It is apparent that the book is trying to set the example in using examples appropriately by giving so much information.  Chapter 7 is very tedious.  I think the information that is presented is highly important, but could have been reduced by creating two separate chapters or by cutting some of the repetitive material down.
    Chapter 7 started by focusing on expository teaching.  The first paragraph was a reminder that the lesson should have a topic and objective that are chosen for the first paragraph, this should have been a given. For planning, the book discussed the need for examples and being very thorough in choosing examples.  I had never thought of how crucial examples were to my students.  It was obvious to me that I needed to share correct ways to work problems and incorrect assumptions about the topic, but I never thought about whether I was giving an accurate view of the concept.  I think this was an eye opener for me and I plan to return to my lessons and determine how well the material and examples accurately depict what the true objective of the lesson is.  For expository teaching, it was the basic and most commonly used strategy and I was more familiar with its implementation.  A good point was made here, that teachers often teach by using expository strategies because of the need to think quickly on the spot.  In the implementation phase of expository teaching it is important to make connections to real life and write facts on the board to be followed.
    Guided discovery takes a great deal more time and uses more divergent questioning strategies.  Again, planning begins the same way as any other lesson by selecting a topic and some objectives.  Here it appears that examples are more important because the only information given to students about the abstractions are the examples.  Any misguidance can make learning difficult.  It is often a good idea to include illustrations.  I love illustrations.  Every chance I get I find an illustration to bring to class or I demonstrate various concepts that are similar to that in which my students are learning.  During implementation redirection, prompting, and divergent open-ended questions are used to spur on the learning process.  Information is only written at the conclusion of the lesson to make the information concrete.
    I need to work on my guided discovery in my classroom because I find that it is more motivating than traditional expository teaching.  Guided discovery may take more time and more thinking on my part, but if my students learn more then it is worth it.  Also, I want my students to think at higher cognitive levels and expository teaching often remains at low levels of the Bloom’s taxonomy.  Some subjects lend themselves to guided discovery more easily, but I believe that it is possible for me to implement guided discovery in my classroom.
    Discussion is not meant to teach concepts and I often use discussion strategies after expository teaching and sometimes after guided discovery.  With the limited amount of time it is a challenge to use discussion strategies after the length of a guided discovery lesson, but I do use a great deal of discussion after expository teaching.  I did a discussion where I did not require some form of product and I did not stay on top of the groups so much and my discussion groups went sour.  After learning from my mistakes, I now break students into smaller groups if not a huge group and I require them to present the information to me or turn in a list from their groups’ discussion.  I think discussion can be productive if it is not the only source of learning.  One thing I would like to try is to use discussion of a topic before the lesson and then again after to see how perceptions changed from the lesson.  Has anyone tried this in your classes yet?  How did it turn out?
    Problem based learning appears to be very practical for classroom usage.  I find that in many ways I already use inquiry in the classroom and to some extent I use the problem solving in the classroom.  Problem based learning is a sure way to keep students engaged and it appears to be very helpful for reaching higher cognitive levels for students.  Both inquiry and problem solving have steps that are essentially the same.  The difference between the two methods is the way they go about learning.  Inquiry tends to have a hypothesis and collection of data, whereas, problem solving has an issue and a strategy to solve the problem.  I could use these two types of problem based learning strategies in my classroom more and I am sure that I use them already to some degree.