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In this workshop you will examine the fundamentals of preparing to teach a lesson and review numerous instructional strategies that can be used as-is or modified to fit the style of a particular student or teacher.
This lesson will focus on additional whole group instructional strategies including:
Moving circles is a good way to get the students out of their seats and interacting with other students in a productive educational venue. To implement this strategy, the teacher creates two concentric rings of students that are facing each other. The teacher then asks a question, allows the students time to think and then determines if the inside ring is going to explain the answer to the outside ring, or vice-versa. When a student from one ring gives an answer to the corresponding student in the other ring, the receiving student has two choices. The receiving student can either accept a correct answer or modify the answer so that it is more correct. Students in the receiving ring are then asked to re-explain the answer to their partner in the other ring. If the explanations are correct, the teacher allows one or both of the rings to move a certain number of steps in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction so that the students are now facing a new partner. The teacher is then free to provide a new stimulus and repeat the process. A variation on this procedure is to allow an outside partner to serve as a “phone a friend” or “help line” in the event that the original student is unable to answer the question. Moving circles can also be used during the first days of school to allow the students an opportunity to get to know each other and for the teacher to establish a student-centered classroom format.
Moving circles is a fun activity that engages the students and is a good ice-breaker, but the strategy works best if behavioral rules have been put in place.
Another fun way to build student involvement and repetition into a lesson is to employ the mimic or echo strategy. In this technique, the teacher asks the students to create a response in their own words to a curricular topic or another student’s comment. In a sense, the students are trying to mimic a thought or concept that was previously presented. By having the students rework the event in their own words, it requires the students to remain current with the class. It also provides useful repetition. Likewise, students are required to internalize the learning before they can create a thoughtful mimic response. Additionally, the teacher can call upon several students to mimic an important concept or summarize a lesson. In so doing, repetition is built into the lesson in a manner that is fun and may utilize a vernacular that the students understand and enjoy.
Research and theory about how students learn supports the use of role playing as an instructional strategy. Research indicates that play and drama contribute to learning and cognitive development in a number of ways. For instance, they provide safe opportunities for students to practice new skills. As these skills are mastered, students integrate them into other task-oriented sequences.
Role playing also personalizes instruction and allows students to be creative while learning. Students “become” the role that they are playing and thereby incorporate that persona into their working psychology. Teachers can utilize this strategy to place students in roles that allow them to grow. For instance, a student may become a doctor, lawyer, or engineer in the context of determining a solution to a problem. While role playing, the students can explore and create topics that extend beyond their real life experiences. Further, role playing provides a setting for students to get to know each other better and perhaps see another side of someone they have known for a while. It allows students the opportunity to display hidden talents to their friends and teacher.
Older students may use drama as a means of identifying, understanding, and perhaps solving the social problems that plague teenagers. Role playing in older students is also beneficial in allowing them to internalize the struggles and victories of notable historical figures.
To make role playing successful, the teacher must be certain to frame the activity correctly and provide the necessary boundaries and training.
Brainstorming is an interactive method of getting the students to generate a lot of ideas about a particular subject. Brainstorming is especially helpful in creating potential solutions during problem solving activities. In this process, students are required to develop an idea, an answer, or a critique based on a stimulus provided by the teacher. The type of student responses may vary according to the lesson. Typically the responses are oral, but they can also be written or utilize other modalities.
Organizing for a brainstorming activity is very important. There are several thoughts to consider. For example, how long the activity should continue. Most teachers allow students to provide responses until they cannot think of any new ones. However, students often generate their most creative and thoughtful answers after the silence that accompanies a moment of thoughtfulness. The moment of thoughtfulness usually occurs after the students have exhausted their inventory of quick or funny answers.
Another consideration is whether there is a right or correct response. Generally it is a good idea for the teacher to list all of the students’ responses regardless of correctness. The degree of correctness or appropriateness can be determined later so as not to slow down the momentum of the brainstorming activity. Plus, a review of responses can be used to promote students’ decision-making skills.
