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Student-centered approaches in the classroom

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Student-centered approaches in the classroom

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Here are some of techniques I learned during my social-studies teaching methodologies classes at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.

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Teachers should be mindful of how their classrooms are laid out and what they look like. If you don't create a warm, safe, and inviting environment, students may not be as successful in their class.

Example:
I teach in a Montessori class in a kindergarten. The class is laid out in such a way that the students are free to explore the space and learn what they want to learn.

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This strategy is especially useful in kindergartens and primary schools where students stay put and usually only have one or two teachers. By having separate learning areas you can enhance the learning experience, you can more easily keep students on task or even help the students by differentiating teaching to help those that need help.

Example:
At my current job, the classrooms are broken down into different zones. We have an English zone, an art zone, and a math zone to name a few. Having the class segmented in this manner helps get the students focused on learning.

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An example of flexible seating in the classroom

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Flexible seating arrangements and seating options

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Flexible seating arrangements and seating options

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Traditional rows of seating are horrible for students. They are not conducive to creating an environment where student-centered learning can occur. In the above picture, is a good example of how a classroom should be set up. This classroom has different options for desks and seats. Even though the desks are quite different, they share one commonality, the students face each other. You can also note that there are four styles of chairs, allowing students to choose one that they like.

Example:
At a public primary school I worked at in Hangzhou China, the class had circular table arrangements. This was the first time I had ever seen this in Asia, where row seating is king. This made group work easier and allowed for student-centered learning to occur.

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Using a touch-sensitive smart board in the classroom

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Smart boards are a valuable tool in the classroom. They can be used to show videos and PowerPoint presentations and can replace a whiteboard or blackboard. Students enjoy using them in the classroom as they work like a large Ipad.

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Drew, C. (n.d.). 12 Classroom Layout Ideas & Seating Arrangements. Helpfulprofessor.Com. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://helpfulprofessor.com/classroom-layouts/

Learning Areas. (n.d.). Https://Www.Childrensschool.Org/. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.childrensschool.org/our-program/learning-areas/

Deris, T. (2019, April 2). Designing Flexible Seating With Students. Edutopia.Org. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/designing-flexible-seating-students

Bannan, K. (2022, March 4). What are the advantages of smart boards for schools? Https://Insights.Samsung.Com/. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://insights.samsung.com/2022/03/04/what-are-the-advantages-of-smart-boards-for-schools/

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Think-Pair-Share is an excellent activity that requires collaboration. The teacher will ask the class a question that requires an answer. Students will think about the question. They will then work with a partner and discuss what answers they came up with. The groups will then share their findings with the class.

Example:
In a high school class I taught in last year, I introduced this activity. The students were very excited to be able to be responsible for their own learning. This is due to the fact that traditionally the teachers talk and the students listen in China. By allowing students to take ownership of their own learning we are not only developing better students but, we are also developing better people. These are important life skills.

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A jigsaw activity is a collaborative reading activity. In a nutshell here's how it works. You take a long reading passage and assign students one piece of the passage [Section A, B, C for example] to read. You then get all the people who read the same section to form a group and discuss what they read and figure out what the main points of the reading are. Then you will join a group of people who've read different passages and share what you've learned. The teacher in this instance acts as a guide or a facilitator, the students are doing the teaching themselves.

Example:
In a middle school class I taught last year, I would sometimes do jigsaw activities. The students enjoyed them for many reasons. The first being that they got to move around the classroom. The second was that they were able to interact with students they normally wouldn't, thus building social skills. But the most important reason was that the students enjoyed the responsibility of teaching their classmates something new.

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The fishbowl activity is something I learned in university over 17 years ago and with higher-level students, I still use it to this day. You break the class into two groups, the fish in the middle and the fishermen on the outside. The fish engage in a discussion while the fishermen observe and record the engagement. Here's where the magic happens. The fishermen provide feedback to the fish in groups of two. Because the teacher is just a facilitator for the discussion the students are truly the center of the learning process. This works best in subjects where opinion and discussions are more prevalent. It probably wouldn't work in a math class but would work in a social studies class.

Example:
I haven't used this activity in a while. The last time I used it was in a debate class I taught a couple of years ago. I think the students enjoyed it because it was something new and exciting for them. Watching them interact this way was pretty interesting. And more importantly the students were more open to feedback from their peers, which wasn't something I ever expected to see.

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Howard, M. (2014, October 27). Think Pair Share [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW87rihT38I

Using the Think-Pair-Share Technique | Read Write Think. (n.d.). Readwritethink.Org. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/using-think-pair-share

Drollinger, M. (2015, November 27). Jigsaw. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzJpVE-fQeE

Jigsaw: Developing Community and Disseminating Knowledge. (n.d.). Facing History and Ourselves. https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/jigsaw-developing-community-and-disseminating-knowledge#:%7E:text=The%20Jigsaw%20strategy%20asks%20a,they%20develop%20their%20collaboration%20skills.

Edutopia. (2018, July 6). 60-Second Strategy: Fishbowl Discussion [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVCFGLVZA3w

Fishbowl. (n.d.). Facing History and Ourselves. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/fishbowl

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Thomas Sheltra: 4 Student-Centered Assessments

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Thomas Sheltra: 4 Student-Centered Assessments

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1: Self-Assessment: Not simply going over a quiz and having the student mark right and wrong answers, but self-assessment is a tool for the student to identify their own strengths and weakness.

Example:

One example is having students highlight the criteria in class so they have a full understanding of the material, and know what the descriptions are for the standards for each criteria in how they will assess themselves.

2: Peer Assessment: Similar to #1, peer assessment is not a way to give grades to students by checking each others work, but to give feed back on a peers work in progress.

Example:

Ladder of Feedback is a good example because it allows peers to ask questions, express the peers strengths and give feedback on what they could do to improve the quality of work in progress.

3: Exhibitions: This would be an end of year project, especially something that meets a graduation requirement as this type of assessment is meant as a final assessment that has been assessed in different stages with revisions and feedback.

Example:

A graduation requirement for my high school was a senior project. I wanted to learn how to make a snowboard. I had to write a proposal, find a mentor, work on the design, keep records of my hours with my mentor, and write a paper. The final requirement was a paper, presentation, and a display at senior night. There were several steps in this requirement from the start of the school year to senior night where I was assessed and given feedback all the way to the final submission.

4: Portfolio: This is another excellent example as it is not an assessment of the students best work, but it is a collection of each assignment, unit, etc of the students process from beginning to end and shows growth.

Example:

My current students must have a physical or e-portfolio, which highlights their work in their program, including career readiness (Vermont ESSA graduation requirements) such as a cover letter, CV, and reflection pieces on their co-op experiences.

Reference:

Student-Centered Assessment Resources. (2013). Retrieved from Studentsatthecenterhub.org website: https://studentsatthecenterhub.org/resource/assessment/

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Thomas Sheltra: RTCC Technical Portfolio

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Thomas Sheltra: RTCC Technical Portfolio

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Here is an overview of the Technical Portfolio students must have in order to graduate. It lists requirements, evaluation, and assessment standards for passing.

http://www.orangesouthwest.org/uploads/1566328744.pdf

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My old high school now makes their senior projects digital. Here is an example of a senior project every graduating senior must pass.

https://sites.google.com/orangesouthwest.org/abigale-garvin/home

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For my Senior Project I studied the art of photography, specifically sports photography. I have gone to many different sporting events throughout the school year trying to capture pictures of our student athletes in many different sports. For this project I used a Nikon D3 camera that my mentor supplied me . I have taken pictures of soccer games, go kart racing, baseball games, and lacrosse games. Throughout this project I have realized that some sports are definitely harder to photograph than others but it has been very fun and exciting to learn.

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For my Senior Project I studied the art of photography, specifically sports photography. I have gone to many different sporting events throughout the school year trying to capture pictures of our student athletes in many different sports. For this project I used a Nikon D3 camera that my mentor

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Thomas Sheltra: Career Readiness Capstone

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Thomas Sheltra: Career Readiness Capstone

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Part of my English/Humanities course will focus on Career Readiness and Financial Literacy. While there will be prior instruction and work on students resumes, cover letter writing, and professional e-mail correspondence, the end of the year will be a final project that focuses on the job search and interview process.

