Instructional Strategies List for Teachers

A BIG List of Instructional Strategies for Teachers

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What are Instructional Strategies and How Can I Use Them?

As a teacher, you know that the key to successful student learning is a well-planned and engaging lesson. While there are many different teaching methods, instructional strategies are a crucial aspect of lesson planning that can help you create a positive and effective learning environment for your students.

So, what exactly are instructional strategies, and how do they differ from teaching methods? Simply put, instructional strategies are specific techniques or approaches that teachers use to present information to students and guide their learning. These strategies can be used alongside a variety of teaching methods, such as direct instruction, inquiry-based learning, or problem-based learning, to enhance student engagement and understanding.

Engaging Students in the Learning Process

One of the primary goals of instructional strategies is to engage students in the learning process. When students are actively involved in their own learning, they are more likely to retain new information and develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Here are a few examples of instructional strategies that can be used to engage students in the classroom:

Collaborative learning: This strategy involves students working together in small groups to complete a task or project. Collaborative learning promotes teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills, and can be an effective way to engage students in the learning process.

Inquiry-based learning: This strategy encourages students to ask questions, explore, and discover new information on their own. By taking a more hands-off approach, teachers can foster critical thinking and curiosity in their students, leading to a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

Differentiation: Differentiation is the practice of tailoring instruction to meet the individual needs of each student. This can be especially important in classrooms where students have a wide range of abilities and learning styles. By using a variety of instructional strategies and adapting your teaching methods to meet the needs of your students, you can create a more inclusive and effective learning environment.

Promoting Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving

Another key component of effective instructional strategies is promoting critical thinking and problem-solving skills in students. These skills are essential for success in the classroom and in life, and can be developed through a variety of strategies, such as:

Socratic seminars: This strategy involves students engaging in a guided discussion around a central question or topic. By asking open-ended questions and encouraging students to consider multiple perspectives, teachers can promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Learn more about Socratic Seminars!

Case studies: Case studies are a great way to engage students in real-world problem-solving. By presenting students with a complex problem or scenario, teachers can challenge students to analyze, interpret, and come up with solutions.

Inquiry-based learning (as mentioned above): As mentioned above, inquiry-based learning is an excellent way to encourage students to think critically and solve problems on their own. By guiding students through the process of asking questions and seeking answers, teachers can help students develop these important skills.

Using Technology as an Instructional Tool

In today’s digital age, technology is an integral part of many classrooms. By effectively integrating technology into your instructional strategies, you can enhance student learning and engagement. Here are a few examples of how technology can be used as an instructional tool:

Online simulations and games: These interactive resources can be a fun and engaging way for students to learn new concepts.

Virtual field trips: Virtual field trips allow students to explore new places and concepts from the comfort of their own classroom.

Collaborative tools: Tools like Google Docs and Skype can be used to facilitate collaboration and communication among students, even when they are not physically together.

Hands-on, experiential learning is arguably one of the best instructional strategies. These can engage students in authentic and meaningful learning experiences. This approach allows students to actively participate in the learning process, rather than just passively receiving information from a teacher. Some examples of hands-on, experiential learning activities include:

• Science experiments
• Cooking or baking projects
• Field trips or nature walks
• Service learning projects

Experiential learning has a number of benefits for students. It allows them to apply their learning to real-world situations, encourages problem-solving and critical thinking, and can foster a sense of ownership and responsibility for their own learning.

Collaboration and Teamwork

Collaboration and teamwork are essential skills for success in both school and the workplace. By promoting collaboration and teamwork in the classroom, teachers can help students develop these important skills and foster a sense of community and belonging. Some strategies for promoting collaboration and teamwork in the classroom include:

• Group projects and activities
• Pair work and partner activities
• Class discussions and debates
• Team-building exercises
• Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning is a common instructional strategy that involves students completing a long-term, authentic project that addresses a real-world problem or issue. This approach allows students to engage in hands-on, experiential learning and apply their knowledge and skills to a meaningful task. Some benefits of project-based learning include:

• Engaging students in authentic and meaningful learning experiences
• Encouraging problem-solving and critical thinking skills
• Promoting student ownership and responsibility for their learning
• Allowing students to apply their learning to real-world situations
• Scaffolding Techniques

