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My classroom every day typically starts with a warm-up/bell ringer question. This question is typically about something that the students have learned the previous day in class. I like how my mentor teacher uses this quick overview question to see if there are any students that are having problems understanding the previous days topic. We will have the students write down their individual answers and then ask someone to share it with the class. While they are working on the question, we can do a quick visual glance to see how many students have left their response box blank and go over the question in a little more detail. The students usually know that they should be working on their bell ringers as the teacher is walking into class and this time allows for the teacher to take attendance and talk with anyone who had missed the day prior and give them their missed assignments.  The warm up questions that we use will also tend to be the major topic of the lesson and something that could potentially be on the unit quiz/test. Some students are starting to recognize this and will write down the question in their response box so that they have something to study from.
One source I found about warm ups/bell ringers was: https://www.keslerscience.com/5-reasons-why-warm-ups-and-bell-ringers-were-a-failure-in-my-classroom/. The author gave 5 good reasons why warm ups failed in her classroom. They were all very real reason why a teacher and student would fail at using a warm up/bellringer correctly. The system we use for grading the warm ups is just a quick glance at all 5 questions for the week and see if the student understood what the question was asking and if they responded correctly. I can get a class of 34 done in about 10-15 mins, including entering in the grade book as 5 points per week participation. The questions don't have to have extremely long responses to get the message across on what was important from the lesson before. Most responses we expect from the students can be a few words to a short sentence long
~Stephanie Kay

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http://webquest.org/search/index.php
I choose to look more into webquests. We have used one of these programs in my mentors classroom so far and the students seem to really enjoy them. The students are using web based technology to learn about their subject at their own pace. Students can have a worksheet that goes along with the webquest to keep them on track and help them to follow along through the webquest. For the ones that I looked into, the all have an introductory page, followed by a task, process, evaluation and finally a conclusion to the task. The students can work their way through the webquest, learning about the topic as they go. I feel that this could also help students learn better technology use techniques, as many just barely know how to Google information and they will learn what informational websites are deemed credible or not
~Stephanie Kay

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http://questgarden.com/search/webquest_results.php?curr=currscience&grade=grade912&Submit=Search
I chose to research this strategy as I have never heard of it. I'm not sure how I feel about putting  our students in front of a computer for learning. They do not always do a great job with computer learning. It seems like there are a bunch of webquests that teachers have created that you can use and adapt for your students. The first one I tried was actually very confusing. I almost gave up on the strategy but then I found a genetics/race webquest. I started to walk through the quest and I really love it!!  Basically, webquests are just specific instruction with videos and articles that the teacher chooses for the students. The students answer questions either at the end or during the quest. I just sent it to my mentor teacher to see if this is something that we could/should do. And she is soooo excited about it!! My husband has a friend who he had suggested I could ask to come and speak to my class but I really wasn't sure if I could figure out how to fit him in and if it would be super meaningful. Sometimes I can't see the "why" in things and so I decided I would probably not have him come but now I have a "why". He would really help navigate this topic. I'm so excited!!
I am going to use this webquest as a bridge between two units

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https://www.jigsaw.org/#steps
http://www.teachhub.com/jigsaw-method-teaching-strategy
The Jig Saw strategy is a 6 (or 10) step process that gives each student a part in process and becoming an "expert" in a group/collaborative group setting. The Jigsaw Classroom (www.jigsaw.org) states that "if each student's part is essential, them each student is essential; and that is precisely what makes this strategy so effective."
The 10 step process is as follows (www.teachhub.com summaries the steps into 6 steps but I like www.jigsaw.org original 10 steps):
1. Divide students into groups of 5-6 students
2. appoint a leader for each group.
3. divide the lesson/reading into 5-6 segments.
4. each student learns 1 segment.
5. each student reads over segment 2-3 times.
6. form "expert" groups  from each of the assigned segments that contain 1 student from each of the jig saw groups. students talk and process their segment with other students that are assigned to the same segment and become experts in their area.
7. students go back to original groups
8. each student presents their segment to their original group.
9. teacher floats from group to group to make sure the students are staying on task and relaying the correct information.
10. end process with quiz or project on the material.
I want to use this strategy when reading scientific, peer reviewed text in the classroom. Sometimes the text is so overwhelming but if each student had to only read a part and then were able to discuss with other students to really know what the text says and means and what it means in the context of what we are learning and then have to present/teach that content to their fellow students, I believe that students will really learn!! There are challenges with this strategy and The Jigsaw Classroom (www.jigsaw.org) has some really good suggestions and helps. I will be more difficult introducing it into a 9th grade classroom compared to an elementary classroom, but the benefits will be worth the initial work and complaining I'm sure the students will give me.