Students will:
1: Search for a job
2: Apply for that job (to me) with a final draft of their cover letter and resume.
3: In appropriate interview attire, students will sit down with HR managers and interview for that job.

Students will also need to keep a portfolio in my class that will include all work from draft to final draft. The advantages of portfolios as an assessment tool I believe lets the student take ownership for their work, makes learning more individualized, and allows students to conduct self-assessment by checking their work and continuing to improve on it.

Reference:

Lowe, J. (2013). Describe the Advantages of Portfolio Assessment for Students. Retrieved from Seattlepi.com website: https://education.seattlepi.com/describe-advantages-portfolio-assessment-students-1470.html

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Integrating digital tools and learning platforms can give individualize instruction to each student. Students with prior knowledge assessments would then start off at different levels, and master skills at their own pace.

Depending on the platform being used, teachers can see time spent working on the platform, data on performance, and identify students who are struggling, and those who need more challenges.

This way students are able to work at their own pace, received 1-on-1 help, and get instant feedback.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oLNLCO0vfI&ab_channel=educause

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Thomas Sheltra: Using technological tools for differentiation:

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Thomas Sheltra: Using technological tools for differentiation:

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The use of technological tools can help teachers use differentiated instruction not just as a case by case process, but as a way for all students to learn at their own pace, but also to utilize technological platforms to give students the choice to select their own assessment tools to showcase the mastery of the content through innovative ways.

Example:

Students at my school must take WorkKeys assessments for math and english. One of the key benefits of this tool is that students take a diagnostic test, it puts each student at their own level, and allows the student to complete tasks at their own pace, and allows me and program teachers the ability to track progress, and to help students who are struggling with the coursework. But it allows us to identify those issues with each student, instead of waiting for a problem to appear to intervene.

https://www.avid.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&ModuleInstanceID=6506&ViewID=DEDCCD34-7C24-4AF2-812A-33C0075398BC&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=6197&PageID=3300&Tag=&Comments=true#:~:text=Differentiation%20isn't%20just%20something,knowledge%2C%20and%20individual%20learning%20needs.

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By Educators Steven W. Anderson and Shaelynn Farnsworth
In all of the work that we do with teachers across the US and beyond, we see educators creating amazing learning environments for students. From the use of 1:1 technology to enabling students to learn authentically, these really are incredible times to teach and learn.

However, among all the flash and pageantry, there is struggle. Educators are looking for ways to personalize the learning environment for every student, while trying to find ways to differentiate; it can become paralyzing. On the one hand, they have the traditional methods of accessing content and assessing what students have learned. On the other, they have rooms full of devices but aren't yet taking full advantage of what technology can do for each student.

Carol Ann Tomlinson said it best:
"At its most basic level, differentiation consists of the efforts of teachers to respond to variance among learners in the classroom. Whenever a teacher reaches out to an individual or small group to vary his or her teaching in order to create the best learning experience possible, that teacher is differentiating instruction."
Differentiation isn't just something that some students need or some teachers have to do; differentiation is responsive teaching and a part of every classroom. Each student comes to the classroom with a variety of past learning experiences, prior knowledge, and individual learning needs. Whether it is to help a student who struggles to understand basic content, a student who just needs a little push to go deeper, or a student who far exceeds our expectations and needs the opportunity to go further, differentiation should be and must be a part of every classroom.

There are many ways to meet student needs through differentiation. Teachers can differentiate in four classroom components, based on student readiness, interest, or learning profile:

1. Assessment - Understanding what students know and still need to learn

2. Content - What the student needs to learn or how the student will access the information

3. Process - Activities in which the student engages, in order to make sense of or master the content or skill

4. Product - Culminating projects ask the student to rehearse, apply, and extend what they have learned in a unit

When we layer technology into these four components, the process of differentiation becomes less daunting and more accessible to each student.

Assessment
Assessment often has a negative connotation attached to it in the world of education. When done correctly, assessment can provide a mountain of valuable information that can help teachers determine where students are in their learning and where the teacher needs to go in their teaching. Particularly, formative assessment is the driver of differentiation of assessment. Formative assessment acts as a GPS for both the teacher and the learner. It provides timely feedback to inform instruction and lets the student know if they are headed in the right direction. When assessment is used to adjust instruction, it is known as "formative assessment." Formative assessment moves acquiring knowledge from an event to a process.

Technology isn't necessary to do any type of formative assessment. However, if we layer in the effective use of technology into formative assessment, we can not only reach students where they are in their understanding but also look at trends over time and respond accordingly in our teaching. Technology provides a fast and easy way to accomplish this gathering of data and analysis over time.

Many teachers think of "content" when they hear the word differentiation. Content is the foundation of learning and is the mean in which skills are applied and practiced. Therefore, if we can provide a way for students to access that content at their readiness level, we can better meet their learning needs. Each student is (and should be) held to high standards, but we know that not every student is on the same path for their learning. Through the differentiation of content, we can level the playing field for each student.

Technology has made it much easier and, frankly, more possible to differentiate content in new and exciting ways. In some cases, students can be given the same content; however, that content is tailored to their individual needs, either through raising or lowering the reading level, providing more visualizations, or still meeting standards but providing content that is interesting and exciting for students.

Differentiation of the processes by which students learn is another traditional way that teachers provide multiple learning paths for students. For many students, the instructional practices are outdated and do not meet their needs. If we want to create an environment where each student can find success no matter their learning profile, then we have to look beyond traditional pedagogy and meet students where they are at and how they want to consume information.

Technology makes the differentiation of process easier. Accessibility tools built into modern devices make it easier for us all to use those devices more effectively and efficiently, and many of those same tools can benefit all students. In addition, the idea of gamifying learning is gaining steam to provide an environment that is familiar to students, while also being fun, challenging, and rich with varied learning opportunities.

Ultimately, students need to demonstrate their understanding of the content and skill. Traditionally, that is done through a summative project or final exam. However, this method is flawed when we produce a list of items that students must include, such as the specific font to use, the number of cited sources, etc. That isn't a project, that is a recipe, and recipes don't belong in the classroom. Students need freedom of choice in how they demonstrate their understanding. That doesn't mean it's a free-for-all. We can provide creativity, choice, and freedom within boundaries.

Technology is truly transformational, and students should be able to demonstrate understanding through a variety of innovative ways. This differentiation of product can look different for each student; however, at the heart are the same learning goals. Through the effective use of technology, students can do incredible things while still demonstrating what they know and how they know what they know.

If you enjoyed these tips, download and share this helpful infographic!
For more professional learning, digital strategies, and resources, attend an AVID Digital Teaching and Learning (DTL) strand at AVID Summer Institute!

The DTL Foundations strands bring educators together to experience and explore digital strategies and resources using collaboration, communication, and choice to engage students in learning and knowledge creation. Come ready to connect with colleagues in building a technology-rich classroom culture, infusing AVID methodologies both digitally and face to face. This strand blends WICOR (Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading) strategies with technology tools to prepare students with the skills that they need to be college- and career-ready. Participants are supported during the process with best-practice pedagogy, resources, and guidance on how to use technology to facilitate student learning and engagement. By completing this strand, educators will have the opportunity to receive a digital badge representing their learning experience.

Digital Teaching and Learning - Foundations: Elementary (Grades 3-6)
This strand is designed to support experienced AVID Elementary teachers and instructional support staff in blending WICOR (Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading) with digital strategies to prepare students with the skills they need to be college- and career-ready.

Digital Teaching and Learning - Foundations: Secondary Digital Teaching and Learning
This strand is designed for secondary educators experienced in AVID methodologies in all content areas, as well the AVID Elective.