Scaffolding is a teaching technique that involves breaking down a complex task or concept into smaller, more manageable pieces. This allows students to build upon their prior knowledge and gradually acquire new skills and understanding. Some examples of scaffolding techniques include:

• Providing step-by-step instructions for a task
• Using graphic organizers to visually represent information
• Providing examples and models for students to follow
• Using questioning techniques to guide student thinking
• Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are visual representations of information that can help students organize and understand new concepts. There are many different types of graphic organizers, including Venn diagrams, concept maps, and flow charts. By using graphic organizers, teachers can support student understanding and retention of new information. Some benefits of using graphic organizers include:

• Visual representation of information can help students see relationships and connections
• Graphic organizers can help students organize and synthesize new information
• They can be an effective tool for supporting students with learning differences
• Equity and Inclusion in the Classroom

Equity and inclusion are essential components of effective instructional practices. By promoting equity and inclusion in the classroom, teachers can create a positive and inclusive learning environment for all students. Some strategies for promoting equity and inclusion include:

• Differentiating instruction to meet the needs of all learners
• Incorporating diverse perspectives and voices into lesson content
• Providing support for English language learners
• Using culturally responsive teaching techniques
• Student Motivation and Engagement

Motivating and engaging students is crucial for successful learning. By using a variety of pedagogical strategies for teaching, teachers can promote student motivation and engagement in the learning process. Some strategies for promoting student motivation and engagement include:

• Providing opportunities for student choice and autonomy
• Incorporating hands-on, experiential learning activities
• Promoting student ownership of learning
• Encouraging self-directed learning

Professional Development for Teachers

As an educator, it is important to stay up-to-date on best practices and effective teaching strategies. Ongoing professional development can help teachers improve their skills, stay engaged and motivated, and provide the best possible education for their students. Some examples of professional development opportunities for teachers include:

• Conferences and workshops
• Online courses and webinars
• Collaboration with colleagues and peer mentorship
• Professional learning communities

Instructional strategies are an essential tool for effective teaching. By using a variety of strategies to engage students, promote critical thinking and problem-solving, and support diverse learners, teachers can create a positive and effective learning environment for their students. It is important for teachers to continuously reflect on and evaluate their instructional practices, and seek out opportunities for professional development to stay up-to-date on best practices. By using instructional strategies effectively, teachers can help their students succeed and reach their full potential.

Essential Classroom Items

I am a teacher. I hope to build this into a useful site for anyone else in the teaching profession.  Occasionally, I will include links to products in these posts. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  That means I may get a small commission when someone purchases something through one of my links.  This does not affect the price of the recommended item.

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On to the BIG list of Instructional Strategies Examples now…

I will be adding to these and updating as my time allows.  I hope you find this site useful and at least a little bit more enjoyable than an in-service day!

The list below is a curated collection of links to resources, informative videos, and basic pedagogical definitions that I’ve spent months (so far) putting together. Much of what you find here can be put to use in your classroom immediately. I ask that you please share it with other educators (use the social buttons above or link to this page if you have a teaching website or page of your own). The comments section at the bottom is the perfect place to share your tips and expertise with other teachers worldwide! Thanks, and please share!

The Big List of Instructional Strategies for Teaching

 

• • • 3-2-1 This is an activating strategy similar to a KWL chart. Students give three things they believe they already know about a subject, two things they would like to learn more about, and finally, one question that is related to the overall concept you will be learning about.
    • ABC Summarize  This game is used as a tool during brainstorming sessions.  Given the main topic, students try to develop related words representing all 26 letters of the alphabet.
    • Ability Grouping: Please visit my post about the advantages and disadvantages of ability grouping. Do you think we should be grouping kids by their ability levels?
    • Abstract Thinking Abstract thinking is characterized by the ability to consider things beyond the here and now.  Abstract thinkers can better see the larger picture and form “connections” between two or more seemingly unrelated ideas.  You can read a more thorough comparison of abstract and concrete thinking here.
      
    • Academic Games  Games are designed to encourage and support a variety of academic skills.  These can be used in the classroom but are sometimes organized into larger competitions between schools.  See the most popular academic games on Amazon.
      