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Guest Speaker

Something that sets most of us in this program apart from others who are seeking their teaching certificate is our experience and background.  Unlike undergraduate teachers who teach right after graduating, we have had the experience to learn other skills and trades while also building connections.  These connections can be first-hand friends, coworkers, bosses, or mentors.  Some of these connections can also be from connections those aforementioned connections have.  Not only are these connections important, but our knowledge and understanding of professionals and the “real world” help set us apart as well.  So how do we utilize these assets?  One thing that I am really excited is to implement guest speakers into my lessons.  It’s not just about getting somebody who has experience in an area either, it’s about finding somebody who has experience, can present the information well, and is willing to share their experience in a way that is specific to your lesson or needs.

Research has shown that having a guest speaker talk about a particular topic helps engage students in the content more as well as understand the real-world applications to what they are learning.  “When am I ever going to use this information again?”  “Well tomorrow, we are having __________________ come in to talk about just that!”  How great would that be?  Also, research has indicated improved school performance in students who are able to grasp those real-world examples and applications to the content being taught.

Despite the benefits of guest speakers being so great with data to back it up, this strategy still is not used very often.  The reason, time and money.  Not only might it be difficult to schedule the time to have your guest speaker come in, you should also probably meet with them a few times before they present to go over what ideas and concepts will be and/or should be covered in this presentation time.  When delving into professional presenters, there is usually the problem with monetary compensation for their time and travel.

So, if I want to have a presenter come into my classroom to talk about human impacts on freshwater streams and the implications of dams and their removal, I will probably need a very specific individual to cover that which might be difficult to time and pay for.  Except that is the specific research topic one of my best friends worked on.  I have dinner with her family on a regular basis and we often come back to talking about how it would be nice to present some of her work in this area and others in my classroom.  What’s the cost?  I have to host dinner two weeks in a row.  What do my students gain from it all?  Valuable insight on the scientific process from thinking of a research topic through publication of the work.  Also, this content is relevant to Chapter 8 in their textbook on human impact on the planet and its resources as well as Chapter 7 on aquatic ecosystems.  Yes, this is a very specific example of a resource that maybe only I have, but both my contact and I are willing to share because we understand the importance of guest speakers in the classroom.  Between each member here in this group of wonderful individuals, there are probably thousands of contacts in varying areas of content.  What did/does your husband, wife, kids, parents, friends do for a living?  Are they willing to share their experience to people who are really looking for information about future career opportunities?  Maybe it’s time to give some of them a call.

Resources:

http://teachingonpurpose.org/journal/guest-speakers-a-great-way-to-commit-to-education/

http://www.teachhub.com/classroom-management-guest-speakers-support-learning

Personal Experience

~K. Poczekaj

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Gallery Walks

My classroom has actually been implementing Gallery Walks during lessons and classroom discussions for some time now, but I always felt like there was more to it than what I was seeing in my classroom.  After doing research, I have found that there are many ways to implement this strategy in a variety of classrooms both with regards to content areas and age groups.  In my classroom, we have been using the Gallery Walk method to allow students a chance to model different things like particle drawings, atom structure, the properties of diffusion, and more.  The students work in groups of 3-4 to draw out a representation of the model in question to the best of their abilities.  Upon completion of their work, students take sticky-notes to other groups and make comments that are kind, specific, and helpful (not comments like “great,” or “you are a good drawer”).  These comments are written on the sticky-notes and placed on the table where the model under scrutiny is located.  During this time, students have a chance to see what their peers have commented on as well.  This peer feedback allows students to build off of the knowledge of each other to increase their knowledge and understanding of a particular topic.

