INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES
ABC Brainstorm
Have students list all the letters of the alphabet down a sheet of paper (or use a printed ABC Brainstorm sheet), leaving room beside each letter to write out the rest of a word of phrase. Let the students work individually at first, thinking of as many words as they can that could be associated with the topic you identify. The topic should be big and general enough that students can actually think of a lot of possible terms. EXAMPLE: If the topic were World War II, students might list Allies, Bombers, Concentration Camps, Dachau, Europe, French Resistance, Germany, Hitler, Italy, Japan, etc.
Anticipation Guide
Purposes: To set purposes for reading texts; to activate prior knowledge and help make connections with the text.
Procedures: (1) Analyze material to be read. Select major ideas with which students will interact; (2) Write the ideas in short, clear declarative statements; (3) Put statements in a format that will elicit anticipation and prediction; (4) Discuss student’s anticipations and predictions before they read the text; and (5) Have students read the text to confirm or disconfirm their original responses. After reading, have students revisit their predictions and modify, if necessary.
EXAMPLE
Agree Disagree Agree Disagree
______1. Bats use their ears to help them ______see at night.
______2. The mudskipper is a fish that ______
can climb a tree.
Carousel Brainstorming
Whether activating background knowledge or checking understanding after studying a topic, a carousel brainstorm allows you to have students pull out and think about what they know about subtopics within a larger topic. Begin by putting students in groups of three of four. Give each group a sheet of newsprint/chart paper. Each group’s sheet has a different subtopic written on it. One student serves as the recorder and has a particular color of magic marker. Explain that the students will have a short time (say, 30 seconds) to write down on their chart paper all the terms they can think of that they associate with their topic. Explain upfront that you will then have them pass their sheet over to the next group, and a new topic will be passed to them. Make it clear which direction you’ll have them pass the sheets so that it is orderly AND so that each group will receive each of the subtopic sheets. At the end of the thirty seconds, tell them to cap their marks, remind them to keep their, markers, but have them pass their sheets to the next group according to the pre-determined path for passing. After three or four passings, you will probably want to extend the writing time to forty seconds, then forty-five seconds, and perhaps up to a minute, because all the easy ideas will have been taken by previous groups, and the students will need more time to talk about and think of other terms to be added to the brainstorm list. Keep having students brainstorm, write, and pass until each group has had a chance to add ideas to each of the subtopic sheets. Let them pass it the final time to the group who had each sheet first.
Cause and Effect Graphic Structure
The Cause and Effect Graphic Structure is a visual representation of what happened and why. Using a boxed graphic organizer, student begin with the first box, write what happened and why. In the second box they tell what happened (and why) as a result of the events of the first box. This continues throughout the reading to show the relationship of the various events.
Chunking the Text
Chunking the Text provides students with the ability to break the text into shorter, more manageable units. This strategy enables students to read with more independence while reinforcing text organization skills and increasing text opportunities since students are reading shorter pieces and reflecting upon the content. Chunking the text begins with teacher modeling instruction in determining appropriate “chunking” indicators (ex. transition words, paragraphing) and leads to students’ independently chunking the text. Depending on the text (ex. genre, length, structure, and type) determine how a text should be chunked.
Paragraphs, Stanza, Scene, Section, Chapter, Page, Line Sentence Segments,
Problems (in math and science)
Circle of Knowledge
Clock Buddies
Clock Buddies is meant to be a quick and easy way to create pairs for partnered activities while avoiding the problem of kids always having the SAME partners. It begins with a clock face, with slots for names extending from each hour on the dial. The basic idea is that each student has his or her own copy of a Clock Buddies sheet, with the names of twelve classmates on each hour’s slot. Each of those other students, in turn, has this student’s name in the matching hour slot on each of their clock sheets. When the teacher needs to quickly pair up students without it always being the same partners every time, she/he can say to the class: “Get with your 4 o’clock buddy.” Each student will pull out his or her clock buddies sheet, look at the 4 o’clock slot, and then join the partner indicated.
Coding the Text
Purpose: To make connections while reading; to actively engage in reading.
Procedures: Using a read-aloud and thinking aloud, model for the students examples of making connections. These may include text-self, text-text, or text-world connections; (2) While reading aloud, demonstrate how to code a section of text that elicits a connection by using sticky note, a code (T-S=text-self, T-T-text-text, T-W= text-world), and a few words to describe the connection; (3) Have the students work in small groups to read a short text and code the text. Have them share their ideas with the class; and (4) Encourage the students to code the text using sticky notes to record their ideas and use these as a basis of small and large group discussions.
Column Notes
The column notes format lends itself to many variations. It may be that students would use it as a note-taking guide for their textbook reading; if so, then main ideas or headings would be listed in the left column, and details or explanations for each would be written in the right column. Alternatively, you might have students reading for cause and effect; if so, then causes can be listed in the left column and the effects in the right column. Students might list key vocabulary in the left column and definitions, examples, or sentences in the right. It may be as simple as reworking your typical question worksheets so that questions are on the left and answers are put on the right.
Comparison-Contrast Charts
Comparison-Contrast Charts are useful for looking a two quantities and determining in what ways they are similar and in what ways they are different. They work best when we have students, not teachers, determining what the relevant similarities and differences are between two or three concepts, people, places, or ideas.
