; enlarged newspaper articles and other print materials that can be put on a blank transparency with a computer printer or a photocopier.
   
 
Video
   
        Instructional technology such as videocassettes or DVDs can be an effective means of enhancing instruction.
   
*

They can provide a bridge between the abstract world of the textbook and everyday reality.

   
*

Students may need advance preparation to develop "critical viewing" skills; i.e., visual literacy.

   
*

They can be stopped temporarily to discuss important moments as they occur.

   
*

Videotaping students' in-class presentations offers students the opportunity of seeing themselves in action.
 
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Computer-based Instructional Resources
         The computer in your classroom can be used to assist instruction and enhance learning. It is a tool that can help you manage instruction through computer-based testing, record keeping, and computer prescription of media, materials, and activities. It can generate puzzles, worksheets, illustrations, diagrams,, and other instructional materials. It can provide access to both human resources and an array of multimedia resources through the Internet, web, and CDs or DVDs.
   
  Enhancing Instruction
   
 

         Computers can be used to incorporate various types of media into a Image file single presentation for classroom use. Software programs can blend text, diagrams, animation, and recordings of audio and video to enhance classroom instruction. The use of multimedia presentations, either ones you have created or ones you have purchased, can be appropriate in the following situations:

*       to present demonstrations that otherwise would have a considerable safety risk; e.g., dangerous laboratory experiments;
 
*

to present demonstrations that otherwise would have a considerable safety risk; e.g., dangerous laboratory experiments;
   
*

to recreate an experience that would otherwise be cost prohibitive, such as a visit to the Louvre;
   
*

to demonstrate phenomena that cannot be observed in real time or seen with the unaided eye, such as geological movements or chemical reactions;

   
*

to demonstrate intricate parts of dynamic processes, such as the different phases of weather changes. Certain complex interactions are difficult to describe verbally and may be best demonstrated through animation or time lapse photography;
   
* to provide more in-depth material or illustrations, such as historic film clips or excerpts of speeches; and
   
* to provide various hypothetical scenarios, such as population growth in a world region or pollution of Lake Erie.
   
 
Communication
 
        Using computers for communication minimizes the usual restraints of time and location. Computers allow students to have greater access to teachers, while teachers can give students more individualized attention. Class communication can occur via e-mail. Students can also be linked to persons outside the school. E-mail has a variety of possibilities:
 
   
*

Students can submit assignments as attachments to e-mail.
   
*

Teachers may quickly reply to student work with specific comments and recommendations for improvement and give students an opportunity to submit a more polished final work.
   
*

E-mail can increase student-student interactions and student-teacher interactions.
   
*

E-mail can increase teacher-parent communications when parents have access to e-mail.
 
*

Students can have interactions with scientists, business representatives, artists, or others who can provide information, instruction, or just a different perspective on a topic.
   
*

E-mail mentors can be provided for students interested in particular careers.
   
*

Students can interact with students and/or teachers in other locations, particularly locations outside the United States.
   
   
 

THIS CONCLUDES PART 1 OF THE INFORMATION ON TYPES AND SOURCES OF INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES.

GO TO THE NEXT SECTION TO CHECK YOUR KNOWLEDGE (COVERING SECTION B).
 
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