The Gallery Walk can be modified in many ways.  Each group could make their own model and give feedback to each other group as a collective group or individually.  If modeling more than one thing, you could have a single student leave their group and move to another group.  The members of the group that stayed have to then present their work to the new member and have a question and answer session.  The students then move back to their original group and they discuss what they saw elsewhere.  You can continue to do this as many times as desired.

Most Gallery Walks consist of models, questions, or thought-provoking ideas that are spread out around the classroom.  Students must leave their seats and travel to each of these areas in groups to answer/discuss what is there.  For feedback, students could leave notes at each station so other students can see what their ideas were when they come to that station.  Students could also discuss within their groups and present their findings later.

I really enjoy this method as it gets students up and out of their seats.  It is a great way to get students involved in peer learning opportunities and group/class discussions.  I am always looking for new ways to use and refine the tools I already have experience with and am excited to implement some of these new ideas to the Gallery Walk in my classroom.  I especially like the idea of groups presenting their work to students from other groups as this technique meshes well with Project Based Learning practices.

Resources:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/learning-for-the-future/future-focused-learning-and-teaching/Future-focused-resources/gallery-walks2

https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/gallerywalk/what.html

http://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/gallery-walk

https://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=52391

Personal Experience

~K. Poczekaj

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www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/four-corners

Four Corners is one of the strategies that Calvin Terrel used during his presentation. It involves presenting a controversial statement and having a separate response in each corner of the room. Students go to the corner of the room that corresponds to their answer. They then discuss the question with others in their corner and are allowed to ask questions to students that went to the other corners. This strategy teaches students how to develop empathy, communicate effectively, and gain a deeper understanding through other people's viewpoints. I would use this in my history classes. I would ask a controversial question such as, "Who was treated worse throughout history: African Americans, Women, Native Americans, Forest Land." I believe we could generate some meaningful conversations and students would be given great perspectives after hearing their peer's explanations.
--Brian

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www.facinghistory.org/resourcelibrary/teaching-strategies/socracticseminar

Socratic Seminar is an organized classroom discussion strategy. The students are expected to run and facilitate the discussion. It works best if you use a text that allows you to ask an open ended question about the material. Some examples include MLK Speech, Gettysburg Address. The goal is for students to gain a deeper understanding of the text through multiple perspectives. It is important that the students do not debate each other. They must respect each others opinions and provide their insight. I could definitely put this to use in a history class. I would offer the text of an important speech in history and allow students to ask questions. I may have to initiate the conversation by offering the initial question. It would allow the students to gain a deeper understanding of the material and learn how to communicate effectively with others. This strategy would also teach students how to develop empathy for their peers.
--Brian

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http://www.readingquest.org/a-z-strategies.html

https://www.teachingchannel.org/video/think-pair-share-lesson-idea

On resource I was looking at actually lists think-pair-share as a scaffolding technique, and I can see that as well. With a range if student abilities, thinking alone and then discussing as a group provides a safer space, and opportunities to learn different perspectives on problem solving from peers. In our class we often have students work in groups to solve problems and sometimes even have them share as a group with the class. The piece that we often ignore is giving students the opportunity to think on the idea for themselves before they work as a group. I think that alone time thinking is essential, especially for those students who may “get it,” but just need an extra 30 seconds to think things through. I want to start giving student that time to think and perhaps struggle alone, to generate ideas about a problem and learn to verbalize their thoughts afterward.

-Derek

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https://www.bie.org/blog/scaffolding_content_and_process_in_pbl

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber

I’ve been thinking a lot about effective scaffolding lately, especially since we were introduced some good ideas through the project based learning (PBL) training. I like to do a lot of exploration learning exercises in class and that is a great place to use scaffolding. The idea is that we are trying to get students to come to conclusions and figure things out for themselves instead of just telling them the answer or formula. This would likely be a really challenging task for them unless we include some sort of scaffolding, little steps or hints along the way to guide their thinking. I think we may also want to do more of this in our projects as well. Specifically, the presentation or formatting of many students’ work has not been what we were expecting. If we can not only tell them, but provide some sort of framework for their work I feel like we will get much better results.

