Gagne's 9 Events of Instruction

I never really thought about it before today, but most every lesson plan I write follows this pattern or one very similar to it.

The reason why the Cycle of Instruction and Gagne's 9 Events work are because they take the student through the whole process of learning. When your parents taught you how to swim or how to ride a bike, they didn't just throw you in or stick you on the bike and force you to go (hopefully!) More than likely, there was a process. They introduced you to the concept. THey showed you how to do it by modeling. They helped you do it be gradually giving you more control and practice. Eventually, you developed the skill. This is how learning works in the classroom too, but so often educators neglect to think of it that way. They cover a grammatical concept o nthe board then hand the kids a worksheet and call it a day. Learning should be more applied than that if we expect students to retain the skill for life instead of until the next test. The old saying "it's like riding a bike" is based in the truth that you never forget. You never forget because you were trained properly in that skill. We should train our students in every skill as thoroughly.