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  • Accredited Online Teacher Certification Programs  Courses of study allow an individual to earn teacher certification through online classes.  Different programs of study will have different requirements and offer different certifications and/or degrees upon completion.
    
  • Achievement Motivation Humans respond to different types of motivation. Achievement motivation focuses on our desire to reach new levels of achievement or goals. This has implications for educators looking for ways to inspire less than enthusiastic students.   Read more about theories of motivation.
  • Acronyms for Memorizing  Students sometimes have an easier time remembering facts when they create their memorable acronyms.  A well-known example of this technique is ROY-G-BIV for remembering the colors of the rainbow in order (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet).  If you would like to read about several very good “tricks” for improving memory, take a look at this site.
    
  • Acrostics are Often used as a memory device.  The first (usually) letter of a series of words are placed on separate lines to form a memorable word or phrase.  An example would be Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge.  The first letters of each word remind you of the notes on the treble clef.  You can create your printable acrostic here.
    
  • Activating Strategies, these types of teaching methods aim to get students to use their prior knowledge as they take on new learning tasks. These approaches engage students and help them to anchor the new things they are learning to what they already know. Many of these will be mentioned in this list of pedagogical strategies. Some examples include KWL charts, think-pair-write, cloze activities, and quick writes.  I found a large list of these on Slideshare.
  • Active Learning A method of teaching that involves more than just “book learning”. Students actively engage in problem-solving, writing, or other activities. This approach encourages evaluation, synthesis, and analysis instead of searching a book for the “right” answer.
  • Active Learning Strategies are teaching methods that involve students in the learning process through activities, rather than just passively receiving information.

• • • Active Participation Get the students involved in their learning. Ask them questions. Give them small projects. Have them do surveys, talk to each other, and share. Start a real class discussion. If you have shy kids, let them write down some comments to initiate discussion. Create puzzles. Stop talking and discuss what was just taught for a few minutes. Brainstorm ideas about the topic of the day… Not many people learn well when they are just sitting there listening to a lecture. Seriously, how many details do you remember from your last three in-service meetings? Sometimes one of the best teaching techniques is to let the students take the lead and then adapt your teaching methods and strategies to fit the moment.  Read more about how to get students involved in class.
    • Activity Centers  I always thought they would be a major hassle when my school started moving toward a differentiated approach to learning, but once these are set up, the students quickly catch on to the concept of moving from station to station. If you have a co-teacher or aide available, these are even easier to manage.  You may want to check out these Common Core based activity centers.
    • Adapted Tests  These are tests tailored to meet the needs of students who require accommodations.  Teachers of students with special needs often have to adapt material, but every teacher should understand the concept since it isn’t only students with IEPs who need adapted material.  Here is an excellent resource to check out and bookmark: 7 Ways to Adapt the Common Core Standards for Students with Special Needs
      
    • ADHD Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder It is estimated that over five million children in the United States have been diagnosed with ADHD. Symptoms include impulsivity, being inattentive, and hyperactivity. These can show up in various combinations. Learn more at healthline.com

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  • Advance Organizers These are “frameworks” for learning. They give the class a heads-up as to what they’ll be learning that day. You introduce the topic and tie it to prior lessons and knowledge. I always write the day’s objective on the board and refer to it within the first few minutes of class. It also gives learners something to aim for during the lesson. That is, they know what they should be learning in the next 40 minutes or so.  (See anticipatory set below.)
  • Advantages vs. Disadvantages A simple class exercise where two columns are used to compare the advantages and disadvantages of a given topic.
  • AGO (Aims, Goals, and Objectives)  In this strategy by Edward de Bono, the “notion of purpose broadens the perception of a situation. The AGO is a device to get students to focus directly and deliberately on the intention behind actions.” Read more…
    
  • Agreement Circles  This a tool used for helping students as they develop critical evaluation skills.  It is a simple activity that starts by providing a statement and asking students whether or not they agree with it.  After that…
  • ALEM (Adaptive Learning Environments Model)  Adaptive learning environments model is a teaching and learning strategy that provides personalized instruction to students. This type of teaching environment is designed to help students meet their individual needs and provide them with the most effective instruction to help them achieve their learning objectives. The most common type of intervention is the alternative or special education program.
  • Alphabet Games  As the name implies, these are games designed to help students learn the alphabet.  You can find many of these available for free online.  You can find several of these free alphabet games here.
    