What about class control? Sometimes a class needs energizing so the teacher might allow for more raucous student behavior. However, at other times the desired student decorum may suggest a more conservative approach. It is difficult for the teacher to record each response if the students are shouting them in random order. It is more efficient to call on students before they are allowed to respond. This also gives the less aggressive students an opportunity to speak. A modification of this strategy is to have the students write as many responses as they can think of in two minutes. They can then use their notes as their answers are given orally.
Do not close the activity at the first “dry spell” of student answers. Even when students appear to have run out of answers, allow them extra time to think. Some of the best responses occur in a flurry after a brief pause.
Chunking is a method that teachers use to break assignments into smaller units that are more easily accomplished by the students. Chunking necessitates adding more specific directions to guide the students through each component of the assignment. The students should be able to complete a chunked assignment with minimal frustrations. This technique is one way to build student independence from the teacher. It is also very helpful for students who typically struggle with completing activities in a reasonable amount of time due to academic constraints. Chunking increases the amount of time that students will need to complete an activity. It also increases the retention of the students.
It is a good idea to tap into the resources of the local community. Inviting local citizens into the school to share their experiences is motivating and informative for the students. Often guest speakers provide real time information on the latest trends and even career possibilities.
There are several items that a teacher should account for when inviting a guest speaker into their classroom. Most importantly, the teacher will need to consider whether the speaker will be able to communicate effectively on a curricular topic at the age/developmental level of the students in the class. If there is any uncertainty, then it is probably not the best option. However, if the guest speaker can rise to the task, then the teacher should be sure to check with the building administration to seek approval for this speaker. Be prepared to properly welcome the guest, especially if you are normally with a class during the projected time of the guest’s arrival. This welcoming should at the very least include a visitors’ pass, coffee or other refreshment, and an escort to their destination. It is best to have a member of the administrative team welcome the guest to show how much you appreciate their time.
When preparing for the speaker’s arrival, check whether there any special requirements that will be needed by the guest, such as an overhead projector. Next, think about whether there will need to be any special room arrangements, especially if two or more classes are teaming together. What about using the assembly area?
The students will need to be prepared as well. Behavioral standards should be reviewed and enforced. This is especially important if more than one class is involved. The students will also need to be instructionally prepared. For instance, you can identify the speaker’s topic and its location in the sequence of curricular events. The wise teacher also prepares a worksheet of questions based on the presentation and instructs the students to take notes during the session. It may also be helpful to prompt the students ahead of time with sample questions to ask the speaker to clarify or enrich curricular points.
Finally, think about how you can reward the speaker. Typically speakers will volunteer their time, but you can easily show your appreciation by sending a note or card of thanks from the class with signatures from all of the students.
Guest speakers are a prized resource and should be treated as royalty. Note that a well behaved and involved class is valued by the speaker. Speakers tend not to return to an unruly or unprepared class. They may also discuss this situation in the community.
Laboratory activities meet lesson objectives in a classroom setting with unique or specialized furniture and equipment. The typical laboratory settings are science facilities, family and consumer science rooms, theaters, gymnasiums, and computer labs. Laboratory experiences are usually designed to affirm skills and content learned by means not usually available in a more typical classroom setting. For instance, students may learn how to bake a cake by reading about it in a textbook and then actually bake a cake in the specially designed kitchen classroom. Students study Newton’s Laws of Motion and then understand them after experiencing them in a laboratory simulation. The use of laboratory activities is a valuable tool for teachers that invites hands-on, minds-on active student learning.
The law is clear: teachers are responsible for the health and safety of the students while they are in their class. Lawsuits claiming teacher negligence and incompetence that caused or contributed to a student’s injury while in class are difficult for a teacher to defend.
