General Procedure for Teaching in the Phase of Acquisition (New

Knowledge)
Initial Instruction
Martin Kozlof
Theres a general procedure for focused, systematic, explicit
teaching (communicating) new knowledge in the phase of
ACQUISITION. Now, there are four phases of learning.
1. Acquisition or initial instruction.
2. Generalization.
3. Fluency-building.
4. Retention.
The first phase is ACQUISITION, or initial instruction. Teaching new
knowledge---for example, the routine for solving equations with one unknown,
such as 2X = 12

X + 24 = 30 X 16 = 4 This is called a routine because it

has steps.. Lets say you use 20 examples to teach this routine. These
examples are called the ACQUISITION SET.
Second, when students do the acquisition set with high accuracy
(100% correct?), teach students to generalize the knowledge learned
from the acquisition examples to NEW examples. So, in the phase of
GENERALIZATION, show students that the new examples (the
GENERALIZATION SET) are only superficially different from the examples in the
acquisition set (they have different numbers), but are the SAME KIND of
problem, and so students should use the SAME ROUTINE for solving the new
problems.
Third, when students successfully generalize to new examples (which
means they have INTERNALIZED the knowledge; they are independent
USERS), teach them to use their knowledge FASTER. This is FLUENCYBUILDING. (1) Make sure students are fluent with all of the ELEMENTS of a
skill; (2) MODEL HOW to go faster; (3) Give lots of PRACTICE; and (4) Set
FLUENCY OBJECTIVES (e.g., 18/20 problems correct in 5 minutes); (5) Work on
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fluency a little at a time, but every day. The items that you use are called the
FLUENCY SET.
Fourth, strengthen RETENTION. Unless persons practice and use their
knowledge, it gradually weakens. They forget. Also, future learning can
interfere with earlier learning. Therefore, schedule REVIEW of earlier
learning every day. Review the most RECENT learning the most each day, but
bring back knowledge worked on long ago. When students make errors or
struggle (I forgot how to do this.) (1) correct errors, (2) firm up any weak
elements, or even (3) reteach.
Please see these documents for more on acquisition, generalization, fluency,
and retention.
Phases of Mastery Table

Summary.

Phases of Mastery In depth.

Assessment of Knowledge of Phases of Mastery

But now were only looking at the first phase---acquisition. Theres a

general procedure for teaching any knowledge during acquisition.
The steps are slightly different if you are teaching facts, lists, sensory
concepts, higher order concepts, rules or routines. Later modules show you
exactly how.
General Procedure For Teaching New Knowledge In The Phase Of
Acquisition.
Set up
1. Begin new instruction with review, especially of knowledge elements
needed to learn the new knowledge. For example, review concepts needed

to comprehend new text; review and firm up estimation, multiplication, and

subtraction before you work on long division (which INVOLVES these skills).
2. Gains student readiness and focus attention. Sitting properly,
materials handy.
Boys and girls!
Eyes on me.
My turn.
Get ready to write. Pencils up; sitting tall; feet on the floor; back against the
seat. [check.]
Open the document on your desktop, marked Calculating the slope.
http://www.purplemath.com/modules/strtlneq.htm
Get your Guided Notes ready.
I love the way you all got ready so fast.
3. Frame the instruction by
a. Telling the new knowledge to learned.
Heres a new fact.
Now well examine plate tectonics.
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/tectonics.html
http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/plates1.html
Heres a rule that helps to explain changes in the level of C02 in the
atmosphere.
Now well define our new vocabulary words. [Shown on Guided
Notes.]
Today we read the first of the Orestia plays by Aeschylus.
b. Telling the objectives for the learning.
When we are done, you will identify the areas on the globe where the
most tectonic
action is taking place, and will describe with a series of fact
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statements what is
happening in each place.
When were done, Ill give you examples of changes in the level of C02
in the atmosphere,
and youll use the rule that connects C02 and temperature to tell me
whether earth
temperature increased or decreased first.
When were done, youll use fact statements to tell the sequence of
crimes in the
house of Agamemnon. Youll state the Greek definition of crime
regarding murder. And
youll use rule statements about murder in ancient Greeks culture to
explain how each
murder in the plays was avenged.
c. Presenting any big ideas that will help students organize,
remember or access, and
comprehend the new knowledge, and connect new with prior
knowledge. For example,
tell the Greek idea of justice murder will be avenged until the entire
house is
cleansed because that runs through the Greek Orestia plays.
http://www.ancient-literature.com/greece_aeschylus_oresteia.html

Focused Instruction
4. Model or present new information.
a. Ill show you how to sound out this word. [routine]

sl i m
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When I touch under a sound I say the sound.

sliiimmm
b. Changes in the earths temperature cause a change in the level of
CO2. Changes in the
level of CO2 do NOT cause a change in the earths temperature [rule]
Temperature CO2.