-Derek

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Quick Write:  The quick write is a short timed writing exercise where students can write whatever they want about a particular prompt.  The time can range from 3-10 minutes and the prompt can vary at the teacher’s discretion.  This strategy can be used as an anticipatory set (bellringer), as an exit ticket, or as a brainstorming opportunity.  The idea is to get students writing to increase their confidence, competency, and fluency.  These quick writes do not have to be graded, or even collected, but can be a springboard into a topic or discussion.  The students should also be told that spelling, punctuation, and grammar are not the primary concern, so that they can focus on writing continuously for the allotted time.  This strategy and some examples of ways to use the quick write were found at the following website: http://oncourseworkshop.com/life-long-learning/six-ways-use-quick-writes-promote-learning/.  An example of how I would use this strategy is as a probe into student’s prior knowledge about a topic when beginning a new unit or lesson.  I would also use this strategy as a brainstorming opportunity before the student’s take on a larger writing assignment.  This strategy would also be useful as an exit ticket to assess student learning of the lesson’s learning targets.

Natalie Crane

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Fishbowl:  As an alternative to a whole class discussion, the fishbowl can be used with a smaller group of students to discuss a topic.  The rest of the students surround the inner circle watching from the outside.  The fishbowl not only allows discussion, but also encourages listening skills.  In order to ensure all the students outside the fishbowl participate, they can tap into the inner circle to add comments or ask questions, or they can write down questions, observations, or opinions.  The inner and outer groups can also be even in number and switch halfway through the allotted time.  This strategy can be used in multiple ways that can be tailored to your classroom.  This strategy and alternate ideas were found at the following website: https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/fishbowl.  An example of how I might use this strategy is when teaching the debated issues during the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.  The students could debated The Great Compromise and the Three Fifths Compromise as the delegates did during the Constitutional Convention.

Natalie Crane

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According to Northern Illinois University, scaffolding is the act of creating "temporary support structures...that are gradually removed" over time. I think of them as training wheels as someone learns to ride a bike for a first time, or having a second brake in a driver's training car. Students will gradually accept more responsibility as they understand more of the content. Scaffolding can be used for just one student, or applied to an entire classroom. Examples of scaffolding can includes things like partially completed handouts or notes, a vocabulary bank, prompts, or reducing the reading level of a text.
With my history class, I intend to use scaffolding with every lesson that involves primary sources. I will modify the text itself, and simplify it based on the needs of my students. For instance, instead of giving them a 500 word speech, I might cut out a 50 word portion and have them focus on that. Over time, if they have proven to me that they can accomplish it, I will gradually hand them more complicated (and longer) documents.

https://www.niu.edu/facdev/_pdf/guide/strategies/instructional_scaffolding_to_improve_learning.pdf

-Joe E.

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This is a type of formative assessment that I feel like is criminally underused in a lot of high school classrooms, as I see it more commonly used in elementary ones. However, I believe this is a valuable assessment that allows conclusive evidence to be collected, and in addition to this, it is very easy and quick to make. Exit tickets allow teachers to "gain understanding of who knows what and if certain topics need additional time". After the results are interpreted by the teacher, students can be "grouped" based on their answers, with an ideal group composing of both high performing students and low performing students, as well as those in the middle. The article calls these group sessions moments of "self-regulation of learning". I plan to use exit tickets at least once a week, especially after a lot of complex content was taught. I plan to ask the same question at one point in time, and then again a few weeks later to see if students improve on their responses.

https://www.nwea.org/blog/2013/formative-assessment-revisiting-exit-ticket/

-Joe E.

