Five D’s of Instructional Design: Empowering Student-Centered Learning Excellence: Unveiling the 5 D's Framework for Transformation

Chapter One

Design

A Tale of Two Classrooms

As we begin this journey, let’s take a few minutes to consider students’ experiences in two classrooms: Mr. Moore and Mrs. Simmons. Imagine you are an observer to learn more about student experiences in the classroom. You enter Mr. Moore’s classroom, where you see the students seated in rows of student pairs, with their notebooks open, and they appear to be taking notes while Mr. Moore is at the front of the room, describing the day’s lesson with a PowerPoint as the students take notes.

Mr. Moore describes the different concepts and asks questions of the class as he moves through the lesson. As you move around the room, you notice all the students quietly sitting while writing the same things on a note sheet. Between the periods of Mr. Moore talking, the students independently complete one or two questions on a worksheet.

At one of the tables, Dylan asks Aaron, What does this word mean? as they work on their problem.

As Mr. Moore notices the conversation, saying, Class, and pauses, all the students look up, Remember that the work you are doing is independent work.

Dylan looks down at his worksheet and skips the question he was working on; the rest of the students work on quietly until Mr. Moore began the next segment.

You ask some students, What are you learning about today?

Aaron says, We are finishing this worksheet that we are turning in at the end of class.

Susie says, We are learning to answer these questions, and points to her work page.

There is minimal disruption; students raise their hands to respond to the teacher’s questions, and at the end of the class period, the students turn in their pages and line up quietly to move to the next class when the bell rings.

After the class, you ask Mr. Moore how he knows the students mastered the learning for today.

He replies, I’ll grade the work the student completed today and return it to them Friday. I always include a grade and show the student where they made their mistakes.

Now, let’s investigate Mrs. Simmons’ classroom. First, you notice that students are seated in small groups, and it is hard to locate the front of the room.

Some students have a device where you can see a video of Mrs. Simmons talking and playing while they write notes and draw lines connecting different ideas. All the student notes look different; some have underlined certain words, and others have drawn images next to little blurbs of words. Students in each group talk and point to various items in their notes and on their device screens.

When you look at the work they are completing, it appears to be on the same page as Mr. Moore’s classroom, but the students are actively discussing their answers. At one point, you see Megan and Simon discussing it.

Simon says, I agree with your idea, but the video mentioned the other site, and I wonder how that fits in with your answer?

You see Megan scrunch her eyebrows momentarily and then respond, You’re right. I hadn’t considered that and needed to include that in my answer. Thank you for the feedback.

You see some students draw a line through what they had written and change their responses as the conversations continue.

When you ask students, What are you learning about? Megan describes the main topic: We must learn this part well; it will help us later in our unit, and that’s why we work together to learn it.

Megan also shows you the concept map for the unit and how these questions help them go from idea A to B. The teacher moves from group to group, asking group questions and prompting the students with steps or resources they may need to review. At one point, the teacher pauses the work and asks the students to move to either the left or right side of the room based on the answer to her question. Students then share why they chose that side before returning to their groups. At the end of the class period, students turn in their work and line up for the next class, talking excitedly about what they had discovered today.

Consistency is Key

The story above may be all too common for many students. Parents can share their children’s confusion. You may be able to go through the story and pick out those places where confusion could be avoided. Many school districts have standards for teachers. These standards can have widely varied implementations. When planning, it is beneficial to consider these points of confusion and create consistency in your course. We define consistency as carrying out something the same way or staying the same as it’s achieved in a particular way. Planning leads to less confusion for students and parents and allows the focus to be on the learning, not the structure of your course.

Consistency has many different looks in a classroom, but all these looks come from basic principles in designing instruction. As we review these principles, keep in mind consistency for your classroom.

These principles become more powerful when instituted in your Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). They can even have a massive impact when initiated district-wide. We understand that PLCs and districts may not be ready to institute these principles. So, this book is written with you as an individual teacher creating change, in mind.

Watch for the visual blurbs in the chapters. There are four kinds of blurbs:

•Brain Breaks are points where we will explain the neurobiology of the benefits of the Five Ds of learning for learners.

•Institution Breaks are points where we discuss how PLCs and administrators can implement the principles of the Five Ds of learning.

•Activity Breaks are points where either you or your PLC work on a question to help you start designing your instruction.

•Planning Guide symbols indicate that there are resources available through the workbook link. You can access all the resources for the book using the QR code or link below:

Thematic Design

Depending on the grade level you are teaching, the discussion of thematic design can be contentious. Thematic design is the intentional selection of a theme in the instruction planning to create interdisciplinary, relevant learning experiences that increase student engagement and maximize student learning outcomes by giving students a standard learning orientation that connects multiple concepts and units. The use of thematic design is seen many times in elementary school. It is quietly phased out as students get older. Many teachers will say that using a thematic design for the class is just extra fluff that brings in the way of learning. Phasing out the use of thematic design is not to the benefit of both the students and teachers. Motivation is vital for many students in the classroom in the learning process. You may have heard the question often, When will I ever use this in real life? At the time, you may have an answer, or you may not. If the student cannot directly connect with their life or the lives of those around them, this reduces their intrinsic motivation to learn. Intrinsic motivation is when students are engaged because of internal rewards, like a love of learning or interest in a subject. These students learn to value learning for its merits, regardless of external factors. You may then try extrinsic motivation, such as rewards or grades, to motivate the students to learn the material. Extrinsic motivation