Show data (examples) to substantiate the rule

c. The word elenchus means disputation. Elenchus is the Socratic

method. Heres an
example from Platos dialogue called Republic. [concept.] Notice
how Socrates asks
questions that require a person to examine the meaning of his words
and the effects of
acting on his beliefs. When a person realizes that his words are
meaningless or that his
beliefs will lead to destructive actions, the person is forced to revise
his use of words and
his beliefs.
Book I.
SOCRATES. Well said, Cephalus, I replied; but as concerning justice,
what is it? --to speak the truth and to pay your debts --no more
than this? And even to this are there not exceptions? Suppose that a
friend when in his right mind has deposited arms with me and he asks
for them when he is not in his right mind, ought I to give them back
to him? No one would say that I ought or that I should be right in doing
so, any more than they would say that I ought always to speak the truth
to one who is in his condition.
CEPHALUS. You are quite right, he replied.
SOCRATES. But then, I said, speaking the truth and paying your
debts is not a correct definition of justice.
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SOCRATES. Tell me then, O thou heir of the argument, what did

Simonides say, and according to you truly say, about justice?
POLEMARCHUS. He said that the repayment of a debt is just, and in
saying so he appears to me to be right.
SOCRATES. I should be sorry to doubt the word of such a wise and
inspired man, but his meaning, though probably clear to you, is the
reverse of clear to me. For he certainly does not mean, as we were
now saying that I ought to return a return a deposit of arms or
of anything else to one who asks for it when he is not in his
right senses; and yet a deposit cannot be denied to be a debt.
POLEMARCHUS. True.
SOCRATES. Then when the person who asks me is not in his right mind
I am by no means to make the return?
POLEMARCHUS. Certainly not.
SOCRATES. When Simonides said that the repayment of a debt
was justice, he did not mean to include that case?
POLEMARCHUS. Certainly not

5. Lead students through the application of the new information.

a. Sound it out with me.
b. Look at this chart with me. See, here, when temperature was___, the
level of C02 was
___. Now, here, when temperature when DOWN, CO2 went down.
And look here,
when temperature was higher, C02 was higher. I say this suggests a
rule. Lets say that
rule together.
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c. Okay, read this passage from the play, Agamemnon, with me. The
chorus warns.
Among the wicked of mankind
An old crime breeds a younger crime.
Sooner or later, when the appointed day
Comes for the new crime to be born
A Wrath, a Demon for the house,
Unfightable, unwarrable on, unholy,
A bold, black Ruin for the household
Truebred to its ancestral type.
In other words, by murdering her husband Agamemnon,
Clytemnestra did not STOP the
murdering. She keeps the wheels of Justice going. Now SHE has to
die.
http://www.ancientliterature.com/greece_aeschylus_agamemnon.html
6. Give an immediate acquisition test/check to determine whether
students learned the new
information.
Your turn. Whats our new fact? Or,
Your turn. Sound it out. Or,
You read the passage, and tell me why Clytemnestra has to die. Or,
Okay, look at these data points. Do they conform to the rule about C02
in relation to
temperature? Yes. They do. What IS the rule?
7.

Correct any errors and/or firm weak knowledge.

a. That word is fffuuunnn.

[shows how to sound it out.]

Sound it out with me.

Your turn. Sound it out.
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[Retest later.]
b. [Student answers incorrectly.]Clytemnestra MUST die because she
TOO murdered. She
murdered her husband. It does not matter that SHE was taking
revenge on Agamemnon
for killing their daughter Ephigenia. The GODS are to take care of
that. She violated the
LAW and the house must be cleansed of her crime. You get that?
[Restate/model information to correct the error.
Yes.
Good. Now back up. What did Agamemnon do? [Back-up and retest]
Killed his daughter as a sacrifice so that the winds would blow his
ships to Troy.
Yes. Was that a crime?
Yes.
Did he pay for it?
Yes.
How?
His wife killed him?
Is THAT a crime?
Yes.
How so?
Murder in a family pollutes the family.
And how is it cleansed?
The murderer must die.
So, must Clytemnestra die.
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Yes.
Yes, you got it now! Lets move on.

8. Add more. This depends on the kind of knowledge you are

teaching.
a. If the new material is a fact, you are done.
b. If the new material is a list, teach more items on it: modelleadtest.
c. If the new material is a concept, present more examples and
nonexamples.
d. If the new material is a rule, present more examples and
nonexamples.
e. If the new material is a routine, teach more steps in it (modellead
test) until
students do the whole routine on their own. Then work on more
examples in the
acquisition set.
Closing
This is where you see if instruction helped students meet the objectives.
9. Give a delayed acquisition test---calling on the group as a whole and
then on individual
students--to determine whether students learned the fact, list, concept,
rule, or routine from
the examples and nonexamples in the acquisition set.
a. Lets sound out all our words.
b. Ill point to areas on the map. You tell me if they are areas of major
tectonic activity and,
if so, tell facts that describe the activity.
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c. Ill give you ALL our examples of how temperature changed. You tell
me what should
happen to C02.
10. Use the delayed acquisition test as an assessment. That is,
a. Correct any errors.
b. Firm up (reteach) any weak elements, such as letter-sounds, the rule,
definitions.
c. Reteach the whole thing; e.g., the Greek definitions of crime and
justice; the routine for
sounding out words.
d. Review and firm up these weaknesses at the start of the next day.
e. Decide how you may need to change instruction. More examples in
the acquisition set?
More review? More focused instruction before any discussion
Okay, now you have an outline (a general procedure) of how to teach
any of the six kinds of knowledge in the phase of acquisition. The
next module briefly describes each kind of knowledge and how to teach it.
Note well. You almost NEVER teach a fact, list, concept, rule, or
routine by itself. You teach one of these in a TASK that is part of a
LESSON. For example, you might teach a list of facts about nuclear power
before you present a list of advantages and disadvantages. You might teach a
set of concepts (such as metaphor, symbolism, onomatopoeia) before you
teach students to analyze poems that use metaphor, symbolism,
onomatopoeia. You might teach several rules about solving equations before
you teach the routine for solving equations.

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