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As mentioned in my other post, the idea of an overarching story to tell the introduction to a unit is an idea of mine. So, the obvious other one I would look at was storytelling as a teaching tool. I think it would attach them to this characters family that is traveling through time. They would then go on a webquest. The article mentions that this humanizes the learning for them.  I think there is nothing more humanizing for history than having a person's story to follow through the eras.

http://www.teachhub.com/storytelling-classroom-teaching-strategy

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This is an inquiry based lesson format in which all information comes from the internet.
I always thought it would be interesting to have students work together to follow a story through the year.  Each introductory lesson to a unit would tell a portion of this person's family story.  After reading this, the students would initiate a webquest to find some answers about their lives and journey.  While the idea is still in its infancy, this was how I envisioned this before conducting this research.
I chose to look at this because it appeared to align with my introductory lesson idea.

https://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech011.shtml

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The second strategy I chose to research was Think, Pair, Share.  The article, “The Effect of Cooperative Learning on Mathematics Learning Outcomes Viewed from Students’ Learning Motivation” by Firdha Razak is a study that compares Think, Pair, Share (TPS) and Numbered Heads Together (NHT) where the findings were that effects of interaction between cooperative learning models (TPS and NHT) and learning motivation on mathematics learning achievement and that TPS showed students with higher learning motivation then NHT.  I found this to be very helpful in deciding what instructional strategies I would want to implement in my classroom.  In mathematics, there is a lot information students are given in each lesson. I sometimes become overwhelmed with trying to make sure every student understands the concepts by walking around answering questions.  Think, Pair, Share would be a great strategy to implement because it will make the classroom smaller in a sense by grouping students together.  Also, students can work together and share questions and answers with one another.  Students sometimes understand material better when it is explained to them by someone their age too.

http://journals.ums.ac.id/index.php/jramathedu/article/view/1785/1248

Charlie Roberts

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Flipped instruction is a strategy I chose to research because I feel it is a great strategy to increase student engagement during class time.  The article I found was from the International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology (IJEMST) and was titled, “Assessing Behavioral Engagement in Flipped and Non-flipped Mathematics Classrooms: Teachers Abilities and Other Potential Factors” by Theodore Hodgson, Abby Cunningham, Daniel Mcgee, Lenore Kinne and Terri Murphy.  Flipped classrooms are typically seen in college classrooms, however, there has been an increase in post-college classrooms that have implemented flipped instruction in their classroom.  I have been a student in this type of classroom where I had been assigned a group of videos that I was required to watch before coming to class, and it was very useful because I had prior knowledge of what we would be discussing in class beforehand.  In the article, the authors performed a study between a flipped classroom and a non-flipped classroom (traditional setting).  Research found that flipped instruction impacted student engagement.  I found this very interesting, and it was enough data for me to think of implementing this type of instruction into my classroom.  The classroom at my placement now is very much a traditional setting where “teachers review homework solutions and address students’ questions; present new content; model the use of the new content through several examples; assign homework addressing new content; and, if any time remains, allow students to begin their homework.”  This can become a boring schedule and a lot of times students come in to class without any prior knowledge.  I think assigning videos about the material that will be covered ahead of time gives students the opportunity to come in to class and begin immediately discussing what they get and what they do not get.  I would have time during my class time to have better class discussions with students and help them better understand the material.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1151444.pdf

Charlie Roberts

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Telling stories is a strategy that can be manipulated into almost any ELA content because--among more obvious (and important) reasons--writing narratives is an integral part of the CCSS. Using storytelling in a unit, I could nail all of the standards for writing narratives in one fell swoop.

More importantly, storytelling "humanizes learning." It's helpful for both native speakers and for ELLs because storytelling occurs in all cultures. It allows students to be creative in how they show what they know.

I could use a draft and peer-editing approach to get students more involved in their stories. My mentor teacher--and another great English teacher I've observed at CCA--make good use of storytelling as an assessment tool. The students love it, and the teachers not only get a good grasp of what the student understands, but they also enjoy reading the students' work.