The DTL Advancing strands are best suited to participants whose schools or districts have been on the 1:1 journey for four or more years. If you are in a school or district that is in the early stages (planning through the first three years) of 1:1 technology implementation, the Digital Teaching and Learning - Foundations strands are a more appropriate fit. Learning is a story. Participants will learn how to empower students to create a personalized story of their learning as digital citizens in a global society. Through a metacognitive lens, participants will learn how to use the 4 A's (Adopt, Adapt, Accelerate and Advocate), WICOR, digital storytelling, and eBinders to enhance and extend student voice. Focusing on learning first, participants will develop a plan for intentional integration of digital tools in a student-centered classroom, allowing students to develop into innovative designers and creative communicators.These strands incorporate either Googe or Microsoft 365 digital tools with AVID methodologies in order to prepare students with key skills they will need in the 21st century to be college- and career-ready. By completing this strand, educators will have the opportunity to receive a digital badge representing their learning experience.

Steven W. Anderson is a learner, blogger, speaker, Digital Learning and Relationship Evangelist, author, and Dad. As a former teacher and Director of Instructional Technology, and best known as @web20classroom, he is highly sought after for his expertise in educational technology integration and using social media for learning and communicating. Steven presents at conferences worldwide and is also responsible in helping create #edchat, the most popular educational hashtag on Twitter. He is an ASCD Emerging Leader, Microsoft Heroes of Education, and one of the top educational influencers on Twitter. You can learn more about Steven at http://blog.web20classroom.org.

Shaelynn Farnsworth is a leader in the convergence between literacy and technology. As a high school teacher, she redefined her English classroom as not only a place to learn about literature but also explore how technology is shaping the future of communications. She continues this exploration as a consultant, focusing on technology, literacy, Open Education Resources, and Authentic Intellectual Work. Shaelynn is a Staff Developer, literacy coach, and supports districts in the implementation of initiatives. She is a Google Certified Innovator and has training in Project-Based Learning from the Buck Institute, Instructional Coaching, and Microsoft Inclusive Classroom Partner. Shaelynn shares her musings at shaelynnfarnsworth.com and @shfarnsworth.

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4 Ed Tech Ways to Differentiate in the Student-Centered Classroom

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By Educators Steven W. Anderson and Shaelynn Farnsworth In all of the work that we do with teachers across the US and beyond, we see educators creating amazing learning environments for students. From the use of 1:1 technology to enabling students to learn authentically, these really are incredible times to teach and learn.

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This is a great idea that I have used in my US History classes for a end of unit assessment.

You give students 9 different options and must choose 3 of those 9. Each one requires a different component, and students can choose whatever ones they want to do to complete the task.

Example: For my students when we finished the Civil Rights Movement, I gave students a think-tac-toe board that had options like:
1: Create a poster advertising the March on Washington.
2: Research 2 Civil Rights songs, and describe the meaning of the lyrics.
3: Create a new motto for the 21st century.

It gave students the flexibility to choose which ones they wanted. I was surprised by how many students chose artistic choices, and was pleased to see how creative students can be when you give them the options to choose.

https://www.thoughtco.com/think-tac-toe-strategy-for-differentiation-3110424

References:

M. Ed., S. E., & B. A., E. E. (2019, March 18). Think-Tac-Toe: A Strategy for Differentiation. Retrieved from ThoughtCo website: https://www.thoughtco.com/think-tac-toe-strategy-for-differentiation-3110424

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Think-tac-toe is a strategy that harnesses the visual pattern of the tic-tac-toe game to broaden student understanding of instructional content, challenge students who already have some mastery of a subject, and provide a variety of means to assess student mastery in a way that is fun and unusual.

A teacher would design a think-tac-toe assignment to support the purpose of the study unit. Each row could have a single theme, use a single medium, explore the same idea across three different media, or even explore a single idea or subject across different disciplines.

Differentiation in Education

Differentiation is the practice of modifying and adapting instruction, materials, content, student projects, and assessment to meet the needs of diverse learners. In a differentiated classroom, teachers recognize that all students are different and require varied teaching methods to be successful in school. But, what does that mean in real terms that a teacher can put to use?

Enter Mary Ann Carr, author of Differentiation Made Simple, an educational resource that she describes a "toolkit" for providing different methods-or tools-for presenting materials in a way that students understand. These tools include task cards for literature, creative writing, and research; graphic organizers; guides to creating differentiated units; and tic-tac-toe learning tools, such as think-tac-toe.

Indeed, think-tac-toe is a kind of graphic organizer that provides a way for students with different learning styles or special needs to organize content so that they can understand and learn.

How It Works

Put simply, "Think-tac-toe is a strategy that allows students to chose how they will show what they are learning, by giving them a variety of activities to chose from," notes teaching blog, Mandy Neal. For example, suppose a class is studying the American Revolution, a subject that is taught in most fifth-grade classes. A standard way to test whether students have learned the material would be to give them a multiple-choice or essay test or have them write a paper. A think-tac-toe assignment could provide an alternative way for students to learn and show what they know.

Example Think-Tac-Toe Assignment

With think-tac-toe, you could give the students nine different possibilities. For example, the top row of the think-tac-toe board would allow students to choose from three possible graphic assignments, such as making a comic book of an important event in the Revolution, creating a computer graphics presentation (including their original artwork), or creating an American Revolution board game.

A second row could allow students to express the subject matter dramatically by writing and presenting a one-act play, writing and presenting a puppet play, or writing and presenting a monolog. Students who learn by more traditional methods could present the material in written form listed in the bottom three boxes of the think-tac-toe board offering them a chance to create a Philadelphia newspaper about the day of the Declaration of Independence, create six letters of correspondence between a Connecticut farmer fighting under George Washington for independence and his wife back home, or writing and illustrating a children's picture book about the Declaration of Independence.

You could assign each student to complete a single assignment listed in one box, or invite them to try three assignments to score a "think-tac-toe" earning them extra credit.

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Think-Tac-Toe: A Strategy for Differentiation

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Think-tac-toe is a strategy that harnesses the visual pattern of the tic-tac-toe game to broaden student understanding of instructional content, challenge students who already have some mastery of a subject, and provide a variety of means to assess student mastery in a way that is fun and unusual.

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I really enjoyed reading this as I really enjoy giving projects to students as a way of breaking away from quizzes, tests, and other assessments that make my students eyes glaze over. I find that when my students are working on a project they are more focused, creative, and really show a pride in their work.

Again, there is a great deal of flexibility in the way teachers assign groups based on the learning outcomes they are trying to achieve. Teachers, over the course of a long project, can have mini-lessons, which can be used to differentiate instruction to students who need extra help, and a way for students that are high achievers to become leaders within their groups and help those students who are perhaps struggling with the material.

One of the 6-strategies i'm really looking at utilizing in my classroom this year is having my students keep reflection journals. That way every student can track their thoughts and ideas on what worked well, what didn't, assess their own strengths and weaknesses within a given assignment or project, and then to set goals for growth. This way students can look back at the end of each previous assignment and the year and see their growth. It also gives me the opportunity to change how I differentiate my instruction for students. Perhaps I had been teaching students in a way that was not useful for them, and it gives me feedback on where I can improve.

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-strategies-pbl-andrew-miller

Reference:

Miller, A. (2012, February 8). 6 Strategies for Differentiated Instruction in Project-Based Learning. Retrieved from Edutopia website: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-strategies-pbl-andrew-miller

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Movement in the form of physical games, morning movement routines before class and even stretching breaks in between instruction periods can "sharpen" students' ability to focus during instruction. 

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Movement in the form of physical games, morning movement routines before class and even stretching breaks in between instruction periods can "sharpen" students' ability to focus during instruction. 

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This article teaches the importance of using movement as a central element in learning.

According to the cited research in the piece, movement is especially important for brain development in elementary students.

Another critical piece of information informed about how data has shown that including exercises into instruction time (breaking it up into chunks interrupted with movement) has the power to strengthen students' ability to focus.

Additionally, adding games meant for learning through movement and physical activity can possibly increase knowledge retention.

Reference:
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/move-body-grow-brain-donna-wilson#:~:text=Photo%20credit%3A%20Thinkstock-,Incorporating%20exercise%20and%20movement%20throughout%20the%20school%20day%20makes%20students,activities%20to%20your%20teaching%20toolkit.

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Incorporating exercise and movement throughout the school day makes students less fidgety and more focused on learning.

