Instructional+Strategies+Chart

We've studied lots of different instructional strategies in class. Here is an overview chart of all of them in one place. Please pick one and fill it in or add to something that's already filled in. Hopefully, if everyone adds information for one or two, we'll have a complete list that you can easily access over practicum and beyond.

Here's the format:

• Brief description: • Benefits: • Challenges: • Ideas for how and when to use it (brief!):
 * 1) . **Instructional Strategy:** (Name)

**1. Instructional Strategy**: Placemat (Mandy Campbell) -Allows students to get down their own ideas without being influenced by other classmates -Allows students to share ideas and see patterns and common thoughts, as well as unique and new perspectives that others may not have thought of -Makes students accountable because they have their own section they have to fill in  -Some students may not participate as much as they could or should -All students may have the same points, so may not expand their point of views **• Ideas for how and when to use it (brief!):** Placemat is a useful tool for drawing out students’ ideas, using as a tool to gauge students previous knowledge on a topic, and to show what students have learned in a unit. The teacher can pose a question for the students to focus on.
 * • Brief description ** Students are placed into groups, generally of 4 but can be any number, and they are given a blank piece of paper in which they draw a circle in the middle, and split the rest of the page into 4 or however many students are in the group. Students are then given a topic of focus to write about, and are given an allotted amount of time to individually and silently respond in their own quadrant. After the time is up, the students in the groups discuss what they wrote in their own section and then combine the best/ similar ideas in the centre of the page. Optionally, each group can then share with the class what they wrote in the centre of the page (combined ideas).:
 * • Benefits: **
 * • Challenges: **

2. **Instructional Strategy:** 4 Corners (Amanda Ackerman)

and place one response in each corner of the classroom.Give students at least 10 seconds to think on their own ("think time"). Ask students to choose the corner with the response that best represents their point of view. Ask students to pair with a partner in their corner and share with their partner the reasons behind their decision. Ask each group to come to consensus and select one person to share the group's reasoning and decision with the whole class or if there is time ask individual students why they made their decision. • **Benefits**: Students get to have a voice, an opinion, think about a topic in a new way. Many students find it safer or easier to enter into a discussion with a classmate, rather than with a large group. It is important for students to learn that, by listening to different point of views, they can build on the ideas of others Please add to this if I have left anything out!
 * Brief description**: Present a statement or issue, or pose a question to the class. Provide four alternate responses (strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree),
 * • Challenges**:Student can choose based on what they think the teacher expects, they may choose what their friends choose.
 * • Ideas for how and when to use it** (brief!): Use to see how students feel & think about topics. It can be use for controversial topics in various courses.


 * 3. Instructional Strategy: Think-Pair-share (Kevin Parkin) **

**• Brief description:** Students are given a topic, or question to consider. Silently to themselves they decide their thoughts and ideas on the topic. This may be done in a few minutes. Then in partners, they share their info with eachother and have a diologue about what they discovered. This can take 5-10 minutes based on the topic. Once this has been done, each pair may share something they discovered from the discussion with the class.

**• Benefits:** The initial "think" phase allows students to assess their own thoughts without the influence of ideas from friends and colleagues. The "pair" phase allows each partner to consider another's idea on the topic and generate discussion in directions they may not have thought of. The "Share" phase then lets the whole class in on the ideas of each pair, expanding the scope of ideas offered within the class.

1. Students may get of topic if not engaged in the topic or do not feel they are being "watched". 2. Students may pair up with just their friends, thus leaving some students out. 3. More reserved students may be hesitant to share their ideas
 * • Challenges: **

**• Ideas for how and when to use it (brief!)**: 1. Introduction to a new unit. 2. Introduction to a large concept (to asses prior knowledge) 3. To stimulate ideas about 2 opposing viewpoints.


 * Feel free to expand on this as I know I have missed things..... . **

4. **Instructional Strategy: 2.00$ Summary** (Chris Taylor) • Brief description: Students are asked to work either in pairs or in small groups to create a 20 word summary of a given resource, text, or topic. Give students about 3-5 minutes for something they've already worked on, or, for longer versions of the activity, give them a new topic/resources that they have to collaboratively create a summary for. The summary must be exactly 20 words: no more, no less.

• Benefits: For students for whom writing longer texts is a challenge, this is a good introduction to making written comments or summaries, and can be expanded upon later into larger written reports. For ensuring that students do homework, this can be useful if they have to submit a 20 word summary of a textual passage. Can be expanded/altered to be more challenging, if students are asked to suggest the most important part of their resource/text, or other T3 questions.