--Ethan O'Brien

http://www.teachhub.com/storytelling-classroom-teaching-strategy

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I would like to try a gallery walk in a history class after the teacher in the Teaching Channel video I watched. Students team up, do research, and create giant posters with criteria based on a rubric. When the posters are due, students hang them up on the walls and each group walks around the gallery that's been created, assessing the posters and taking notes (I'd use a fill-in-the blank template).

I--and the students in the video--think that this is a fun, interactive idea that beats textbook/notetaking by a long shot. Of course I'll use those strategies in my history class, but a gallery walk gets students to give each other feedback, which I think is important. It's a very student-centered activity.

--Ethan O'Brien

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
ELA.WHST.11-12.9

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

WHST: Writing Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects 6-12

11-12: 11th & 12th Grades

9:
Draw evidence from informational texts to support
analysis, reflection, and research.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

Thought starters

1. How does the gallery walk make students feel more accountable for quality work?

2. How does this lesson allow students to learn lots of information in a short amount of time?

3. Notice how naturally students work in teams and openly give feedback?

School Details

Urban Assembly New York Harbor School
10 South Street
New York NY 10004

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Exploring the World of Ancient Civilizations

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The Gallery Walk is an effective teaching method for many topics in many subjects. Here we see Ms. Caufield use the Gallery Walk to teach about Ancient Civilizations to her eleventh grade history class. Learn the method, and how it can be applied to other subjects.

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I chose to research Clock Partners because I had never heard of them before and thought it sounded intriguing. What I found was a quick and easy way to pair up students without them always having the same partner. What you do is you use a clock model where a student writes the name of a different student in each time slot. That way, when you want to pair up students, you can just say "Get with your 3 o'clock partner". You can create these yourself, where you choose the partners for all of the slots, you can have students pick, or any combination there of. While I think this was more designed for Elementary students, it still can be used in a High School. By spending a short amount of time at the beginning of the semester, you can have 12 different pairings ready for the whole semester.

Here is an article about Clock Partners and a post that has a free template to use!

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/ritchieparkes/staff/What%20Are%20Clock%20Buddies.pdf

https://thecoreinspiration.com/2013/09/collaborate-with-clock-partners.html

I could use this method in my classroom as a quick homework/worksheet check. I could have students quickly pair up multiple times to check their work with other students. If I created some of the pairings and allowed the students to fill in the rest, I think there would be a good balance of productive and fun pairings!

Paige Poindexter

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I chose to look into the concept of a Flipped Classroom because the AP Chemistry students at my placement have been asking to try this! A flipped classroom is where teachers send home instructional videos for students, whether they are videos of themselves or other instructional videos from the web. Students are then expected to watch the videos before class and then spend class time solving problems and answering questions about the videos. By incorporating a flipped classroom, there is more time for teachers to spend one-on-one with students and go deeper into the topics. While this concept isn't new, there is still a limited amount of research about what exactly makes it effective. There are some problems that could arise if you tried to incorporate this into your classroom. You would have to make sure that each student has access to internet at home, and you would have to be willing to take on a large time commitment if you wanted to make the videos yourself. A flipped classroom is a great method to use if you really want to spend time with students solving problems in the class!

Here are two different articles that I found about what a Flipped Classroom is and the possible problems:

https://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2017/12/how_well_does_flipped_instruction_work_researchers_are_trying_to_find_the_best_tactics.html

https://www.educationnext.org/the-flipped-classroom/

I definitely want to incorporate part of a flipped classroom in my classroom! While I don't think I want to commit to an entirely flipped classroom, I think that are certain units that would lend themselves well to this. I could send home videos of the basics of chemical equations, or how to balance an equation and then spend my class time working with students on more challenging problems. I'm excited to try this and see the benefits I have read about!