Incorporating exercise and movement throughout the school day makes students less fidgety and more focused on learning. Improving on-task behavior and reducing classroom management challenges are among the most obvious benefits of adding physical activities to your teaching toolkit. As research continues to explore how exercise facilitates the brain's readiness and ability to learn and retain information, we recommend several strategies to use with students and to boost teachers' body and brain health.

'Miracle-Gro for the Brain'

Exercise may have both a physiological and developmental impact on children's brains. Physical mechanisms include:

Increased oxygen to the brain that may enhance its ability to learn

Alterations to neurotransmitters

Structural changes in the central nervous system

In fact, John Ratey, author of A User's Guide to the Brain, calls exercise "Miracle-Gro for the brain" because of its role in stimulating nerve growth factors.

Studies suggest that regular physical activity supports healthy child development by improving memory, concentration, and positive outlook. For example, researchers found that children who had an opportunity to run for 15 to 45 minutes before class were less distracted and more attentive to schoolwork. These positive effects lasted two to four hours after their workouts.

The connection between learning and exercise seems to be especially strong for elementary school students. Given these findings, cutting back on physical education with the aim of improving academic performance, as some districts have done or may be considering, is likely to be counterproductive.

Pump Up Your Brain With Regular Exercise

Regular physical activity is an essential component for maintaining body and brain health for people of all ages. A recent study involving 120 people found that walking briskly for 30 to 40 minutes a day three times a week helped to regrow the structures of the brain linked to cognitive decline in older adults. The effect was the equivalent of stopping the brain's aging clock by one to two years.

This is one of the first scientifically controlled studies showing the power of exercise in boosting brain regeneration. As we share with educators in our programs, physical activity before, during, and after school is smart for your heart, body, and brain. "Exercise is really for the brain, not the body," Ratey contends. "It affects mood, vitality, alertness, and feelings of well-being."

By incorporating movement and physical activity into the school day, you can support student learning in a variety of ways.

Start the day with movement: Many teachers we know start the school day with exercises such as jumping jacks, arm crosses, and stretches. Kim Poore, who teaches K-5 students with behavioral and emotional disorders in South Carolina's Lancaster County Public School District, tells us that her class has led the school in a morning warm-up routine broadcast to classrooms over closed-circuit TV.

Enhance attention during and between lessons: Incorporating short exercise or stretch breaks into lessons can resharpen children's focus on learning. Especially for younger students, dividing lessons into 8- to 20-minute chunks punctuated with activities that involve movement keeps their attention on learning and helps make the content more memorable. Exercise and stretch breaks also work well during transitions between lessons.

Poore says that one of her students' favorite ways to prepare for tests is with an activity she calls Snowball. She writes a test review question on a piece of paper, wads it into a ball, and tosses it to a student, who opens it, responds to the question, and tosses it back. "It's a fresh and effective way to reach these kids," she says.
Credit: Donna Wilson & Marcus Conyers
Engage the senses: Our brains receive input from our visual, tactile, auditory, and olfactory senses, allowing us to engage with the rest of the world. Incorporating activities that involve all the senses can make learning more memorable. Joe Frank Uriz, who teaches Spanish at Parsons Elementary School in Gwinnett County, Georgia, says, "Sensory experiences are an important aspect of learning."

Uriz doesn't just teach third graders the Spanish words for fruits. He introduces the tropical fruits of the Americas in a "mystery box" activity that adds tactile, smell, and taste experiences to learning. And he makes the most of the power of music and movement to reinforce what students are learning with a clapping chant song called "Frutas."

Play games: Teaching lessons as active games also enhances attention and memory. How about a kinesthetic spelling bee in which teams of students spell vocabulary words by positioning their bodies in the shapes of letters?

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Incorporating exercise and movement throughout the school day makes students less fidgety and more focused on learning. Incorporating exercise and movement throughout the school day makes students less fidgety and more focused on learning. Improving on-task behavior and reducing classroom management challenges are among the most obvious benefits of adding physical activities to your teaching toolkit.

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Some students are kinesthetic learners, meaning they absorb knowledge best through physical activities. Here are different options to add those options to the curriculum.

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Some students are kinesthetic learners, meaning they absorb knowledge best through physical activities. Here are different options to add those options to the curriculum.

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- Forming pictures/images with the body and gestures can increase vocabulary retention for students learning a foreign language.

- Active breaks in which students take a minute to step away from the material they are learning has proven to improve creativity, social skills, and even productivity, according to the cited study.

“When we take a brain break, it refreshes our thinking and helps us discover another solution to a problem or see a situation through a different lens,” writes Lori Desautels, an assistant professor at the Butler University College of Education.

- Drawing information while learning can also be conducive to increased knowledge retention because, through drawing, learners have to expand on the meaning of what they are learning about and doing so through hand-eye-brain connection. In unison, the physiological and cognitive work develop a deepened sense of learning that can ultimately improve the experience.

References:
https://www.edutopia.org/article/more-dozen-ways-build-movement-learning
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-020-09527-z

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Physical activity that amplifies learning can have a powerful effect on retention and engagement-it's also fun.

Allison Shelley for the Alliance for Excellent Education

When researchers at Texas A&M University gave standing desks to 34 high school students, they discovered that after consistent use, standing while learning delivered a significant boost to students' executive functioning skills-the sorts of cognitive skills that allow kids to manage their time, understand and memorize information, and organize thoughts in writing. Even small amounts of movement, this emerging research revealed, can deliver a positive impact on learning: Neurocognitive testing of the standing students, the pilot study notes, showed a 7 to 14 percent improvement in their cognitive performance, a noteworthy impact for such a simple intervention.

Infusing classrooms with physical activity-or at least the option of some movement, at student discretion-isn't just good for kids' bodies, it's also a powerful tool for improving learning and focus and reducing classroom management issues. And yet, from kindergarten through high school "students spend most of their academic lives at a desk," says educator Brad Johnson for The Washington Post, an arrangement that is meant to increase their focus and academic productivity, but can actually create kids who are "bored, off-task, disruptive or otherwise disengaged."

There are many smart, innovative ways to build movement into lessons and the research increasingly supports getting kids moving in schools to promote better physical health, provide the types of breaks that reset our cognitive processes so that we can learn anew, and even link our physical bodies to our cognitive insights to encode learning more deeply. From intentionally aligning curriculum with movement to improve retention, to planning frequent and active brain breaks to clear working memory, here are more than a dozen ways educators and researchers are pairing learning with movement.

INTEGRATING MOVEMENT IN THE CURRICULUM

Incorporating gross and fine motor activities across many subject areas makes a lot of sense, particularly to teach foundational concepts. In math classes, for instance, you can create chalk grids on the playground and have children walk sloped lines, stopping to discuss and walk the line's "rise" and "run," or you can use hand and arm gestures to teach a broader range of mathematical concepts like tangents and cosines. Here are a few more ways educators are injecting movement into lessons.

In Science, Becoming a Liquid: Science teacher and instructional coach JaShan Wilson turned social distancing requirements into an opportunity for her students to "use their own bodies to model movements, test phenomena, and engage with the curriculum."

For lessons on matter and particle movement, for example, she asks students to "act like solids, liquids, or gases," and then "switch it up as in Simon Says until all students sped up, slowed down, or vibrated in order to represent how matter moves." For a unit on energy, Wilson's students examine the transfer of energy by making wave movements with their arms. "The more energy they apply, the higher the amplitude," Wilson notes. Engaging students in these "human labs," as Wilson calls them, delivered impressive academic results: Her students did better on formative assessments and "continued to utilize the movements and reference the activities, which showed how they connected the concepts to them permanently."

Playing Basketball Math: In a six-week study involving 757 Copenhagen elementary school students, researchers had half the students do math while playing basketball. The other half studied math in class as usual, and played basketball solely as a regular gym activity.

The kids who played while doing math did tasks like "counting how many times they could sink a basket from three meters away versus at a one-meter distance," and then added up the numbers, says Linn Damsgaard, one of the study's authors. Among the students who played basketball while doing math, the researchers reported a 6 percent boost in math mastery; a 16 percent increase in intrinsic motivation; and a 14 percent improvement in "perceived autonomy," or self-determination, compared to peers learning in the classroom.

