Deductive vs. Inductive

Since the start of the school year I have used both deductive and inductive instruction. My school is on a block schedule so each of my classes last about 90 minutes. I quickly found out that I must use both of these instructional strategies in every class. I tried to use direct instruction for most of the class period and it was absolutely killed me. 15 or 20 minutes of direct instruction is the maximum that I can do for a few reasons. First, the kids begin to lose focus after about 12-15 minutes. I take notes everyday on when my students begin to lose focus and it is consistently around the same that they become restless. If I am really boring them, it takes about 10 minutes. I constantly have to think of ideas to keep them engaged and excited about the material that they are being taught. This has helped me come to the conclusion that sometimes I am going to have bad days.
Inductive instruction has helped me supplement my direct instruction. I use this instruction to connect the kids to the material that we’re learning. I ask questions about how the material relates to their life so they can feel some connection to the material. I do this by asking questions that extract their prior knowledge of certain material. For example, we are reading the autobiography of Dick Gregory, which tells the story of a black male that had to overcome incredible odds to attend college and become one of the most influential civil rights activists in the 1960s. In conclusion, I know I will have to use both of these strategies to make my lessons interesting for my students