Add Layers To Direct Instruction

In this video, we're going to layer depth and complexity onto a direct instruction lesson.

Adding Layers

• Incorporate classics: using Project Gutenberg for literature and iBiblio for art
• Layer complexity: we'll increase the thinking skill as we go through the lesson, from identify to compare/contrast to create and judge.
• Deepen content: Rather than just discussing "details," we're upgrading to "implicit and explicit details."
• Move to writing: While this was originally a reading lesson, moving towards writing increases complexity and targets students' needs

Resources

• Van Gogh's Dr. Gachet
• Da Vinci's Mona Lisa
• Vermeer's Girl With The Pearl Earring

Here are the two paragraphs from Alice's Adventures In Wonderland:

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice 'without pictures or conversation?'

So she was considering in her own mind, whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.