Student Thespians: When researchers asked 8-year-olds to mimic the words they were learning in another language by using their hands and bodies to act out the word's meaning-by spreading their arms and pretending to fly while they learned the German word for airplane, for example-the students were 73 percent more likely to recall them, even two months later.

In ELA and social study classes, having kids partake in skits may feel like it's inviting chaos, but the body will often remember what the mind forgets-and getting students to act out historical events or scenes from works of literature can help them remember the information, grasp the basic elements of drama, or provide them with a new opportunity to listen to the sounds and rhythms of written and spoken language.

Drawing It Out: Even indifferent or unpracticed artists benefit by drawing what they've learned, a 2018 study concluded, resulting in retention rates that were double the rates of when kids wrote or read.

When a student draws a concept, they "must elaborate on its meaning and semantic features," the researchers explain, while engaging "in the actual hand movements needed for drawing"-a rich mixture of cognitive and physiological activities that encodes learning more deeply and is a "reliable, replicable means of boosting performance."

The drawing doesn't have to be expert-level: even stick figures or crude shapes accompanied by annotations will do, and data visualizations work similarly to hand-drawn pictures. You can assess learning by allowing kids to try one-pagers that demonstrate their understanding of a topic through art; incorporate more graphs and statistical modeling into math and science classes; have students draw models of solar systems or cells in science classes; or let students create travel journals to document any learning journey graphically.

ACTIVE BRAIN BREAKS

Research shows that when students take brief, active breaks throughout the day, it increases productivity, creativity, and social skills. "When we take a brain break, it refreshes our thinking and helps us discover another solution to a problem or see a situation through a different lens," writes Lori Desautels, an assistant professor at the Butler University College of Education. "The brain break actually helps to incubate and process new information," says Desautels.

So plan for frequent breaks (we've included a few ideas to get you started) and keep them active and social-a brisk walk around the perimeter of the classroom, a quick stretch, an energizing freeze dance.

Brain breaks for younger students: Try wiggle breaks where kids stand and wiggle each arm and leg in succession or opposite sides, where kids blink one eye while snapping fingers on the opposite side and then reverse the exercise. For energizing breath, have students pant like dogs with their mouths open and tongues out for 30 seconds, hands on the belly, then breathe briskly for another 30 seconds with mouths closed. Easier still: invite kids to jump in place like they're on a trampoline; or keep it really simple with a quick crab walk around the room.

Brain breaks for older students: Try a wave, starting at one end of the room with students standing and raising their arms; or have them get out of their chairs for a whole-body stretch or for a brief walk around the room. They can also pass a ball around for a quick game of catch, practice a few yoga poses like tree pose or warrior II, or very simply, ask them to hop on one foot, then switch to the other foot for a minute or two.

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT MOVEMENT WHILE LEARNING

Doodling, Fidgeting, and More: There's often confusion about movement that is not directly related to learning. While drawing a plant cell or creating a pictorial representation of a scene from a novel will deepen retention and result in more durable learning, when students doodle during lessons-by drawing elaborate cartoons while an unrelated lesson is in progress, for example-the research, and the cognitive science, suggests that learning is compromised.

In a 2019 study during which students were asked to doodle-which the researchers defined as "drawing that is semantically unrelated to to-be-remembered information"-while they learned, they showed "poorer free recall for words encoded while free-form doodling compared to words that were drawn or written."

Multitasking divides our attention, a finite cognitive resource, and makes us less proficient at both tasks. But there's a wrinkle here, too: There is some evidence that activities that require very little attention, like fidgeting or listening to soft background music (but probably not loud or attention-gobbling music), don't divide our focus to the same degree. Being tolerant of a certain amount of fidgeting or a pair of headphones is an important accommodation for students who might otherwise need to get out of their seats entirely, or might struggle with focused, demanding tasks like homework. In the end, the more distracting any task is to the lesson, the less likely learning is to stick.

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More Than a Dozen Ways to Build Movement Into Learning

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Physical activity that amplifies learning can have a powerful effect on retention and engagement-it's also fun.

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This piece showcases a few videos in which students model various movement techniques to enhance the learning of more complex concepts for students in high school.

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This piece showcases a few videos in which students model various movement techniques to enhance the learning of more complex concepts for students in high school.

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- Group simulations: Science classes collaborated in modeling biological processes such as the circulatory system. The experience seemed to engage students in a very social activity that employed movement to demonstrate how different parts, like the students that acted like them, work together to carry out body functions.

- Creating a tableau/picture or visual representation of an idea or concept with the body can be used to work with EAL students.

- Group singing: songs and singing as a group has been part of human learning and community building since the beginning of time. Vocalizing information and learning through singing, which can also become very sticky with the right tune, has the power of solidifying information into memory very effectively.

References:
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/movement/
https://twitter.com/up_leonard?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1060538248076894209%7Ctwgr%5E99fc680432a56016a94b675b5295068160439b0f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cultofpedagogy.com%2Fmovement%2F

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If you were to start singing "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" right now, I bet you'd have a hard time keeping your hands still. That's because most of us who know the song learned it with gestures, and things we learn with physical movement tend to stick.

We can apply that same principle to classroom learning, using movement to enhance learning from preschool all the way through college. Let's take a look at what the research says about movement-based learning, then explore six different ways you can add more movement to your instruction.

The Research on Movement

The concept of "learning styles" has overwhelmingly been labeled a myth by researchers, so attempting to determine which of your students are kinesthetic learners will not be a good use of your time. What is worth your time is using movement when working with all learners, because plenty of research backs that up.

In general, people learn better when information is presented in more than one way (Sankey, Birch, & Gardiner, 2010). In other words, if we take in information through more than one sense, we're more likely to encode it in long-term memory. This would include visual, verbal, and kinesthetic modes of learning.

Specifically, the use of gestures results in more enduring learning than learning without gestures (Cook, Yip, & Goldin-Meadow, S, 2010). So even the addition of a few small hand gestures can have an impact on how well students remember material.

Study after study shows that physical activity activates the brain, improves cognitive function, and is correlated with improved academic performance (Donnelly & Lambourne, 2011). This means any kind of physical activity, not just movement associated with the material we're learning, can benefit students academically.

Six Ways to Add Movement to Instruction

1. Total Physical Response

Developed for use with second-language learners in the 1960's ( Asher, 1966), Total Physical Response simply has students act out physical gestures to represent vocabulary words. Shown to be highly effective with both children (Singh, 2011) and adults ( Carruthers, 2010), TPR can also be used to help learners remember new vocabulary terms in their native language. In other words, it can be used in any content area, with any student.

This video from the Teacher Toolkit shows Texas teacher Michael Rowland using TPR with his third grade students, who are English learners.

And here is Craig Gaslow, another Texas teacher who teaches AP Human Geography, demonstrating how he uses TPR to teach three different models of diffusion:

https://youtu.be/9HtrVh2Dzzs

Finally, here are Scott Causer's high school students demonstrating a few earth science processes using TPR:

What strategies support learning? Here's high school science using TPR to recall processes in Earth Science -thanks Mr. Causer and team for modeling! @ESMSchoolDist @cultofpedagogy pic.twitter.com/njoAaVdBB9
- Naomi Trivison (@NaomiTrivison) March 30, 2019

2. Tableau/Snapshot

In this strategy, students create a physical "snapshot" with their bodies, a still picture that represents an idea.

This example, demonstrated by 4th grade teacher Stefannie Cundiff, comes from Teacher Toolkit:

Another example is explained in this Slides presentation by Tyler Jacobs, an Idaho-based high school ELA and social studies teacher. Click the image below to view the slideshow in a new window:

3. Simulations

In these, students demonstrate a concept with some kind of motion or interactivity. They could represent non-human components, like in the examples below, or they might actually take on the role of humans in a re-enactment of an event.

The first example comes from the University of British Columbia, where electrical engineering professor Matthew Yedlin has students simulate the difference between linear growth and exponential growth:

The second example, a simulation of the circulatory system, comes from Michelle Cliche, who teaches grades 4 and 5 in London, Ontario, Canada.