However, laboratory activities also pose potential problems. Special consideration must be given to these precautions before any teacher attempts a lab activity. The foremost caveat is student safety. Laboratory activities, by nature, utilize specialized equipment, materials, and even dangerous chemicals. In all cases, safety must be the first concern for the teacher. You should create a written safety test that covers each piece of specialized equipment, the proper use and storage of chemicals, any potentially hazardous procedures, and describes the consequences of disruptive behavior in the lab. This exercise prepares the students for the laboratory experience and sets a serious and cautious tone for the activity.
Laboratory activities sometimes require a large amount of teacher preparation and clean-up. The time invested before and after the activity should be justified by the number of opportunities it presents for learning. Although laboratory experiences create and affirm student understanding in ways that a normal classroom cannot, they consume precious class time. It is also important for the teacher to determine the evaluation procedure for the activity. Some questions to consider include:
Given all these considerations, you should not shy away from laboratory activities, but should proceed with precaution when lesson planning. Laboratory activities are special events. They push student thinking to a new level and should remain a part of the teacher’s toolkit. In fact, some classes absolutely cannot be taught without laboratory reinforcement.
Reciprocal teaching is a strategy for teaching reading. It engages students with a variety of backgrounds, talents, and interests and helps them become independent readers and thinkers. In this technique, the students and teacher discuss a written passage while employing four comprehension strategies that are characteristic of proficient readers: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. The overall goal is to enable students to become autonomous learners through the mastery of these strategies.
To implement reciprocal teaching, the teacher must provide instruction and practice time for each strategy.
All four strategies create awareness within the reader that prepares the student for active reading.
Teaching the four reading comprehension strategies requires the teacher to transition from leader to facilitator. The teacher must first describe and model the four strategies and then arrange for the students to engage in a guided practice. The students can then practice each strategy on a portion of a new passage. This strategy can be modified in numerous ways as long as the students become proficient in using the four comprehension strategies.
SQ3R is an acronym for a reading technique that requires the students to actively interact with the text. SQ3R represents: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review.
When students survey a reading passage, they are skimming to develop an overview of the material. Students typically get meaning from skimming the chapter title, introduction, headings, bold-faced or italicized print, graphics and illustrations, and summary or conclusion. Students then develop questions that identify what they expect to learn based on their survey of the passage. During the reading part, the students are taking notes, visualizing the author’s intent, and analyzing the graphics. After reading, the students recite or discuss the text by recalling specific concepts that were central to the theme. Discussing the passage allows the students to interact with and learn from each other. In the final step, students review the passage by using the information in a manner that indicates understanding. This does not mean simply repeating the text. Rather, students are asked to paraphrase, summarize, and/or create a graphic organizer to provide evidence of understanding.
SQ4R adds “Relate” between “Read” and “Recite”. When the students relate, they analyze what they read and connect it with something they already know. Affixing this new knowledge to their prior understanding increases the likelihood that the information will be retained by the students.
One of the best ways to teach vocabulary is to post a word wall of vocabulary words where all of the students can see them clearly. Word walls are an easy reference point for students. They also help the students to sight-recognize and to spell important words correctly. The vocabulary words for a unit of study can be generated from the context of the lesson or presented as a whole at the beginning of the unit. Teachers who generate the vocabulary words from the context of the lesson build in action and interest as they add words to the wall throughout the unit of study. Furthermore, allowing students to add words to the wall increases their motivation. Conversely, teachers that post all of the important words for a given unit at the beginning of the unit give extra time for the students to see and practice all of the words. The effect of the word wall is heightened when teachers continually use and reference words from the wall. It is a good idea to use a large font when creating words for the word wall.
Sticky notes have multiple uses in the classroom. They are especially helpful when students want to take notes from a text, but are not allowed to write in the book. The student can write important facts on the sticky and place it in the appropriate location in the text for future reference.
