Teaching Strategies

1. Integration of subject areas combines information and standards from multiple subject areas into lessons and units.  This helps students to make more connections when taking in information between and across subject areas.  It allows for a deeper understanding of lessons and information.
2. Physical activity incorporates any type of physical movement from getting up and walking across the room to turn in work to performing a dance or other type of activity.  Students in the 4th and 5th grades need some type of movement to allow for their physical needs.  We don’t want to keep them in their seats too long as it is not developmentally appropriate practice.
3. Small group discussion allows students to get into small groups to work on an activity or discuss information.  This helps provide for physical needs of getting up and moving around.  It also allows students to discuss information with their peers to helps make peer-to-peer connections and build on their own understandings.  Students are able to look at things from multiple points of view to help scaffold their understanding and come to a compromise.
4. Large group discussion allows students to discuss things with the teacher and the whole classroom.  This allows the teacher to introduce an idea or a topic to the classroom.  It also allows for students to discuss things through teacher guidance by asking questions that will hopefully take students where the teacher wants them to go in their discussion.
5. Journaling helps students get their thoughts down without worrying about what others are thinking.  This can be used to help students to prepare their thoughts before entering into a discussion.  It also can be used to help discover students’ understanding before going over a topic.  Journaling also helps find out where students’ understanding is after going over a topic so that  a teacher can find out if there is anything left to teach or reflect on how his or her instruction went.
6. Multiple intelligences is different ways that students are able to learn.  We need to understand that students learn better in different ways.  Therefore we need to provide different opportunities for learning including physical, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, visual, verbal, logical, and naturalistic.  We need to help our students learn through their strong abilities as well as help strengthen those areas that need improvement.
7. Debates is a discussion between and among two groups of students, each arguing their point of view on a topic. This type of activity allows for students to work in groups to scaffold their understanding.  It also may allow for students look at things from a different viewpoint as they may need to show support for an idea that they are against.  It allows students to look at things from new perspectives and see that there is not always one right answer!
8. Artwork can incorporate many different projects to model or display an idea.  Students can demonstrate their understanding of a topic through artwork.  There are endless ways to do so when incorporating lots of different materials.  Artwork can be done individually or in a group to help make better sense of something through the enriched discussion between peers.
9. Dramatizations are where students act out something that they have read or learned.  This can also vary depending on the understandings and the viewpoints of the students involved.  It’s a great small group activity allowing for discussion of information.
10. Hands-on experiences are experiences which directly involve students’ dealing with that information which is being taught.  Children are able to experience things by doing them.  This gives them the opportunity to learn by doing!  Students are more likely to learn something that relates to them.  They will remember their own experiences and what happened in those experiences to make their own connections for something that they may not know.
11. Technology might include smartboards, webquests, computers, movies, webcams, news, or any other form of technology.  Technology is a must in teaching in today’s society.  Technology is becoming more and more advanced, and there is widespread use.  Students love it, and it is necessary to learn and use in much of today’s workforce and everyday life.
12. Media can include books, magazines, newspapers, TV, computers, video games, and telephones.  Knowing that media use consumes a great deal of a student’s day, we need to consider incorporating these things into our own instructional activities. These things are what interest our students and will help make things more meaningful for them when learning.
13. Social justices are activities that incorporate an idea from today’s society, voicing an opnion, and trying to make your own voice heard by helping to change things.  In order to make what is learned more meaningful to our students, we need to use information that has to do with a subject that they care about.  We should incorporate rich discussion where each student’s voice is important.  Students should also see that they can make a difference.  They should be encouraged to help find ways to change things when there is opportunity to do so with an idea that they care about.  Students need this empowerment to see that they can make a difference in today’s society.
14. Music can include instruments, songs, and dances or movement to music.  Music helps define cultures and also serves as one of the multiple intelligences.  It is important for students to experience music in their education to understand cultural differences and similarities.  It also can help students to express themselves in a new way.
15. Manipulatives are any object that can be used by students to move around and help form their own visual to understand a problem.  Manipulatives are more useful when there are opportunities for students to select the type and amount to be used.  This allows for the varied thoughts and learning paths of students and groups of students in the classroom.
16. Modeling is when a teacher shows examples through his or her own actions or examples of work from students or something made up.  Modeling gives students an idea of what the teacher is or is not looking for in an assignment.  It is a great springboard for students in helping to create their own rubrics for assignments by creating guidelines for what would be ideal.  Modeling can also be used to give examples of inquisitiveness and how to act or react in situations.
17. Differentiated instruction includes involving different avenues for learning, understanding, and showing what a student has learned.  In providing for differentiated learning, we need to be aware of each student’s rate of learning as well as their interests and learning styles.  We need to understand that each student learns differently and at different rates.  We also need to understand that each child will value information differently.  Therefore, we may need to provide multiple experiences and activities as well as multiple strategies for our students to follow.
18. Differentiated assessment , or multiple ways to show one’s understanding, should also be incorporated.  We need to allow students to use their strengths to demonstrate their learning in the best way possible.  For example, some students may struggle in writing.  Therefore, these students should not be required to write an essay for every assessment that they are responsible for in the classroom.
19. Learning at different rates also needs to be provided for.  Students do not complete activities at the same rate, and they do not learn everything at the same time as their peers either.  We need to be able to adjust for the pace that our students learn and be allow for such differences.  We cannot expect a classroom of students to all be at the same level of understanding for all information all of the time.
20. Formative feedback, or providing feedback to help improve the students’ understanding at the point where it is realized is very important.  We need to include assignments or activities to help students show their understanding so that we can adjust instruction or activities to better provide for the needs of our students.  In this way, we can take care of misinterpretations as soon as possible.

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