  • Anticipatory Set This is done at the beginning of class. You hook your students’ interest, focus their attention, and engage them in the lesson. This could be a lot of things. Some people like to start with “bell ringers” or questions related to the previous lesson. It could also be something as simple as taking a minute to choose a homework question they would feel comfortable answering.  If you’d like a refresher about how to apply these in your lesson plans, check this site.  Here are some more ideas you can try right away:
    • Engage the whole group with a great question
    • Let the students do some freewriting which they will then share in class.
    • Project an interesting visual related to the lesson with an overhead or projector.
    • Write a question on the board and have students write a short answer.
    • Roleplay
    • Do a quick review of what was taught the previous day.
    • Brainstorming activities related to the day’s lesson.
  • Auditory Learning Strategies are teaching methods that involve listening and speaking, as opposed to reading and writing.
  • Author’s Chair This activity is used as part of learning the writing process. A student shares his written work with the class. This should be done toward the end of the writing process after the author has already cleaned up his or her rough draft. Feedback should be primarily positive, but constructive criticism is a good thing here. I’ve found that the other students often ask questions that can help the author to recognize details they might have left out of their work up to that point.  You can find some great video demonstrations of the author’s chair here.  They’ll probably make you smile too.
  • Balanced Literacy This strategy for teaching language arts emphasizes mastering both oral and written methods of communicating. Student learning occurs both in and out of the classroom and involves writing, reading, viewing, speaking, and listening. It is a model that integrates writing and reading for students, and it involves both direct and indirect teaching methods. A variety of instructional methods for teaching reading comprehension, phonics, and writing skills may be applied.  Learn more…
  • Behavior Management Like it or not, keeping things under control in your classroom is part of the job. Don’t worry, though. We’ve got some behavior management tips for you.
  • Benchmark Testing This type of testing determines where a student starts and how much progress has been made over a designated period. This is a method of monitoring student progress. To maintain consistency, standardized benchmark tests are often used. The time between tests may vary, but every three to six weeks is usually considered acceptable. The goal of benchmark test-taking is to see how much academic progress is being made as the school year progresses.  Many textbook series today include benchmark tests.  Read more about benchmark testing here.
  • Best Teaching Practices  There are so many ways to approach teaching.  Finding the best way to engage students and get them to learn takes practice.  Here are some thoughts on what gets through to students.

• • • Book Talks I suppose you might think of these as the modern, more in-depth equivalent of the traditional book report. It is a way to encourage students to get more involved with reading. Students make a book recommendation to their peers in an organized way that includes a bit of personal reflection on what they enjoyed about the book. These fit well when introducing a book fair or a newly acquired classroom book.  Check out some elementary book talk videos.
    • Brain-Based Learning  This is all about basing your lessons and teaching approach on scientific research on how our brains learn.  You need to take the students’ cognitive development into account.  Student learning changes as children mature and grow cognitively, socially, and emotionally.  Explore how the brain works!
    • Brainstorming Most teachers have probably experienced brainstorming firsthand. Students are given a topic to focus on and then are encouraged to use their creativity as well as prior knowledge to create a list of ideas that can then be used as a starting point for new learning. Brainstorming should be done in an environment that encourages open sharing and discourages judging and criticism.  Get some more tips on facilitating brainstorming in the classroom.