Stickies can also be used to spontaneously create a bar graph. Each student is given a sticky and instructed to place it in the appropriate column as a measure of something. For instance, students can create a whole-class bar graph of their favorite pet by allowing a sticky to represent their vote. The students can place and align the stickies so that each sticky increases the length of the bar that represents their choice for favorite pet. Once every student has placed a sticky, the results will be clear and evident. This is a fun and easy way to promote student engagement.
Further, students can use stickies to write notes or as part of a brainstorming activity where students write their ideas on a sticky and then arrange them in a concept map. Students can even use a pile of stickies to create a flip chart to add movement to a process or a cartoon.
Allowing students to rework problems or add to curricular concepts while at the front board is a popular event for the students. In most cases, students are happy to get out of their seat and share their ideas with the other students by referencing their board work. This is also an easy method for the teacher to use to build student engagement.
There are several ways to implement this strategy. The easiest method is to allow students to go to the board in a manageable fashion to work problems from the text or worksheet. While selected students are working problems on the board, the remainder of the class should be working the same problems at their desks. Whenever the students are finished, they explain their thinking and how they arrived at their answers. This is also a metacognitive extension of the activity. In another example, the teacher lists several facts or historical dates on the board and asks students to continue, synthesize, or predict the next step that links the items listed. Other students may be allowed to piggyback on another student’s response to continue the chain of thinking.
Review activities are very popular with students. They can also be very instructionally productive if they are organized and framed correctly. In the simplest sense, the teacher constructs activities that allow the students to practice and reinforce what they have learned from previous lessons. Creating modified versions of Jeopardy, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Concentration, and Flash Cards are just a few examples of fun review activities. It is important that the teacher re-establish behavioral boundaries prior to beginning the activities. Also, the teacher should try to refer to them as “review activities” rather than calling them “games” which gives the wrong impression for some students.
Field trips provide experiences and insights for the students that cannot be duplicated in the classroom and link classroom instruction with the real world. They also give students an opportunity to investigate career options.
While field trips are often valued very highly by students, they require a lot of planning and preparation for the teacher. The objective(s) of the trip must align with the curriculum and you should be able to feasibly accomplish them within the time frame that is available. Also, the timing and frequency of field trips must not disrupt the overall learning environment of the class or school. The teacher should visit the site prior to any field trip, and prepare instructional materials specific to that location for the students. The teacher will also need to design an alternate learning experience for any of the students that are unable to make the trip.
In most schools, teachers are responsible for obtaining written parental permission before allowing a student to participate in the field trip. It is also a very good idea to find chaperones to accompany the students. Chaperones should be parents, guardians, or school teachers/administrators. It is generally frowned upon to bring chaperones that do not already have a relationship with the school or the students. Having one chaperone for every 15 elementary, or 20 secondary students is a good ratio, though, depending upon the nature of the students, more chaperones may be needed. It is the teacher’s responsibility to set behavioral expectations for the students and chaperones.
For overnight field trips, more chaperones will be needed to provide a safe experience for all students. The goal should be a ratio of one teacher for every five students of the same sex. Room assignments and acceptable evening activities should be cleared with the school administration and shared with the students, parents, and chaperones ahead of time. Teachers and/or chaperones should plan to do room checks at curfew and stay on “roaming duty” until the students are settled for the night. Taping the door of the students is an old trick that identifies if the door has been opened after curfew. Teachers will need to be rigorous about checking for any inappropriate activities because the students are their responsibility and are under their watch.
For all field trips, teachers should provide the school administration with a complete listing of the students and chaperones, their phone numbers, a complete itinerary, contact information for each location, and a plan to dispense any medication if needed. It is also important to review school or system-wide emergency procedures before any field trips, such as what to do if a child becomes separated from the group.
On the day of the field trip, it is best to ride with the students to the site. If possible, a teacher from the school should ride on each bus that is used. Teachers in your school will usually appreciate it if you send a roster of all the students that are attending the field trip to them for attendance purposes and if you talk to these teachers about having the students make up any classwork that they will miss during the trip.
It is very important for teachers to be extremely prepared before going on field trips.