Ss learned about the complexity of the circulatory system by acting out delivery of blood through red & blue bean bags. S in middle is ❤️ directing blood flow to different organs. Later, we did this on playground climbers because heart has to pump 'up'. pic.twitter.com/dhzTqRTEOp
- Michelle Cliche (@Clicheteach) March 29, 2019

Finally, here's a different kind of simulation demonstrated by Amy Tepperman, where participants show fractions by placing different body parts on the floor, Twister-style:

An important note about simulations: If you are doing simulations about historical periods or events, proceed with caution. Many, many teachers have ended up traumatizing students with these types of simulations. This article from Learning for Justice explores the topic in depth.

4. Songs with Movement

Songs are another powerful way to teach concepts to students, and if the songs also incorporate movement, even better.

Dan Adler, a 6th grade science teacher in Lawrence, MA, regularly uses songs with physical movements to help his students remember challenging concepts. In this video, students demonstrate "Bodak Particles," a song about phase change sung to an instrumental version of Cardi B's song "Bodak Yellow." (Get a copy of the lyrics here.)

Check out our science scholars rapping about phase changes! pic.twitter.com/uO3sJQubgw
- UP Academy Leonard (@up_leonard) November 8, 2018

5. Virtual and Augmented Reality

The experiences offered by virtual and augmented reality allow students to move around in and interact with virtual objects and spaces in ways that would be difficult if not impossible to pull off in the real world.

Augmented Reality layers digital enhancements on top of objects in the real, physical world. Using a device, like a smartphone, loaded with AR software, users point it at a picture or physical object, and the software brings up some kind of digital element like a 3D animation, text, or a video. ( Pokémon Go is an example of an AR game.)

One set of AR tools that have tremendous learning potential comes from a company called Merge. Their Merge Cube is a handheld cube that can "become" a variety of objects when paired with the Merge Goggles, as shown below:

Virtual Reality immerses the user in a 360-degree environment, a computer-generated simulation, viewable through a VR headset, and allows them to move through and interact with that environment.

One outstanding source for VR experiences is Google Expeditions, which offers tours to over 500 different locations: historical landmarks, national and state parks, underwater sites, and up-close studies of scientific phenomena.

And if you don't find the exact tour you want, you and your students can even create your own expeditions with Google Tour Creator.

6. Brain Breaks

I left this one for the end because it's the easiest to implement. This brain breaks guide from the University of Texas summarizes the research on the connection between movement and academic achievement and offers dozens of ideas for brain breaks that can be put into action immediately.

Brain break videos are super easy to find on YouTube, especially for younger kids. My daughter came home from first grade years ago excited to demonstrate this one for me:

But what about older kids? High school math teacher David Sladkey has written a a book, Energizing Brain Breaks ( Amazon | Bookshop.org), that has ideas for all ages, even middle and high school kids who may not be as comfortable with the Tooty Ta. in this video, students demonstrate a simple toe-tapping brain break:

Tips for Getting Started

Don't overdo it. Attempting to add a movement component to every concept students learn would not only be too time-consuming, it could also get old, shifting from a fun novelty to something that causes students to slump over in their seats and say, Not THAT again!!

Get input from students. When coming up with gestures or movements, you don't have to rely solely on your own brain. Ask students to help you come up with ideas. Involving students in the process will help them remember concepts better and will increase the likelihood that you'll end up with really effective movements.

Know what works for your students. Some of your students may not be comfortable with or physically able to do certain movements, so keep that in mind and make modifications based on ability and need.

Use movement for retrieval practice. Rather than using movement in a single lesson, apply the principles of retrieval practice by repeating the movements in short practice sessions, spacing them out over time, and interleaving concepts with one another.

For younger students, meaningful gestures matter more. While adults learn from both iconic gestures (those that have some meaning in relation to the concept they are connected to) and beat gestures (those that have no inherent meaning but are just tied to particular "beats" in a sentence or phrase), younger children learned more from iconic gestures (So, Sim Chen-Hui, & Low Wei-Shan, 2012). So when working with younger students, try to make the gestures match the concepts in some way.

References

Asher, J. J. (1969). The total physical response approach to second language learning. The modern language journal, 53(1), 3-17.

Carruthers, S. W. (2010). The total physical response method and its compatibility to adult ESL-learners. Retrieved from http://tesolteachers.net/t.pdf

Cook, S. W., Yip, T. K., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2010). Gesturing makes memories that last. Journal of memory and language, 63(4), 465-475.

Donnelly, J. E., & Lambourne, K. (2011). Classroom-based physical activity, cognition, and academic achievement. Preventive medicine, 52, S36-S42.

Sankey, M., Birch, D., & Gardiner, M. (2010). Engaging students through multimodal learning environments: The journey continues. In Proceedings ASCILITE 2010: 27th annual conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education: Curriculum, technology and transformation for an unknown future (pp. 852-863). University of Queensland.

Singh, J. P. (2011). Effectiveness of total physical response. Academic Voices: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 1, 20-22.

So, W. C., Sim Chen-Hui, C., & Low Wei-Shan, J. (2012). Mnemonic effect of iconic gesture and beat gesture in adults and children: Is meaning in gesture important for memory recall?. Language and Cognitive Processes, 27(5), 665-681.

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Physical movement makes learning stick better, and today we're exploring six ways you can add more movement to your classroom.

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Student-centered reading techniques include close reading strategies, providing choice for content, and offering different formats/genres of writing.

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Student-centered reading techniques include close reading strategies, providing choice for content, and offering different formats/genres of writing.

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I believe that the most effective technique or approach to teaching reading is providing variety in regards to the reading material.

If students find books, articles, magazines or poems about topics they enjoy or relate to, they will naturally be inclined to read more and more.

Enjoying the information they read will more organically expand their vocabulary and improve reading comprehension skills, such as those spelled out through close reading techniques.

That is not to say I don't think those are not effective. However, I believe readers who enjoy what they read will become more avid and hence, better readers.

References:
https://www.edutopia.org/article/6-techniques-building-reading-skills-susan-barber
https://www.commonlit.org/

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As avid lovers of literature, teachers often find themselves wanting to impart every bit of knowledge about a well-loved text to their students. And this is not just an ELA issue-other disciplines also often focus on the content of a text. However, teaching reading skills in English classes and across the disciplines is an almost guaranteed way to help students retain content. Unfortunately, the tendency to focus on the content is a real enemy to the ultimate goal of building reading skills.

Without a repertoire of reading strategies that can be applied to any text, students are being shortchanged in their education. In order to teach students to read effectively, teachers must be sure that they are not simply suppliers of information on a particular text but also instructors of techniques to build reading skills. Here are some ideas on how to incorporate reading skills lessons into a curriculum.

Teach Close Reading Skills

Guide students in annotation by directing them to do more than highlight or underline. Encourage students to have a conversation with the text by jotting notes on the text while reading-this keeps students engaged and often increases comprehension. Annotations can include:

Defining new words

Asking questions

Coding recurring words and themes

Making personal connections to the text

Citing current events

Highlighting heading and subheadings

Summarizing paragraphs

Chunking

Categorizing information

Numbering and ordering

Drawing pictures

The list of possibilities is endless-the point is to have students form their own process when approaching a text. But don't be afraid to give students specific annotation guidelines such as "annotate the writer's characterization techniques" or "find examples of . . ." to help them focus. Annotations also help students identify which strategies work best for them as they try to process and understand information. The clip " Girls Read Comic" from The Big Bang Theory is a great way to introduce the concept of reading closely and its importance.

Appeal to the Senses

While reading is the work of the mind, incorporating the senses provides extra reinforcement for students who are still growing their skills. Reading passages aloud and verbalizing questions you would mentally ask while reading can be a great benefit to students. Students often have no idea how to ask questions, what type of questions to ask, or the frequency of questions, so modeling this skill is invaluable. This can be further reinforced especially for visual learners by using a document camera or overhead projector to write questions, mark key words and phrases, and interact with a text. And as always, encourage students to read with a pen or pencil in hand.