  Thinkpak: A Brainstorming Card Deck

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  • • Breakout Rooms A breakout room is a space where a group of people can break away from the main group for a specific task. Online meeting spaces like Google Meets often offer this feature. There are some best practices that you should follow if you want to make the most out of your breakout rooms. One of the most important things to keep in mind is that everyone should be able to speak freely in the breakout room and not feel pressured by others.
    • Case Studies This instructional strategy gives students the task of examining real-life scenarios and applying the knowledge they have acquired in class. It encourages abstract thinking, so it is best suited to students who have reached that level of cognitive development. This is generally after elementary school age, but you can adapt this to your elementary classroom if the students seem to have a solid understanding and interest in the discussed topic.  Check out examples of case studies in science to get some ideas for your classroom.
    • Categorizing Students can start putting their thoughts (and physical objects) into categories as early as the beginning of elementary school. Teachers can facilitate this process by first suggesting appropriate categories to get the ball rolling. This is a good way to encourage students to examine how things are alike and different. This obviously can lead later to compare and contrast exercises.  For older students, apps like flipagram can be used in class as a categorizing tool.  Here is a link to a webinar describing how to do that.
    • Causal Mapping This is a form of concept mapping. The emphasis is on cause-and-effect relationships.  Intel has developed something called the Seeing Reason Tool that you should check out for creating causal maps.
    • Cause and Effect Exploring what happened (the effect) and why it happened (the cause) in various situations.
    • Charades / Role Playing  These activities help students to see how their actions can affect not only themselves but also others.  Here is a detailed example that you might be able to use in your classroom. The role of charades and role-playing in the classroom is to help children be more empathetic. A child who is a good actor can better understand how others might be feeling. Role-playing games and charades are not only fun, but they also help children develop their empathy skills.
      

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  • Checking for Understanding The strategies involved here can range from very simple (thumbs up or down) to much more complex (group activities that can involve sharing in an organized manner). I usually go for the fastest method that is appropriate. One thing I have learned though is that you can’t expect most kids to voluntarily raise their hands and announce that they need a deeper explanation. If you don’t check for understanding, you risk having a classroom of lost and disinterested learners as you continue teaching. This usually ends badly with frustrated students and low test scores. The time spent checking for understanding pays off later because even if students do get “lost”, you don’t have to backtrack nearly as far to get everyone back up to speed.  Formative assessments are a great way to do a quick check for understanding.  Here is a list of 53 ways to check for understanding.
  • Choral Reading  Generally, in choral reading, the teacher reads a selection aloud to the class.  At that point, a whole class discussion is held about what was read.  From here, the whole class, or a selected group of students, reads the selection aloud.  Students who are less confident in their reading ability can join in with more fluent readers.  Any text can be read in this manner.  It can be a great way to introduce poetry.

• • • • • Choral Response At first glance, you might think that having students shout out their responses would lead to class disruption, but in choral response, students are expected to answer in a controlled way (not with wild screaming). The theory here is that getting students to respond frequently during a lesson will keep them more involved and lead to more students remembering and understanding what has been taught.
        • Chunking  This is the process of grouping or organizing bits of information into groups that are easier to remember together.  Students learn to organize and to look for patterns.  Chunking is a great way to work around short-term memory limitations.  This isn’t just useful for students.  Take a look at this post on Lifehacker.com.
          
        • CIRC (Cooperative Integrated Reading & Composition) The cooperative integrated reading and composition strategy is an instructional strategy that is used to promote higher levels of literacy in the classroom. This strategy integrates reading and composition with the use of a shared text. Students are given tasks that require them to engage with both their peers’ thoughts as well as their own while also working together to create quality work that can be published for all to see. Students are encouraged to share their ideas, thoughts, and insights on what they read or write, so that they can better understand how others come up with different interpretations based on their own experiences.
        • Circles of Knowledge  An activating strategy similar to a KWL chart but using circles.  Students write down what they already know, what they want to be answered, and finally, the answers to their questions.  This is easily made into a worksheet simply by drawing 3 circles and labeling each as above.  If you would like a closer look or a printable sheet, check this page from NASA.
          
        • Class Publications  These are usually collaborative efforts by the class.  They could include class newspapers, newsletters, maps, yearbooks, or anything that allows the class to organize and combine their efforts in a published form.
          
        • Classification  Students use categories to group things based on how they are alike.  A common example in elementary is classifying plants and animals in science class.  In math class, they may classify types of angles or triangles.  Here is an example of math (geometry) practice.
          
        • Classroom Conversations When I was in high school, I had a social studies teacher that would guide us toward class conversations about once every two weeks or so. The class was always very responsive, and at the time, we just assumed that he was giving us a day off. Looking back now, I see that these discussions were expertly guided toward the teacher’s chosen topic of the day. He was pretty good at what he did! Conversations in the classroom can be a great way to get more people involved and gauge how much everyone understands. Depending on the class and the topic, teachers can decide how much guidance is needed as the lesson begins and progresses.  Check out what Frederick Erickson had to say about this approach.

