Teaching Strategy Posts
Superior Questioning Techniques to Use in the Classroom
Asking open-ended questions is an important part of teaching for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most obvious reason is that questioning can reveal what a student already knows or has learned. In this article, we will explore how questioning can also be used to...
Five Senses, One Lesson: Why Multisensory Instruction is Powerful
Have you ever smelled something that instantly took you back to another time or place? Perhaps you have tasted a particular food, felt a texture, or heard a song that brought back distant, but powerful, memories. In this article, we will look at the science behind...
Think-Pair-Share-Pair-Share: A New Twist on a Classic Teaching Strategy
Think-Pair-Share-Pair-Share: A New Twist on a Classic Teaching Strategy by Daniel Biegun If you are a veteran teacher, you are likely familiar with the think-pair-share strategy. This version of the activity takes interaction to the next...
Trust Me, You Need to Try These Innovative Exit Tickets!
Exit Tickets are growing in popularity across the field of education, and for good reason. A thoughtfully-crafted Exit Ticket activity can provide valuable formative assessment data to educators, and to the students themselves. Formative assessment refers to prompts...
7 Teaching Strategies That Will Lead to an Amazing Year
As I write this post, teachers across the world are returning to their classrooms for a new school year. Educators are always looking for new teaching strategies to update their practices. Below are seven amazing ideas to get your school year started off right. We...
Icebreaker Bingo: The Ultimate Getting to Know You Game
Icebreaker Bingo is the ultimate getting-to-know-you activity for large groups. It is perfect for students at the beginning of a school year or for adult audiences at the beginning of a workshop or conference. Beyond the classroom, you can play Icebreaker Bingo at...
Multisensory Instruction: Powerful Strategies for All Learners
Have you ever smelled something that instantly took you back to another time or place? Perhaps you have tasted a particular food, felt a texture, or heard a song that brought back distant, but powerful memories. If one particular sense can bring back such memories,...
Formative Assessment vs. Summative Assessment: Which is Better?
In classrooms across America, summative assessment is the reigning, undisputed champion when it comes to collecting data on what students have learned. But should this be the case? Does summative assessment do what we need it to do? Is formative...
Become a Better Teacher by Embracing Universal Design for Learning
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a hot topic in education. Many UDL-related books, websites, and research articles are long on jargon and short on practical ideas that you can use with your students. This series will grow over time and offer...
The Pause Procedure: Offering Learners Time to Process & Reflect
Teachers tend to know a lot. It can be too easy to try cramming too much content into short amounts of class time. Research tells us that we should periodically pause during our lessons and allow students time to process and reflect. This strategy is important for all educators, whether teaching in K-12, lecturing for a college, or training adults.
Here is The Most Important Thing That Great Teachers Do When Asking Questions
Think about when you are asking questions to your class. Does this sound familiar?: You are ask a question and one or two of your eager learners are quick to raise their hands. In fact, the same few students always seem to be the first to raise their hands. Perhaps...
Science Choice Boards: A Formula for Authentic Assessment
This post will be short on theory and long on materials that you can use with your class. We have previously discussed the why and how of using choice boards for assessment. As follows are 5 choice boards that you can use for...
Three Virtual/Hybrid Exit Tickets That You Should Try Immediately
Exit Tickets are formative assessment activities that teachers use to collect valuable data. They can answer any number of important questions including Did my students learn what I expected them to learn? Were my teaching methods...
How to Use Simile Cards Across Content Areas
Let’s acknowledge that similes are not just for English class. Similes can present creative, fun, and deep means of synthesizing information across content areas. For this response type, the teacher will provide a selection of printed simile cards that...
How to Engage Your Whole Class with Pinch Cards
Teachers are always looking for new ways to engage and educate students. Pinch cards offer simple, but powerful opportunities for students to respond to teacher questions or discussion points. As discussed in a previous blog post, the traditional model of one student...
Choice Boards: A Powerful Way to Engage & Assess Your Students
Using choice boards just makes sense! Every individual student represents a unique blend of strengths, interests, needs, experiences, and background knowledge, so it stands to reason that a one-size-fits-all approach to assessment is not ideal. Giving students some...
Opportunities to Respond That Improve Engagement & Learning
Opportunities to respond (OTR) include instances where teachers elicit answers or responses from students. Unfortunately, the traditional OTR involves teachers calling on one student at a time to answer a question. When we call on a single student, it makes it easy...
Make Your Own Individual White Boards with Household Items
Individual white boards are an extremely versatile instructional tool in both face-to-face and virtual settings. Teachers can pose a broad range of questions and prompts for students, who indicate their responses using dry erase markers. As with...