Guide Students in Setting Reading Goals

While writing goals are used regularly in the classroom, students do not assess personal reading skills on a regular basis. Begin the year by having students write a reader's biography to gain insight into their reading habits, struggles, and successes; this serves as a foundation for discussions on setting reading goals. After reading a novel, nonfiction text, short story, or poetry unit, help students evaluate their reading skills: Did you feel confident reading the text? Why or why not? What parts of the text gave you trouble? Could you have used a different strategy to make reading the text easier? Students should evaluate goals on a regular basis and create new goals based on their needs and growth.

Vary Text Length

When approaching a particularly difficult text, break it up and offer it in shorter segments. Students often become discouraged with lengthy texts that require intense concentration. Giving smaller segments allows the students to digest chunks in pieces, acquire academic vocabulary, and build confidence.

Offer Opportunities for Choice Reading

Simply put, the best way to improve reading is to read, and students are more likely to read when they have a choice in the reading. Newsela and CommonLit offer a variety of nonfiction articles for choice (and CommonLit includes fiction as well); both sites include articles with various grade levels and across multiple disciplines. Classroom libraries built from donations, garage sales, and thrift shops encourage students to take books for personal reading. Ask students about their interests and make recommendations. Reading for pleasure builds transferable skills for content reading and should be encouraged, including in class.

Assess Content and Skill

Students should be able to demonstrate their skills in assessment, whether it's formal or informal, formative or summative. Recall and comprehension questions are a good way to check for basic understanding, but teachers should then move to the harder how and why questions. Choose activities that require students to dig deep into a text, such as:

Facilitate a socratic discussion.

Create a playlist for a character.

Write a formal essay.

Make a meme for a character.

Present a mini-TED talk on research inspired by a text.

Create a mind map, literary 3x3, or infographic.

Most teachers already incorporate skill building in their classes to some degree; however, taking time to discuss and actively engage students in the process will keep skill development at the forefront of learning. The result will be students who not only make gains in reading but also have an understanding of how to become better readers.

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6 Techniques for Building Reading Skills-in Any Subject

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As avid lovers of literature, teachers often find themselves wanting to impart every bit of knowledge about a well-loved text to their students. And this is not just an ELA issue-other disciplines also often focus on the content of a text.

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Teaching reading can be challenging because it is a receptive skill. This needs to be accounted for when employing approaches and techniques to teach it.

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Teaching reading can be challenging because it is a receptive skill. This needs to be accounted for when employing approaches and techniques to teach it.

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One of the most outstanding techniques mentioned in this piece was assessing reading comprehension informally through discussion.

Having conversations around what is being read and understood from different perspectives is a very social and engaging way to digest and absorb reading.

Showing students different samples of various kinds of discourse patterns, as the article articulates, is also an effective way for students to interact with reading.

Moreover, the types of writing patterns each provide another opportunity for readers to discover a voice of writing or style that resonates with their interests and personality.

Resources:
https://busyteacher.org/14461-how-to-teach-reading-skills-10-best-practices.html
https://busyteacher.org/classroom_activities-reading-worksheets/

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by Stacia Levy 219,070 views

Reading classes are often very...quiet.

Of course, people are reading, and we generally don't hold conversations and read at the same time. And we teachers usually like quiet classrooms, seeing the quiet as indicative of learning taking place. This is true in many cases, of course, but there are some drawbacks to these quiet reading classes: they are not interactive, and it's been shown that interaction between students and students and teacher leads to greater processing of the material and therefore more learning. In additions, it's difficult to impossible to assess learning taking place without some talking; indeed, it's hard to tell if students in a silent classroom are even reading and not daydreaming or actually nodding off! Finally, these quiet noninteractive classes are simply boring, and boredom is not an incentive for students to come to class and learn. However, there are several methods to address these concerns in reading classes by making them interactive and still teach reading.

10 Best Practices for Teaching Reading

1. Assess level

Knowing your students' level of instruction is important for choosing materials. Reading should be neither too hard, at a point where students can't understand it and therefore benefit from it. If students don't understand the majority of the words on a page, the text is too hard for them. On the other hand, if the student understands everything in the reading, there is no challenge and no learning. So assess your students' level by giving them short reading passages of varying degrees of difficulty. This might take up the first week or so of class. Hand out a passage that seems to be at your students' approximate level and then hold a brief discussion, ask some questions, and define some vocabulary to determine if the passage is at the students' instructional level. If too easy or too hard, adjust the reading passage and repeat the procedure until you reach the students' optimal level.

2. Choose the correct level of maturity

While it's important that the material be neither too difficult nor too easy, a text should be at the student's maturity level as well -it's inappropriate to give children's storybooks to adult or adolescent students. There are, however, edited versions of mature material, such as classic and popular novels, for ESL students, that will hold their interest while they develop reading skills.

3. Choose interesting material

Find out your students' interest. Often within a class there are common themes of interest: parenting, medicine, and computers are some topics that come to mind that a majority of students in my classes have shared interest in. Ask students about their interests in the first days of class and collect reading material to match those interests. Teaching reading with texts on these topics will heighten student motivation to read and therefore ensure that they do read and improve their skills.

4. Build background knowledge

As a child, I attempted, and failed, to read a number of books that were "classics": Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" leaps to mind. It probably should have been a fairly easy read, but it was so full of cultural references to life in mid-nineteenth century New England that I gave up in defeat each time. It was not at my independent reading level, even if the vocabulary and grammatical patterns were, because of its cultural references. Why, for example, would young schoolgirls lust after limes, as the youngest daughter in the story, Amy, and her friends do? Cultural material like this would stop me abruptly. Clearly, this was not independent reading for me because of its cultural references, and I needed help to navigate this text-to explain that limes, a citrus fruit, would have been rare and prized a century ago in New England with its freezing winters and before there were effective methods of transporting and storing fruit. Similarly, our students, many new to the U.S., would need equal help with such material. It is important for the teacher to anticipate which cultural references students might need explained or discussed. This is not easy, of course, but can become so through such techniques as related discussion before the reading (e.g., "Who knows what the American Civil War was? When was it? Why was it fought?" or "Where is New England? Have you ever been there? What is the climate like?") A discussion before the reading on its topics builds background knowledge and the comprehensibility of the text as well as giving the teacher an idea of where students' background knowledge needs to be developed more.

5. Expose different discourse patterns

The narrative form is familiar to most students. In addition, it is popular to teachers. It is easy to teach: we've been reading and hearing stories most of our lives. However, reports, business letters, personal letters, articles, and essays are also genres that students will have to understand as they leave school and enter the working world. We understand the discourse pattern of a story: that is, its pattern of organization. It is related chronologically, for the most part; it is in the past with past tense verb forms; it is structured around a series of increasingly dramatic events that build to a climax or high point, and so forth. The discourse pattern of an essay for example, may be less familiar but still important to understanding the text: that it is built around a series of topics related to one main idea or thesis. Knowing the discourse pattern lets the reader know what to expect, and therefore increases comprehensibility.

6. Work in groups

Students should work in groups each session, reading aloud to each other, discussing the material, doing question and answer, and so forth. Working in groups provides the much needed interactivity to increase motivation and learning. Students may choose their own groups or be assigned one, and groups may vary in size.

7. Make connections

Make connections to other disciplines, to the outside world, to other students. Act out scenes from the reading, bring in related speakers, and or hold field trips on the topic. Help students see the value of reading by connecting reading to the outside world and show its use there.

8. Extended practice

Too often we complete a reading and then don't revisit it. However, related activities in vocabulary, grammar, comprehension questions, and discussion increase the processing of the reading and boost student learning.

9. Assess informally

Too often people think "test" when they hear the word "assess." But some of the most valuable assessment can be less formal: walking around and observing students, for example, discuss the reading. Does the discussion show they really understand the text? Other means of informal assessment might be short surveys or question sheets.

10. Assess formally

There is also a place for more formal assessment. But this doesn't have to be the traditional multiple choice test, which frequently reveals little more than the test-takers skill in taking tests. The essay on a reading - writing about some aspect of Orwell's "Animal Farm," for example - demonstrates control of the reading material in a way a multiple choice quiz cannot as the student really needs to understand the material to write about the reading's extended metaphor of the farm.

