Learning Focused Schools Strategies II
Brainstorm and Categorize
This strategy of brainstorming enhances typical brainstoring by creating categories of ideas. After brainstorming as many ideas as possible, students decide on main categories and sort the ideas into those categories. The categories and ideas should be charted and displayed during the lesson. Students should be encouraged to revise and add to the chart.
Steps for starting
1. Introduce a new topic
2. Students brainstorm what they already know about a topic. (Possibly with sticky notes)
3. Help students come up with categories for information.
4. After categories are listed (on board or chart paper), put ideas under the appropriate categories.
5. Diagram what has been learned.
Word Splash
This is a vocabulary lesson that develops the skill building relationships between words and key concepts. It will help students bridge their knowledge of word meanings and the many uses for the meanings. The important aspect of a word splash is that students are presented with words they re familiar with and have them associate the words with topics they are not yet familiar. This involves “predicting” on the part of the studentabout the relationship between the meaning of a word and and the tpic. When learning about a new topic, students will be looking to see if their predictions are accurate and make revisions when necessary.
Steps for Word Splash:
1. Choose vocab words from a topic that students are familiar with.
2. Choose a new topic
3. Display the selected words in random order
4. Demonstrate how to brainstorm and generate possible relationships between vocal words and topic.
5. Write the prediction in a sentence
6. Students make predictions about all words listed
7. While reading and learning – Revise.
8. Have a discussion (or in pairs) about the staements and make corrections.
KWL
The KWL strategy helps students connect information they already know, information they want to know, and new information they are learning about a topic. The KWL can be used to brainstorm prior knowledge, preview new information and vocabulary, and recall new information after learning it. This strategy is effective as an information activating strategy because it gives students the ability to become aware of prior knowledge on a topic, and as a focusing strategy because the teacher helps the students find a purpose in their reading.
1. Either on the board or on a paper, three columns are created ( Know – Want to Know – Learned).
2. Teacher introduces a topic. Students brainstorm what they know or think they know. This is listed in column #1.
3. Students then brainstorm interesting questions about what they want to know about the topic after the KNOW brainstorming.
4. Students read a selection about the topic. Their reading has purpose because they are now attempting to discover the answers to their own questions.
5. After reading the selections, students write what they have learned and whether they learned the answers to their questions in the third column.
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