      Questions for Humans: Elementary ClassroomQuestions for Humans: Middle School ClassroomQuestions for Humans: High School Classroom

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      • Classroom Mailboxes Obviously, these can be used as a place to sort student work, but they are also quite useful for organizing worksheets for different subjects or classes. Secondary teachers may want to consider them for this purpose.  You can make your own, but you might want to consider just checking these out.  They don’t cost that much, and you can reuse them from year to year.

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    • Classroom Management Strategies  One of the biggest challenges for teachers is knowing how to manage the behaviors in their classroom.  Classroom management is all about making your high expectations very clear and knowing how to handle challenges to the standards you’ve set.  These challenges are often behavioral.  This short video has some good tips for keeping things under control.
    • Classroom Meetings These are regularly scheduled meetings that last approximately 20 – 30 minutes. During this time, students and teachers discuss and reflect on issues that may be affecting the classroom environment. These meetings help to get students involved in decision-making and can help to build a feeling of trust between teachers and students. Students feel more involved and responsible for the classroom atmosphere.
    • Classroom Organization Organizing your classroom can be challenging. But being organized will help you save time, improve your teaching, and make it easier to find materials. Luckily, there are many ways to organize a classroom. You can choose the best system for you and your student’s needs.
    • Classroom Posters are a great way to remind students of lessons or to give them extra motivation.

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  • • Classroom Procedures A classroom procedure is a set of rules that govern how students should behave in class. It includes the way teachers should interact with students, the way students should interact with each other, and the way they should interact with the teacher. The need for classroom procedures arises because children are naturally curious and want to explore their surroundings and learn new things. They also want to explore their thoughts and feelings, which is why they need to be able to express themselves freely in a safe environment.
    • Classroom Routines Having a routine in your classroom can seem like a hassle at first. You have to take time out of your already overloaded schedule to teach students simple procedures. In the long run, though, having routines in place can be a great time saver. Classroom routines can be established for everything from sharpening pencils and turning in homework to knowing how the class should operate if an unprepared substitute shows up. Don’t underestimate the power here. Establishing good routines can be as important as having solid lesson plans. Routines should be a part of your overall classroom management plan.
    • Classroom Rules  Students are taught to behave in class in various ways. Teachers can use a variety of methods to make sure that their students are behaving themselves. They can teach them the rules, tell them stories about what will happen if they don’t follow them, and even reward them for good behavior. Rules:- The teacher should make sure that they have a set of rules for their classroom and should tell their students about them in advance.- Rules should be simple and easy to remember.- Rules should be enforced consistently with no exceptions.- Rewards can be given to students when they do something good or follow the rules.

  FaCraft Classroom Rules Poster,12

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  • • • Classroom Technology Educational technology is not just about acquiring new devices and computers. It is about making sure that the content being delivered to students is relevant to them. and their needs. Among the other challenges, shifting demographics and different levels of English proficiency are key issues. They can be difficult to handle, but innovations in education have been developed to help in this area.

