Participants 18
Teaching to Mastery Effectively
Example One
During a maths lesson, Teacher, Miki, repeats one exercise twice but her students are not firm. She then repeats the exercise one more time, adding individual turns at the end of the exercise to check if students are firm. The students are firm, so she moves to the next exercise. Miki is continually firming students throughout the lesson to be sure they are at mastery for every exercise. When Miki has the students sit for the mastery test the next day, she knows students are at mastery because they have all met or exceeded the passing criteria.
Example Two
Teacher, Dan, is teaching a reading lesson. Throughout the lesson, he corrects all errors, repeats exercises until firm, and gives individual turns to lower-performing students. During independent work, he circulates around the room and monitors students closely. Dan provides quick prompts to individuals if he sees that an individual student has made an error. As his students are completing their independent work, he notices that three of his students are making the same errors on two comprehension questions. Dan realises that these errors are a trend within the group, as three students have the wrong answer, so he stops and reteaches the material from these questions to the entire group. When he checks the students’ independent work, he sees that all his students have met or exceeded the passing criteria. He knows they are at mastery for that lesson.