Starting off a lesson with a relevant ice breaker has the potential of accomplishing three of the Nine Events of Instruction at once. First, it gains the students' attention and provides a stimulus that increases their chances of receiving the lesson. Second, it could inform students of the lesson's objectives. And third, it could stimulate the recall of knowledge the student already gained from previous lessons. To start off a lesson on grammar and sentence construction, a teacher can initiate a game in which students try to assemble a coherent sentence from a given set of words as quickly as they can.
Using visual aids -- such as PowerPoint or Flash presentations -- also conforms to Gagne's theories by achieving the Fourth and Fifth Events of Instruction. The visual aid acts as a stimulus material which displays the lesson content in an interesting format. It provides the students with a fair amount of guidance by giving the lesson an easy-to-follow flow and a clear organization. These measures ensure the student pays attention, remembers what he sees and understands the lesson.
Calling on a student to answer a question related to the lesson is a simple yet effective activity that again demonstrates Gagne's theories, covering the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Events of Learning. It elicits student performance by encouraging him to draw out and show what he has learned so far. It gives the teacher an opportunity to provide feedback on student performance -- a chance to praise the pupils for their understanding or challenge them to push further. It also provides the data the teacher needs for a fair assessment of the learners' performance -- information necessary for planning the next day's lessons.
One of the most well-established teaching practices -- assigning homework -- also proves itself effective and in line with Gagne's theory. It accomplishes the Ninth and last Event of Learning: enhancing students' retention and transfer. Homework encourages a student to independently recall and apply what he has learned. Other ways of accomplishing this goal include projects and quizzes, though the latter serves more as an assessment measure than as a tool for developing retention.