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    • Cloze Procedure A cloze procedure is used to check for understanding of the context in a reading task. The student is expected to replace missing words with appropriate vocabulary in a given passage using context clues and their understanding of the subject they have been reading about.
    • Clustering This is a method used for organizing information when preparing to write. Unlike most linear organization methods, this is based more on mapping what you will write about. It is sometimes compared to brainstorming, but it is a more organized approach. It helps students to focus on what comes to mind when they choose one particular topic to write about.
    • Cognitive Strategy Instruction Cognitive strategy instruction is a teaching strategy that was developed by Dr. John Sweller, an Australian cognitive psychologist. The goal of this instructional strategy is to improve the quality of instruction and the learning process, which can be accomplished by changing the learner’s cognitive load. Cognitive strategy instruction is used in classrooms all around the world, with a variety of different outcomes. Some schools have reported significant improvements in student performance and interest levels, while others have found no change or worse outcomes when using this instructional strategy.
    • Cold Call This is an instructional strategy that is dreaded by students who tend to drift off and daydream during class. The teacher calls on students during the lesson and subsequent discussion without really considering who is volunteering to answer. That means that even students who don’t have their hands raised might get called on at any time. This isn’t meant to be used as a tool for “catching” people who are not paying attention. Rather, you would hope that students in a class where cold calls are used would enter the room ready to pay attention and contribute. When used correctly, this approach can solicit input from students who otherwise would probably not have offered their valuable insights on the lesson of the day.
    • Collaboration Boards In its simplest form, a collaboration board can be a place for each student to share their thoughts about a topic or a question.  Nearpod has a nice collaborative board feature that I’ve used many times.  These boards can also be much more involved in the proper classroom setting, though.  A classroom collaboration board can also be a tool that teachers use to get students engaged in the classroom. It provides a visual way for students to see what is going on in the classroom and how they can contribute to it. The students are each given a display case, which they decorate with items related to what is happening in the classroom. Each student writes their name on their box and decorates it with items that reflect their interests or the day’s lesson. Teachers can use this board for lessons, discussions, or activities. It is generally used in classrooms with individual workspaces for students because it allows them to see what others have added to the board and get ideas from one another.
    • Collaborative Learning In collaborative learning, students work with each other to discuss a given “problem” and come up with possible solutions. This can be done in pairs or small groups. Advantages include students taking more ownership of their learning, improved social interactions, and built-in peer tutoring opportunities.  Please read our feature post: Unleashing the Power of Collaborative Learning in the Classroom
    • Common Core The Common Core was created in 2009 and is the basis for standardized education throughout the country. These standards aim to improve the quality of education and better prepare students for college and careers. Not everyone believes that these standards are benefitting education.  Get help with common core standards HERE (Amazon link)
    • Compare and Contrast In my own experience, this method is used quite a bit in reading and language arts instruction. Charts are often created to show how two things are alike or different. Comparisons show how things are alike, while contrasts focus on differences.
    • Computer-Assisted Instruction As the name implies, this instruction uses the computer as a tool for instructing students. This can be a good way of connecting with learners who enjoy spending time on the computer, but it is meant to be a tool, not a replacement for the teacher.
    • Concept Attainment This strategy is an example of indirect instruction. This approach ties in well with contrasting and comparing given items. Students learn to organize and categorize as they look for the common attributes of a given group. They also look for ways to identify things that do not belong in a given category.
    • Concept Mapping Some people learn better by seeing a visual representation of what is being taught. Concept maps help students to start with the main idea and then branch out to important key concepts. This is done by using shapes like circles or squares that are connected by lines that branch out to related ideas. This type of graphic organizer is often used by teachers to illustrate new ideas, but it can also be used to assess how well students understand what they have been taught. To do this, students are shown examples of concept maps and are then allowed to construct their maps illustrating their understanding of the subject.
    • Conducting Experiments Most students love exploring and learning science concepts through inquiry. Hands-on experimenting (with the teacher’s guidance) can be a great way to get students thinking at a higher level. In my experience, the teacher needs to help the students to understand the connection between the experiments they are performing and the objective of the lesson. Some “science in a box” modules provide very little content knowledge for students. Students enjoy the hands-on activities, but they will not always “get” what is being taught unless the connection is made with the help of the teacher.