Concept of Definition Map
The idea is that it is not enough to know how a word is defined in a dictionary sense. Consider what happens with the following word that many ninth graders reading To Kill a Mockingbird may not have encountered before:
Ecclesiastical
Definition: “of or related to a church”
Example of Appropriate Use in a Sentence: The minister’s ecclesiastical robes danced in echo to his wild gestures from the pulpit.
Example of Sentence Written by a Student: Church members are reminded to park in the ecclesiastical parking lot, rather than in the shopping center across the street.
Besides the fact that “ecclesiastical” is probably not central to students’ understanding of the themes of To Kill a Mockingbird, it remains that the definition they were given is too one-dimensional. They have not experienced its richness of meaning, nor the shades of meaning that help us distinguish words more precisely from one another. The best way for students to comprehend a new vocabulary term is for them to experience it. The concept of a definition map helps broaden their experience of new words.
Concept of Definition Maps considers words in light of three properties or attributes:
· category – What is it?
· properties – What is it like?
· illustrations – What are some examples?
Corners
Directed Reading and Thinking Activity (DR-TA)
After allowing students to skim the text, make some predictions about its meaning, main ideas/concepts or other information. Review the title – ask for a prediction and explanation; continue through headings, graphs, maps, even pull out quotes to activate schema and provide an orientation to the text. Never refute any predictions that students make; to do so is comparable to pulling the rug out from under them. For informational text, analyze the material for its main and subordinate concepts. For narrative text, determine the key elements of the story: the setting and the events in the plot. Use questions such as the following: What do you think a story/reading with this title might be about?; What do you expect will happen?; Why do you expect this to happen?; Could it happen in any other way?; and, Which predictions do you agree/disagree with and why?
Discussion Web
Purposes: To provide a structure for conversing about a topic; to provide opportunities for critical thinking.
Procedures: (1) After reading a text, think of a two-sided question supported by the text. Write the question in the middle of the discussion web; (2) Have students work in groups to find support in the text for the pro and con positions about the question; (3) Encourage the students to discuss the question and answers, and then come to a consensus, as a group, in pairs, or individually. Students will justify their thinking; (4) Write the conclusion at the bottom of the web; (5) Write the reasoning students used to come to their conclusion in the space provided; and (6) Discuss the conclusions and reasoning as a whole class.
Exit Slips or Cards
Exit Slips are quick ways to invite student response after learning. Exit slips are completed at the end of a class period and are collected by the teacher as students leave the room. Generally, exit slips are anonymous with every student being required to turn one in prior to exiting the classroom. Exit Slips provide quick feedback to the teacher about how students understood the lesson and/or what concepts might need further exploration in future lessons. Exit Slips encourage students to reflect upon the lesson while providing quick feedback. Allow students to provide open feedback or have them use a stem such as the following: Today I learned; I don’t understand; I would like to learn more about; I need help with; A question I have is; Please explain more about; The most important thing I learned today is; Three things I learned today are; The thing that surprised me today was; I am still confused about; I wish; or The best part of class today was.
Express Writing
Express Writing is a short, focused writing in response to a specific prompt. As a pre-reading strategy, express writing helps to activate students’ prior knowledge and provides a starting point for a class discussion or new lesson. Express writing serves as a connection to new concepts or ideas required for student learning.
Facts in Five
After completing a reading assignment, students should be asked to recall five facts about their reading. The students may respond on index cards or a graphic organizer.
Five Word Prediction
Purposes: To encourage students to make predictions about text; activate prior knowledge; set purposes for reading; introduce new vocabulary.
Procedures: (1) Select five key vocabulary words from the text that students are about to read; (2) List the words in order on the board; (3) Clarify the meaning of any unfamiliar words; (4) Ask students to write a paragraph predicting the theme of the lesson using all of the words in the paragraph; (5) Allow volunteers to share their predictions; and (6) After completing the lesson, ask the students to use the same words to write a summary paragraph.
Flag Words
Flag Words provide students with clues to identifying text patterns that will enhance their comprehension. Select a reading selection that uses a specific organizational pattern. Create a list of common Flag Words for this organizational pattern. Photocopy the selection, so students will be able to write on the text. Explain to the class that the author may use words to signal or flag the use of a particular organization. Have students highlight or mark Flag Words in the passage and make annotations in the margins. Ask students to share the Flag Words they identified and discuss their meaning in the passage.
Frame of Reference
Frayer Model
The Frayer Model is used as a way to categorize words. Students analyze a word’s attributes by choosing examples and non-examples of the concept.
GIST (Generating Interactions between Schemata and Text)
This strategy assists students with focusing on the main idea of the passage. Through class and group discussion, students have the opportunity to learn how others think as they state their ideas and reasons. Assign students a short passage to read. After reading have the students write one statement that reveals the “gist” or main idea of the selection. Discuss the reading and gist statements guiding students with questions such as “Is the passage mainly about a person, place, thin, or idea?” Ask students if they agree. If not, have students explain what they feel was most important. After discussion, have students write a one sentence gist statement summarizing what the class decided was the main idea.