AMERICA'S EDUCATION HEADQUARTERS: Where resources provide opportunities.
Teaching Strategies
- Acting – Students act out part of a story or use puppets or other devices to demonstrate comprehension
- Collecting anonymous questions – Have students write anonymous questions on a card or sheet of paper and collect the questions during or at the end of the lesson. By submitting the questions anonymously, students may feel more comfortable asking what they really want to know.
- Cooperative learning – Students work together in groups to complete a task or series of tasks
- Cross disciplinary teaching – Teaching similar themes in different classes (Example: teaching the history of the bubonic plague in health class and teaching the health practices of the 1600’s in history)
- Daily looping of previously learned material – Using base knowledge or previously learned material to build off of for the current lesson (relating previous knowledge to current lesson)
- Directly teach vocabulary through short time segments – Expose students to vocabulary in different ways by using short blocks of time with varied strategies for exposure (listening, reading, speaking, and writing). The varied strategies and short periods of time will help hold the students’ attention.
- Double entry note taking - Students make a t chart in their notes. On one side they have the main ideas that they are learning and on the other side they have the details. At the bottom of the chart, students should summarize the key points of the chart.
- Exit tickets – To check for student comprehension, ask students to answer a quick question or provide feedback as they leave.
- Fluency building – Expose students to frequently used words in various activities and assessments to help learn the word.
- Graphic organizers – These provide students with a visual representation of the learned material. They help to improve comprehension, understand relationships, organize thoughts, work through word problems and condense “big chunks” of information into meaningful “pieces”.
- Hands-on, active participation – Allow students to become actively involved in a project or experiment.
- Jigsaw –The jigsaw is a cooperative learning strategy that can be used when information is easily chunked or divided into segments. In a jigsaw, students begin in “base groups” and then move into “expert groups” to learn different parts of a larger topic. In the base groups, each member is responsible for learning a specific piece of information. Members travel to the expert groups and discuss their segments and what they feel is most important. Finally, they return to their base groups to teach this information to the other members.
- Journal of senses – Using the senses (see, smell, hear, taste, and feel) students record their interpretation of what characters in a story might experience.
- K-W-L – A K-W-L chart shows what students know, what they want to know and what they learned. It can be used as a form of self monitoring or as a bigger part of a class discussion.
- Literature circles/book clubs/small group guided discussion – Students discuss books or other classroom material in small groups.
- Modeling/ teacher demonstration - The teacher demonstrates the activity first and then students try it independently.
- Oral sharing on a related topic - Students answer a prompt or set of questions and then share their prepared answers with the class.
- Paraphrasing – After a lesson, students summarize or retell each other the main points or what was learned through the lesson. This activity can be done in groups or as a class.
- Peer tutoring - Students work in pairs to help “tutor” one another on a particular subject.
- Pictures to demonstrate steps - Students use pictures to demonstrate the steps and provide a visual image of what to do. Students can either draw their own pictures or teachers can copy a set of pictures and have students cut and paste them in the proper order.
- Pictures to words – To help students learn vocabulary words, replace key words with pictures to serve as a clue to the vocabulary word. Gradually remove the pictures and only have the word.
- Prediction - Using context clues and other basic information (title, headline, illustration, etc) students predict (guess) what is going to happen next.
- Pre-teach vocabulary – Before beginning a new lesson or unit introduce and teach all the new vocabulary words so that students have already learned the words before beginning.
- Pre-teaching the organization of the text/ unit organizers – Teachers introduce students to various parts of the text that provide information and help students learn. Examples include captions that accompany pictures, headings, subheadings, side notes etc.
- Problem solving instruction – Before students work independently, review the steps to problem solving and other important components necessary to successful solve word problems. Important components of problem solving that may need to be clarified or reviewed include: understanding the question, decoding important information needed to solve the problem, eliminating extraneous information, developing a plan to solve the problem, solving the problem, labeling it, and checking to be sure the answer make sense.
- Reference skills – Teachers help students understand the resources available in through their textbooks. Items include the table of contents, glossary, index, etc.
- Relate reading to student’s experiences – Teachers can help students draw a connection from what they are learning about to real life experiences they have had. Students can work in groups to explore the reading and begin to relate it to "real life" and then share the experiences with the class.
- Response cards – These can be used in a variety of ways. One simple way is to have students make “yes” and “no” cards. The teacher asks a question and students hold up the correct yes or no card. It allows the teacher to quickly scan the room for understanding. Another way would have the teacher asking questions and students writing their responses on a card and then holding it up. This can also be used in groups.
- Retelling – Students will verbally tell another student what happened in a story or other classroom activity. If necessary, students can outline what key points they wish to talk about with their partner.
- Student developed glossary – Students record new vocabulary or key concepts in a notebook. These words and concepts can be presented by the teacher or they might be words or concepts the students encounter and define on their own. They can use their glossary as a study aide to show what new concepts they learned during the unit.
- Summarize lesson – At the conclusion of the lesson, have students write in their journal or on a sheet of paper (exit ticket) what they have learned during today’s lesson. Formats can be varied – paragraph form, numbered points, etc.
- Tactile or concrete manipulatives - In math, items like blocks, coins, clocks, shapes etc can be used as a hands on approach. In vocabulary, items such as alphabet letters can be used. To help with writing letters, students can use sand, finger paint, or they can trace letters to help learn how to properly form letters.
- Teaching Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes – This is especially beneficial in science classrooms but can be used in a variety of subjects. Teacher’s help students define common prefixes and suffixes that can be found in the subject. By defining the meaning of common prefixes and suffixes students will be better able to decode new words and understand the content matter.