Paige Poindexter

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Instructional Strategies for Effective Teaching -- Fish Bowl

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Instructional Strategies for Effective Teaching -- Fish Bowl

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Part of the classroom and school experience is learning how to listen attentively.  This is one major life skill that I would like all of my students to learn from me.  In my choir classrooms, with 50+ students, I want to be a role model in attentive listening day in and day out that my students may learn courtesy and respect while someone is talking or when two or more people are having a conversation.  It's important for students to see someone modeling understanding of a student's needs.  The second activity I chose to explore was the Fish Bowl strategy.  This activity can be done in any classroom in any content area.  The activity is simple and the learning opportunities contribute to learning the life skill of attentive listening.
Two or more students are invited to sit in the middle and to have had time to think about a response to a question or a prompt.  The remainder of the students in the classroom are invited to sit around the group of students that are having a conversation in the middle.  The goal of the activity for the students in the middle is to listen attentively to what the others in the middle are saying and to use what they said in their arguments.  The goal of the students sitting on the outside of the circle is to listen, take notes, make observations, and pose questions to the class after the discussion in the center of the circle has taken place.

Below is a link to an article and a video on "Fish Bowl-ing":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkWl9b0FZSE
https://www.learner.org/workshops/tml/workshop3/teaching2.html

I would like to use this strategy in my classroom by inviting students to think and connect what they are learning about the music to something tangible in their life experiences as well as in the world they perceive.

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-Pat MacKenzie

Inquiry-Based Learning is a method which combines student centered, hands-on activities with discovery. Inquiry-based learning is often conducted presenting students with an essential question that students must try and answer. The instructor acts as a facilitator that provides guidance and promotes student questioning. Studies have shown that introduction of inquiry-based learning has increased deeper understanding of content and boosted students' confidence in performing tasks.

A cool thing about Inquiry-Based Learning is it can be adjusted and modified. There can be teacher guided inquiry that then leads to to student inquiry. A teacher may also use an inquiry project to compliment some direct teaching on the background knowledge students would need in order to answer the question.

Some of the challenges I found for Inquiry-Based Learning are:
1) Developing projects that encourage invention and exploration.
2) Assessing Collaborative Learning
3) Creating student buy in if they are not accustomed to this style of learning.
4) Students may not follow the intended path.

In my classroom I plan on using inquiry labs as a way to incorporate inquiry-based learning. Instead of students following the traditional "cookbook" style chemistry labs, I can present them with a problem they will need to solve using knowledge from our unit.

Here are two videos I found to be very helpful for seeing what inquiry-based learning looks like in action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbqPaKTsDIU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAYh4nWUkU0

Sources:

Smallhorn, M., Young, J., Hunter, N. & Burke da Silva, K. (2015). Inquiry-based learning to improve student engagement in a large first year topic. Student Success, 6(2), 65-71. doi: 10.5204/ssj.v6i2.292

Markham, T. (2013). The challenges and realities of inquiry-based learning. Accessed from https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/29714/the-challenges-and-realities-of-inquiry-based-learning

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Instructional Strategies for Effective Teaching -- Story Telling

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Instructional Strategies for Effective Teaching -- Story Telling

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The first strategy I chose to explore was story telling as a teaching strategy.  I recall from my undergraduate years learning concepts in my introductory communication class.  What I remember the most from that course was not what I read in the textbook or heard during the lectures while taking notes.  No.  What I remember the most was the stories my professor told that communicated the big picture.  He expertly told stories, and the narratives flowed organically.  The stories would highlight the concepts he was teaching to the class.  The article I chose to read about story telling as a teaching strategy notes how powerful story telling is.  The author says, "I've noticed that many of my former students will come back and ask, 'Do you still tell your class that story about...?'" This experience of the author's former student asking about his stories infers the adhesive power that stories have on effective teaching.

Here is the article I read on story telling as a teaching strategy:
http://www.teachhub.com/storytelling-classroom-teaching-strategy

I have already implemented story telling as a teaching strategy in my choir classrooms.  I have shared my experience of how music has provided many opportunities for my growth and development as a musician.  My stories have also included my struggles and successes.  These stories help my students to relate to me while also allowing me to remember what learning music was like for me when I was their age.

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-Pat MacKenzie

Instructional scaffolds are temporary support structures faculty put in place to assist students in accomplishing new tasks and concepts they could not typically achieve on their own. Once students are able to complete or master the task, the scaffolding is gradually removed or fades away—the responsibility of learning shifts from the instructor to the student.
A common process for this would be the "I Do" "We Do" "You Do" concept. You can even break the "You Do" into two categories of "Group Do" and  "Individual Do".

