Instructional Strategies
Author Says, I Say
This strategy is used to help students with reading comprehension. The teacher will start off by giving the students a question. Using the reading the students will have to find evidence to answer the questions and also their prior knowledge on the subject. To see a more extended description of how this strategy is used please visit, WEAC.
Image from: WEAC K-W-L Chart
K- Know
W-Want to know L- Learned A KWL Chart is a great strategy for both students and teachers to keep track of what learning is taking place. This is a great strategy that can be used throughout an entire lesson from beginning to end as students just ass to it as they go. The students from the beginning will write what they already know in the K column, when questions arise during the lesson they can add it to the W column as something they want to know more about and when the lesson is complete they can fill in the L column with what they have learned. West Virgina Education does a great job of explaining more about KWL Charts and providing handouts. Image from: WikiSpace Text Rendering
This is a great strategy for students to use while they are reading. The students can take notes on the reading with sticky notes and leave them next to where they found it in the reading so they can find the connection again. This helps makes sure that they students are being interactive with the reading and can also help with reading comprehension.
Image from: Squidoo Think-Pair-Share
This strategy is used to help students build their thinking of a topic. After the teacher purposes a question the students are given time to think about it on their own and then after pair with someone around then to have a conversations about it. After pairs they are able to have a conversation in a larger group. This could be used in a lot of different subjects and scenarios.
Image from: Learning is Growing Exit Cards
Exit cards are a great strategy to use as a transition from subject to subject, or at the end of the day. This helps the students reflect on what they concepts were learned during the lesson. Teachers are able to use this to see what misconceptions are still out there about the material and to track the understanding of their students.
Image from: TIS Elementary Technology |
Quick Write
This strategy is great to get students initial reactions about a topic or subject. Most quick writes are limited in time (3-7 minutes) and about a specific topic. There is normally no structure to the writing so students can write down as much as they know about the topic or subject. They then can share it with other students around them when finished. This strategy makes for a really good formative assessment.
Image from: Squidoo Mix-Freeze-Share
This strategy gets students up and moving around so that they are sharing ideas with other classmates. It starts with the students out of their seats moving around the classroom and the teacher calls out "FREEZE;" at that moment the students with pair with someone around them. They will talk to one another about the concept or idea that the teacher provides.
Image from: Weebly Foldables
This strategy is an interactive way for students to make a fun study tool. It allows students to be as creative as they want with the information and organize it in a way that makes sense to them. This is a great alternative to replace any worksheet in any subject.
Image from: Wikispace R.A.F.T
R.A.F.T is a great strategy for students to find their voice in writing and also improve their creativity. It also helps students see different perspectives in a certain topic. This strategy can be used in many subjects as it has different parts to it. The content information can be either student led or teacher led. This is what the acronym stands for: R: the role of the writer, who are they? A: the audience, who are they addressing? F: the format of the writing. T: the topic, what are they writing about? For more on this strategy please visit, Read Write Think.
Image from: River Spring Charter School Alphabet Brainstorming
This is a great strategy for teachers to use before teaching a subject. It will help the teacher understand the prerequisite knowledge the students have. The students will be given a subject and next to each letter of the alphabet they will write a word that comes to mind that is related to the subject. Reading Quest does a great job of explaining this strategy more in depth.
Image from: Reading Quest 4 Corners
This strategy can be used in a lot of different situations within the classroom. It can be used for test review when the students are given multiple choice answers. It also can be used in spelling or team related games. This would also be an interesting way for discussions or debates to happen within the classroom.
Image from: Balanced Literacy |
Line Up Review
This strategy can be used to get students up and out of their seats to get their brains working. In the middle of the classroom the students will line up in two lines and face each other. The teacher provides the topic or subject for discussion and they carry on a conversation with the student across from them. The teacher than can choose how it will be mixed up by shifting one of the lines so many people to the right or left. This can be used in so many different ways including test review, debates, or discussing readings.
Image from: UTEP Vocabulary Word Map
This strategy enhance vocabulary so that students can retain the information more efficiently. Writing down the definition of the word is not enough for students to fully understand the word. With the vocabulary word map the students will have the opportunity to expand on the word. The vocabulary word is placed in the middle, around the word there is a definition in the students own words; the other three spots can be used a number of different ways, some examples: draw a picture of the word, write a sentence using the word, synonymy, and antonyms.This makes it easy for students to keep all their vocabulary words together and also share with other students.
Image from: Frayer Model Example Gradual Release
This strategy is used to transfer the responsibility of learning from teacher to student. This is a gradual process that can happen in a short amount of time within one lesson or it can take longer depending on the lesson. This helps students become more responsible within the classroom as an individual and with groups. The teacher starts out with a focused lesson moving to a guided instruction that the classroom will do together with the teacher. The students will than collaborate together to accomplish the task and eventually the students will be independent. Image from: ASCD Write Around
The strategy is great for students to use in groups. When doing a write around students are able to reflect on what was read or talked about while responding to others opinions. Students will all get out a piece of paper and write a short response to a piece that they have read. After some time the students will rotate their papers in a certain direction so they end up with the persons paper next to them. They will read the response of the other student and they are to respond to what their opinions are. This is done until the student receives their own paper back. This can be done in a number of different ways, and in different subjects. To see this strategy in action within a classroom please visit MathyCathy Blog to see how she uses this to get writing into her math lessons.
Image from: MathyCathy |