• Challenges: A bit easy for University level classes. Finding exactly how to summarize the text with a T3 may cause some difficulty for some students.

• Ideas for how and when to use it (brief!): As a homework assignment for a given text. As a mental-set/minds-on for a lesson. As a transition activity. As formative work leading towards an annotated bibliography.


 * 5. Instructional Strategy - Academic Controversy (Jamie Roberts) **
 * • Brief Description - ** First get into groups of three. Second, a issue/topic will be presented in which the teams either argue for it or against it. Your team will get a limited amount of time to prepare your arguments/rebuttals, perhaps 5 mins. An important note is to have the students build quality arguments based on criteria laid out in class. They will then need evidence to support their arguments along with anticipating the other teams arguments so they can form quality rebuttals. You then debate with each argument receiving one rebutall from the other side. All in told should note take longer than 15 mins


 * • Benefits - ** For students who are uneasy speaking in public it is a high safety enviroment for which to practice. It also gets students thinking about a particular issue, dissecting it, then coming up with logical arguments to support their position. It fosters open-mindedness and perpsective taking if the student must support something they disagree with.


 * • Challenges - ** To a certain degree, academic controversy requires higher level thinking. With that being said, sufficient scafollding in issue comprehension and argument design would be needed to make this strategy effective. Might be challenging for students who get nervous speaking outloud.


 * • Ideas - Mental set....... Formative for a debate/salon/town hall summative **


 * 6. Instructional Strategy: Jigsaw (Josh) **
 * • Brief description: A student-led groupwork strategy in which the students become "experts" and are responsible for sharing their knowledge. Similar in many ways to Literature Circles. **
 * • Benefits: Applicable with almost any content/course; student-centered; holds students accountable to each other; good opportunity for oral formative assessment; makes students feel like "experts"; forces students to work with non-friends; it can be an efficient way to cover a lot of content. **
 * • Challenges: A little complicated at first; requires an organized disciplined classroom; requires a lot of moving around, which can be a good thing but can also invite discipline issues. **
 * • Ideas for how and when to use it (brief!): **
 * - I like to explain it/set it up really well the first time and then use it repeatedly throughout a unit. The benefit of this is of course a honed procedure, but also so that expert groups can take on different roles as the unit progresses. In an English class it can be used when discussing various parts of a single reading (e.g. literary devices) or various smaller readings that are done in a differentiated context. In history it lends itself well to activities on varying perspectives (i.e. each expert group takes on a different one) or various events (e.g. battles in a war). **
 * • Steps **


 * 1) Students sit in pods (of 3/4?) called Learning Groups, then count off 1-4, then gather with Expert Groups (all people with the same number)
 * 2) (?) minutes with Expert Groups discussing assigned topic/text/etc... (take notes!).
 * 3) (?) minutes back in Learning Groups sharing what they've learned (each person should have a certain number of minutes) (Often they will have to complete a graphic organizer during this phase)
 * 4) Teacher-led plenary during which teacher fills in apparent gaps in discussions/understanding


 * 1) Variation: the teacher can even assign roles within the expert groups (like moderator, secretary, spokesperson, etc...) and then after step 2 leave them in their expert groups and have them report back orally to the class. It serves the same purpose.