Some of the benefits I found for using scaffolding include: Student engagement, high student motivation from "learning how to learn", increased likelihood of meeting objectives, and increase peer-peer teaching.

Challenges= planning is time consuming, appropriate matching of scaffolds to learning styles, timely removal of scaffolds, and not knowing students well enough.

I have found that I use scaffolding pretty often in my teaching philosophy and the most common forms I use are questioning with "what if statements" and developing step by step processes or strategies with students to answer a question. Ex) Steps to follow when asked to interpret graphs. What are they asking for? What variables are shown on the graph? Is what we are looking for on the graph or do we need more information?

Here is a Youtube video showcasing some simple forms of scaffolding in practice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hWDbSx_kdo

Sources on scaffolding:

"Instructional Scaffolding to Improve Learning". Northern Illinois University Development and Instructional Design Center

Alibali, M (2006). Does visual scaffolding facilitate students’ mathematics learning? Evidence from early algebra. http://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=54

I found this table to be a great resource for examples of scaffolds.

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Bell Ringers are activities that begin class each day. These have a variety of benefits. Just in terms of classroom management, they give the students a structure that they can expect. This avoids the repeated "what are we doing today questions" from students and instead focuses them on an activity as soon as class begins. It is also can be a good way to introduce a topic and prime students to think about a topic from a personal perspective. It can also function as a review of previous material taught. They could be a good informal formative assessment to help the teacher gauge how well the students have understood/ remembered former lessons. 

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Bell Ringers are activities that begin class each day. These have a variety of benefits. Just in terms of classroom management, they give the students a structure that they can expect. This avoids the repeated "what are we doing today questions" from students and instead focuses them on an activity as soon as class begins. It is also can be a good way to introduce a topic and prime students to think about a topic from a personal perspective. It can also function as a review of previous material taught. They could be a good informal formative assessment to help the teacher gauge how well the students have understood/ remembered former lessons. 

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Here is a website with different bell ringer ideas for different subjects and grade levels: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/bell-ringer-exercises-todd-finley
Here is a youtube video from a teacher that discusses the benefits of bell ringers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBIU-LWlg8A
I incorporated some bell ringer type activities into my unit plan, but I would like to use bell ringers as a more routine part of my class. I would like to have students do free writing activities related to whatever we are discussing that day and also some grammar check bell ringers to see if students are understanding the grammar lessons we give.

-Patrick Misner

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The Jig Saw technique is a teaching strategy that breaks students into groups. Each group is then responsible to do research/ become the "expert" on one topic related to a main topic that the class is discussing as a whole. Teachers could also break down in individual text into separate parts for each group. After each group has time to learn about the topic, they then present that information to the rest of the class. This way, the students are the ones informing their classmates on a topic. It is a great way to incorporate cooperative learning strategies into the classroom. Here is a good website discussing how to do jig sawing in the classroom and some of the benefits of it and also a short youtube video describing the strategy:

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The Jig Saw technique is a teaching strategy that breaks students into groups. Each group is then responsible to do research/ become the "expert" on one topic related to a main topic that the class is discussing as a whole. Teachers could also break down in individual text into separate parts for each group. After each group has time to learn about the topic, they then present that information to the rest of the class. This way, the students are the ones informing their classmates on a topic. It is a great way to incorporate cooperative learning strategies into the classroom. Here is a good website discussing how to do jig sawing in the classroom and some of the benefits of it and also a short youtube video describing the strategy:

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http://www.teachhub.com/jigsaw-method-teaching-strategy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvi0ZvOhZs0
I actually plan on using the jig saw method for the poem "To a Mouse" which is what the title of Of Mice and Men is referencing. Students will be broken up into groups and asked to discuss and figure out the meaning of different stanzas and then report their ideas to the whole class. It is part of the unit plan I just finished.

-Patrick Misner