Introduction to Teaching Strategies

The Framework Outline: Teaching Strategies

Introduction to Teaching Strategies

Teaching Strategies Outline

	Introduction
	Screening Strategies
	Download Examples
	Acknowledgments

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Introduction

Go to Downloading Teaching Strategies Examples: Click Here

This page is dedicated to making it easier to implement a variety of teaching methods and techniques. Here you'll find scores of teaching strategies that help students take more responsibility for their own learning and enhance the process of teaching for learning.

In our work with experts like Pat Wolfe from Napa, CA, and from the literature from David Sousa, Richard Strong, Eric Jensen and others, we believe that the brain does benefit from enriched environments as it learns. Eric Jensen, in Teaching with the Brain in Mind, states,

"Today, consensus tells us that heredity provides about 30-60 percent of our brain's wiring, and 40-70 percent is the environmental impact… As educators, we can most influence the ‘nurture’ aspect of students."

Because of this notion advocated by these and other experts, such as de Bono, Slavin and the Johnson brothers, we have gathered teaching strategies, that when implemented in a non-threatening manner, enrich the learning environment making the acquisition as well the application of learning more likely.

What you'll find provided at this site, is a combination of the work of many great educational leaders, local as well as national; and the materials that they have shared in works that they have published. This site is a response to the request of teachers and administrators who ask that the volume of information be reduced to bare-bone simplicity. They asked to have a handy, practical, useable set of research supported teaching strategies that they could use to design the learning opportunities that would address multiple learning styles and intelligences.

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Screening Strategies

Attention to selecting which teaching strategies to implement should follow once the decision about what students will be asked to do to show their understanding has been made. This set of tools is designed to assist educators in answering the question: "How do I design learning opportunities consistent with what we know about how the brain learns?"

Note: Like all powerful tools, these strategies can be misused. The following set of screening questions, filters if you like, help busy educators consciously and deliberately pay attention to at least six of the basic principles from brain researchers. This basic checklist appears on each teaching strategy page as a constant reminder, coaching educators to develop lessons that have the greatest potential for all learners.

Brain Compatible? Check It Out!

Under stress the brain downshifts.
M (memory) space determines how much a learner should be working on at one time.
Environment changes the brain: enriched environments increase the branching of dendrites.
The brain can pay conscious attention to only one train of thought at a time.
Content must have meaning/relevance for the learner.
All learning enters through the senses/emotions.

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Download Teaching Strategies

This table provides a quick scan of over 30 different teaching strategies. To view a detailed description of a particular teaching strategy, its implementation steps and suggested visual organizers, click on the name or pdf image to download a pdf file to your computer.

To view and print pdf files you will need Acrobat Reader.

AGO: Aims, Goals, Objectives
Device to get students to focus directly and deliberately on the intention behind actions.

Agree/Disagree Matrix
To help students organize data to support a position for or against an idea.

Baggage Claim
Getting to know you, class participation process

Bio-Poem
Getting to know you, class participation process

C & S: Consequences and Sequel
Crystallization of the process of looking ahead to see the consequences of some action, plan, decision

CAF: Consider All Factors
Framework for decision making, planning, drawing conclusions

Conduct and Interview
Template for meaningful, thoughtful process of gathering information

Do I Really Know It?
A flowchart to confirm clear understanding of a concept

FIP: First Importance Priorities
Process of picking out the most important ideas

Five WHYS?
Process of asking why 5 times to detect the root cause or meaning of a situation

Force Field Analysis
Analysis of pro and con sides of an issue

Fussing with Definition
Strategy to enable students to grasp difficult, often abstract meanings of vocabulary words

Four Corners
Step-by-Step process for discussion of issues, without threat

Gallery Walk
Strategy that requires demonstration of understanding of implications/applications of new learnings

How Do I Learn To Do It?
Six steps for learning something new

Jigsaw II
Cooperative, collaboration strategy toward a common group goal

The Mind Map
To clarify relationships between concepts

OPV: Other People’s View
Process to look at an issue from another point of view

PMI: Plus-Minus-Interesting
Process to evaluate, extend understanding

Prepare-Present-Process
Process to present information in a meaningful way

RAFT: Role, Audience, Format, Topic
Way to incorporate writing into content area

Reaching Consensus
Group decision making strategy via reaching a common consensus

Ready, Set, Recall
Review tool, quick and non-threatening

Scored Discussion
Process to monitor and validate student participation

Six Hat Thinking
Sequential steps for group or individual problem solving

SQRRR: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review
Study technique used in content area reading

SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
Debriefing technique to analysis and improve group functioning

TGT: Teams, Games, Tournaments
Cooperative strategy for learning content at different levels of proficiency

Think-Ink-Pair-Share
Strategy to engage students in thoughtful class participation

Think/Pair/Share
Strategy to engage students in thoughtful class participation

Venn Diagram
Visual to aid compare and contrast thinking

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Acknowledgments

Sources for this collection of teaching strategies include:

Silver, Hanson, Strong and Schwartz’s book entitled, Teaching Styles and Strategies
Hyerle’s book entitled Visual Tools for Constructing Knowledge
de Bono’s book entitled, Six Thinking Hats
Johnson and Johnson’s book entitled, Circles of Learning
Stover, Neubert, and Lawlor’s book entitled Creating Interactive Environments in the Secondary School
as well as others from workshops presented by Art Costa, Robert Marzano, Fred Newmann to mention a few.

This collection is intended to be a quick reference guide. Educators without an in-depth understanding and prior experience with these strategies are strongly encouraged to go to these sources for detailed guidelines and more elaborate background information.

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