Teaching reading presents a unique set of challenges because it is a receptive language skill.

However, if the instructor keeps in mind "receptive" doesn't have mean "passive" an interactive class that improves student reading can be developed.

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How to Teach Reading Skills: 10 Best Practices

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by Stacia Levy 219,070 views Of course, people are reading, and we generally don't hold conversations and read at the same time. And we teachers usually like quiet classrooms, seeing the quiet as indicative of learning taking place.

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Making inferences, summarizing information & identifying main ideas require the critical thinking processes needed for deeper understanding. 

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Making inferences, summarizing information & identifying main ideas require the critical thinking processes needed for deeper understanding. 

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Techniques used to teach reading should, ultimately, lead not just to the identification of the information being written about but also an understanding of what it means. What the author is trying to achieve with his writing and what the writing is exposing for its readers.

Which brings us to the fact that the goal of teaching reading, beyond sounding out words like is accomplished in lower grade levels, is to achieve reading comprehension.

One of the most transformative ways to reach deeper levels of comprehension is summarizing. This calls for critical and analytic thinking because learners must identify key information (while filtering the rest) to then explain in their own words what the meaning of the reading expresses.

Yet another powerful technique in teaching how to detect higher understanding in reading is making inferences. Such conclusions lead students to make connections between prior knowledge and text evidence from what they are reading to reach new ideas.

And THAT, original thinking, I think is in and of itself the highest level we can teach students to reach through reading and transforming that information into knowledge and innovation.

References:
https://www.readnaturally.com/research/5-components-of-reading/comprehension
https://www.readnaturally.com/research/5-components-of-reading/comprehension#programs

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Comprehension: The Goal of Reading

Comprehension, or extracting meaning from what you read, is the ultimate goal of reading. Experienced readers take this for granted and may not appreciate the reading comprehension skills required. The process of comprehension is both interactive and strategic. Rather than passively reading text, readers must analyze it, internalize it and make it their own.

In order to read with comprehension, developing readers must be able to read with some proficiency and then receive explicit instruction in reading comprehension strategies (Tierney, 1982).

​ Strategies for reading comprehension in Read Naturally programs

​General Strategies for Reading Comprehension

The process of comprehending text begins before children can read, when someone reads a picture book to them. They listen to the words, see the pictures in the book, and may start to associate the words on the page with the words they are hearing and the ideas they represent.

In order to learn comprehension strategies, students need modeling, practice, and feedback. The key comprehension strategies are described below.

Using Prior Knowledge/Previewing

When students preview text, they tap into what they already know that will help them to understand the text they are about to read. This provides a framework for any new information they read.

Predicting

When students make predictions about the text they are about to read, it sets up expectations based on their prior knowledge about similar topics. As they read, they may mentally revise their prediction as they gain more information.

Identifying the Main Idea and Summarization

Identifying the main idea and summarizing requires that students determine what is important and then put it in their own words. Implicit in this process is trying to understand the author's purpose in writing the text.

Questioning

Asking and answering questions about text is another strategy that helps students focus on the meaning of text. Teachers can help by modeling both the process of asking good questions and strategies for finding the answers in the text.

Making Inferences

In order to make inferences about something that is not explicitly stated in the text, students must learn to draw on prior knowledge and recognize clues in the text itself.

Visualizing

Studies have shown that students who visualize while reading have better recall than those who do not (Pressley, 1977). Readers can take advantage of illustrations that are embedded in the text or create their own mental images or drawings when reading text without illustrations.

Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Narrative Text

Narrative text tells a story, either a true story or a fictional story. There are a number of strategies that will help students understand narrative text.

Story Maps

Teachers can have students diagram the story grammar of the text to raise their awareness of the elements the author uses to construct the story. Story grammar includes:

Setting: When and where the story takes place (which can change over the course of the story).

Characters: The people or animals in the story, including the protagonist (main character), whose motivations and actions drive the story.

Plot: The story line, which typically includes one or more problems or conflicts that the protagonist must address and ultimately resolve.

Theme: The overriding lesson or main idea that the author wants readers to glean from the story. It could be explicitly stated as in Aesop's Fables or inferred by the reader (more common).

​ Printable story map (blank)

Retelling

Asking students to retell a story in their own words forces them to analyze the content to determine what is important. Teachers can encourage students to go beyond literally recounting the story to drawing their own conclusions about it.

Prediction

Teachers can ask readers to make a prediction about a story based on the title and any other clues that are available, such as illustrations. Teachers can later ask students to find text that supports or contradicts their predictions.

Answering Comprehension Questions

Asking students different types of questions requires that they find the answers in different ways, for example, by finding literal answers in the text itself or by drawing on prior knowledge and then inferring answers based on clues in the text.

Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Expository Text

Expository text explains facts and concepts in order to inform, persuade, or explain.

The Structure of Expository Text

Expository text is typically structured with visual cues such as headings and subheadings that provide clear cues as to the structure of the information. The first sentence in a paragraph is also typically a topic sentence that clearly states what the paragraph is about.

Expository text also often uses one of five common text structures as an organizing principle:

Cause and effect

Problem and solution

Compare and contrast

Description

Time order (sequence of events, actions, or steps)

Teaching these structures can help students recognize relationships between ideas and the overall intent of the text.

Main Idea/Summarization

A summary briefly captures the main idea of the text and the key details that support the main idea. Students must understand the text in order to write a good summary that is more than a repetition of the text itself.

​K-W-L

There are three steps in the K-W-L process (Ogle, 1986):

1. What I Know: Before students read the text, ask them as a group to identify what they already know about the topic. Students write this list in the "K" column of their K-W-L forms.

2. What I Want to Know: Ask students to write questions about what they want to learn from reading the text in the "W" column of their K-W-L forms. For example, students may wonder if some of the "facts" offered in the "K" column are true.

3. What I Learned: As they read the text, students should look for answers to the questions listed in the "W" column and write their answers in the "L" column along with anything else they learn.

After all of the students have read the text, the teacher leads a discussion of the questions and answers.

Printable K-W-L chart (blank)

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers provide visual representations of the concepts in expository text. Representing ideas and relationships graphically can help students understand and remember them. Examples of graphic organizers are:
Tree diagrams that represent categories and hierarchies Tables that compare and contrast data Time-driven diagrams that represent the order of events Flowcharts that represent the steps of a process​
​

Teaching students how to develop and construct graphic organizers will require some modeling, guidance, and feedback. Teachers should demonstrate the process with examples first before students practice doing it on their own with teacher guidance and eventually work independently.

Strategies for Reading Comprehension in Read Naturally Programs

Several Read Naturally programs include strategies that support comprehension:

Read Naturally Intervention Program

Strategies for Reading Comprehension

Prediction Step

Retelling Step

Quiz / Comprehension Questions

Graphic Organizers

One Minute Reader Live:
A component of web-based Read Live for supplemental, independent reading that develops fluency with support for vocabulary and comprehension.

Take Aim at Vocabulary: A print-based program with audio CDs that teaches carefully selected target words and strategies for independently learning unknown words. Students work mostly independently or in teacher-led small groups of up to six students.

Main idea

Literal

Vocabulary

Inference

Vocabulary: Clarify target words

Vocabulary: Study word parts and review target words

Vocabulary: Apply the target words

Bibliography

Honig, B., L. Diamond, and L. Gutlohn. (2013). Teaching reading sourcebook, 2nd ed. Novato, CA: Arena Press.

Ogle, D. M. (1986). K-W-L: A teaching model that develops active reading of expository text. The Reading Teacher 38(6), pp. 564-570.

Pressley, M. (1977). Imagery and children's learning: Putting the picture in developmental perspective. Review of Educational Research 47, pp. 586-622.

Tierney, R. J. (1982). Essential considerations for developing basic reading comprehension skills. School Psychology Review 11(3), pp. 299-305.

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To improve comprehension, students must have some reading proficiency and receive explicit instruction in skills and strategies for reading comprehension.