2009-2010 MTL Meetings
Research-Based Instructional Strategies
At each MTL meeting this year, we will model the use of “learning-focused strategies” which support thinking. This template can help with recording thoughts as you reflect on the strategies and their connections to classroom usage.
March MTL Meeting
Assessment: “The Gallery Walk”
What is it?
An enormous amount has been written in the last two decades about research on how people learn (see National Research Council's 1999 publication, How People Learn).
Research shows clearly that a person must be engaged to learn. People learn by actively participating in observing, speaking, writing, listening, thinking, drawing, and doing. Learning is enhanced when a person sees potential implications, applications, and benefits to others.
Students are more likely to learn and retain if we ask them to do more than learn information. Including activities where students can explore applications and implications will improve learning.
An instructional strategy that promotes active student participation and engagement is the gallery walk. The gallery walk is a cooperative learning strategy in which the instructor devises several questions/problems and posts each question/problem at a different table or at a different place on the walls (hence the name "gallery"). Students form as many groups as there are questions, and each group moves from question to question (hence the name "walk"). After writing the group's response to the first question, the group rotates to the next position, adding to what is already there. At the last question, it is the group's responsibility to summarize and report to the class.
Example as used today:
MTLs wrote questions, posted them on chart paper, and the whole group took a gallery walk with stickee dots to vote for their favorite effective question.
How might teachers use this strategy with their classes?
Leadership: “Jigsaw”
What is it?
According to “The Strategic Teacher” (p. 187), Jigsaw is one of the most well-known and most effective of all cooperative learning strategies. In the original version of Jigsaw (Aronson et al., 1978), students work together in heterogeneous Jigsaw teams to learn content that has been broken up into chunks. Each member of the Jigsaw team is assigned one of these chunks to master. Members from each Jigsaw team who have been assigned the same chunk form expert groups that help each other learn the material and develop a plan to teach it back to their original Jigsaw teams. Experts then return to their Jigsaw teams and take turns teaching their area of expertise to the members of the team.
Example as used today:
Tables were randomly assigned one of three key points from Fullan. Each table group became an “expert” for that key point, and developed a Catch Phrase to be shared with the other groups. Since each table was only assigned to read one section, the expert groups were responsible for teaching the material to the other groups through the use of their Catch Phrases.
How might teachers use this strategy with their classes?
Leadership: “Catch Phrase”
What is it?
A “Phrase” that is so short it will fit on a Sentence Strip. A thought that is so “Catchy” learners will retain the information for a long time. This strategy causes learners to internalize the information that they just acquired, and condense it in such a way that it can be shared, and remembered, with others.
Example as used today:
Expert groups read key points from Fullan’s book. Each group had to write one “Catch Phrase” that exemplified the big idea from the reading on a Sentence Strip.
How might teachers use this strategy with their classes?