> > > >>> 7. **Instructional Strategy:****//Story Board//** (Joanna Maxwell) >>> • Brief description: You give the students a piece of paper with six squares on it. The first square has a picture of the topic in it. For example if you were talking about the voyage of Slavery you could start with a town in Africa and a slave getting onto a ship. The students are required to fill out the other pictures of the journey. They could do a picture of the ships hold, the half way point of the voyage and how sick people were, then the docks in the new world, etc. This would give an illustration of the horrors and struggles faced. >>> • Benefits: For anyone who learns visually this is a great way for students to see a transition of time. It also would give the students a different way to piece together and puzzle instead of making many written notes. >>> • Challenges: Students who are horrible at drawing may find this very difficult to do. The students will also need time to create this as to do it correctly so that they can use it in the future for a quiz etc. they need to make sure that they can understand it. >>> • Ideas for how and when to use it (brief!): See above. > **6. Learning Stations (Andrea Paolucci)** > **• Brief description:** Have a different set of materials at several stations. In small groups students move from one station to the other collecting information from each station. They should have a purpose (question to answer etc.) to guide thier learning. > • **Benefits**: Can learn a large amount of material in a small amount of time. Is more engaging than a lecture. Allows for collaborative work. Focuses learning; can be an authentic exercise if information they are gathering is for a meaningful task. > **• Challenges**: Could easily get noisy and disorganized. If students are not engaged they may use the opportunity to talk about non-school related things - need to keep acountability high! > **• Ideas for how and when to use it (brief!):** > -We did this in class when we looked at exemplars of summative tasks. In a high school class this could be used in a similar way to show students past examples of work to get ideas and to be familiarized with teacher expecations. > -Could also be a way of doing 'reserach.' Teacher could have various primary and secondary documents at each station, and armed with a critical questions students gather releveant information. > > 7. **Instructional Strategy**: **Team Analysis (Cindy Fairbank)** > **-Brief Description**: Working in groups, students are given a short amount of time to collaboratively decide on accurate factual recall. A member from each group presents their list of answers and the teacher tells them the number of correct answers without stating WHICH answers are correct. This process continues around the room until one group successfully recalls all of the correct answers. > **- Benefits:** This strategy promotes collaborative work in a relatively safe environment. Develops strong listening skills. It's repetitive and runs quickly creating excitement. It provides a diagnostic assessment of student's knowledge, and creates accountability for the student's learning. > **- Challenges:** The pace may be too fast for some. > **- Ideas for how and when to use it (brief!)**: Fantastic for diagnostic assessment, as a transition activity, and in reviewing prior knowledge. > > **8. Instructional Strategy: Value Line (Stacy Dunn) ** > **Brief Description: ** > Draw a line on the board with two opposing statements and ask students to situate themselves along the line. Can have it set up so that students can go write their name along a line on the board, or they can go up to the front of the class and stand beside one another. > **Benefits: This activity** sets up what is going to be taught in class. Ask students to re-evaluate their initial opinion after students share why they are standing where they are standing along the line (or this same value line activity can be used again at the end of the lesson to see if students change their mind after the lessons). > > **Challenges: Students may follow others in their response. It is important to make sure that students understand both statements. ** > > **Ideas for how and when to use it:** This is a good introductory tactic (to a course, unit, or even a new class), can use T-P-S with this as well. > > > > **9. Instructional Strategy:** Tea Party (Cathy Humes) > • **Brief description:** Quotes are distributed to each student. Each student talks with a partner about their quote. Then they trade quotes and go to meet another partner. This happens four times. > • **Benefits:** This activity can introduce different viewpoints/opinions on an issue; helps students get to know each other; helps with listening and reading comprehension skills; provides an opportunity for the teacher to do diagnostic assessment; can be a catalyst for thinking. > • **Challenges:** Difficult to maintain student interest in the quotes; timing is critical - can easily be too much or too little time; students can easily get off topic; the activity might be challenging got students with learning disabilities; the length and meaning of the text provided may not be accessible to students; danger of students speaking only to their friends (this could be improved by assigning groups or partners in some way). > • **Ideas for how and when to use it:** Could be used as an introductory/diagnostic activity at the beginning of the course; could be used as a minds-on for a new unit or topic - in this way it will likely elicit uninformed (type two) responses from students. If used later in the unit, or perhaps as a review when students are more familiar with the material it could be used to elicit critical responses (type 3) from students.

10. **Instructional Strategy**: 3-2-1 (jena) **Brief description**: students come up with 3 observations, 2 concerns, 1 burning question **Benefits**: helps teacher see what questions students still have and what they understood, helps students to reflect on what they have read/heard, prevents skimming of text and helps facilitate class sharing, structure can be altered for specific purpose **Challenges**: there needs to be safe environment for students to share, clear instructions must be given **Ideas for how/when to use it**: can be used as a reflection, during/after reading activity, formative exit card after lecture, or way to assess background knowledge at the beginning of a unit/topic.

11. **Instructional Strategy:** One Step Up, Two Steps Back (Josh) • Brief description: i invented this one so it's not all that flashy. It is a variation on the value line and 4-corners theme. students stand. you ask them a series of questions. for "yes" they take one step forward. for "no" they take one step back. they never take two steps at once; I just like the bruce springsteen song. • Benefits: same as the other similar strategies - gets everyone on their feet and elicits answers to type 2 questions. • Challenges: space in the room. • Ideas for how and when to use it (brief!): often used in social justice activities to demonstrate privilege, but it can be used with any series of opinion questions.