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  • • Conferencing with Students Many teachers miss out on a golden opportunity to connect with students and to understand what and how they are thinking. You conference with students while they are working during class. This is a simple process that can reap major rewards. Start by asking the student how they are doing with the problem they are working on at the moment. Ask about what they are learning and what is giving them problems. You guide them by offering tips and by specifically asking what they need help with to keep them moving forward. Ask about strategies they are using and offer new ones for them to try out. This is a much better use of in-class work time than just walking around the room watching to make sure that students are working.
    • Connecting to Prior Knowledge Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that some students might not have much if any, prior knowledge about what is being taught. Use questioning and tools like brainstorming and KWL charts to assess what your students know and where they are lacking. Look for ways to connect what is being taught to their everyday life. This might be things they do, things they’ve seen, things they’ve read about, or something that seems totally unrelated. Get the class talking about a topic and keep your ears open for something you can use to make a connection. Students often don’t realize that activating prior knowledge can help them to better understand new material. Help them to make this connection, and they might surprise you with how interested they become.
    • Constructivism This popular view in academia proposes that learners build or “construct” their subjective understanding of the objective reality that surrounds them. They do this by playing an active role in their learning and “figuring out” how things work based on their experience and how it is connected to what they already know. Connections are built between what they are experiencing and the knowledge they already have.
    • Cooperative Learning  Cooperative learning may be formal or informal. In formal practice, students are arranged to work together in groups. They work toward joint goals and specific outcomes. These groups may last from a single class to many weeks. Teachers play a major part in arranging groups, introducing and explaining tasks, monitoring groups of students, and assessing student learning. Informal cooperative learning happens with more loosely structured groups and preparation. The groups are still set up for students to help and support each other as they work toward a shared learning goal.  You can read a more in-depth description of the different types of cooperative learning here.  You may also want to check out these cooperative learning resources from Amazon.
    • Countdown  A countdown is a technique used by teachers to remind students of how much time they have left before an event. There are many ways to set up a countdown, but the most common is a digital timer that counts down from some number, usually 10 minutes. The countdown is usually displayed on a screen or projector, and the timer can be set to go off at the end of the period. Teachers may also use it as a way to get students ready for the activity by telling them that they have 2 minutes left before they start. Countdowns can be helpful when teaching children with attention deficit disorders because it gives them an idea of how much time they have left before their activity starts. It can also be used in any classroom setting for any lesson as an instructional strategy.
    • Co-teaching usually involves two teachers working together within the same class with the same group of students. The teachers are responsible for organizing, teaching, and assessing in the classroom.
    • Cognitive Thinking When educators refer to cognition, they mean how people learn through thinking, taking in information from their senses, and experiencing things. When all of this is put together to help make sense of the world or some concept, we refer to it as cognitive thinking. Each person develops their way of putting all of this information together.
    • Convergent Thinking Convergent thinking is a process that requires a person to think deeply and creatively about the problem or topic at hand.
    • Critical Listening When you are listening critically to a speaker, you are not only listening, but you are also evaluating the information that is being presented. You are listening closely and judging the value of what is being said. Does it make sense? Is it true? Is it logical?… and so on?
    • Critical Literacy This method of analyzing a piece of text encourages using a critical approach. When you use this instructional approach, you actively look for messages that might not be apparent upon first glance. What is the underlying meaning of the text?
    • Critical Reading Critical reading is a strategy to help students become better readers by focusing on the text and not just the words. This instructional strategy is designed to help students read more critically and analytically, which can improve comprehension, reading speed, and reading comprehension.
    • Critical Thinking Activities  Critical thinking and problem-solving skills are essential for developing a well-rounded education. These skills can be developed by practicing them in real-life scenarios, such as in the workplace, at school, or at home.

      Some benefits of critical thinking and problem-solving activities are:

      1) Practicing these skills can help students understand the world around them better.

      2) They also develop their creativity and critical thinking skills.

      3) They can help students learn how to work collaboratively with others and learn how to solve problems on their own.

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  • Culturally Responsive Teaching  Cultural responsiveness is the process of understanding how culture impacts how people learn and work. Cultural responsiveness is grounded in the belief that people are individuals who experience culture through their many facets of identity. These aspects of identity include: national, ethnic, gender, and linguistic. Please read our feature post about this! Cultural Responsiveness in the Classroom: An Essential Guide for Teachers
  • Data Analysis Data analysis is a process that can be used in different contexts. It is an analytical process to identify patterns and trends in data. It can be used to improve learning, make decisions and provide insights. Data analysis has been identified as a key component of the teaching strategy by many educational researchers. Data analysis instructional strategy is an ongoing process of identifying patterns and trends in data that educators use to improve the quality of their instruction.
  • Defining things is an important part of teaching. You can’t teach without defining your terms, which is why it’s important to know the best way to define something.

    The best way to define something is by using a dictionary or encyclopedia definition. This can be done in a variety of ways, including:

    – Using synonyms and examples to explain a word’s meaning

    – Giving the etymology of the word

    – Using comparison to show the difference between words with similar meanings

    – Defining words in context with other words

  • Descriptions are better than directions because they provide more information and are more engaging. They also provide a better sense of what a student will learn. Descriptions provide more information than directions. Directions are often limited to an overview of what the person is going to do, but descriptions can include details about what the person should expect to see, feel, smell, taste, or hear. This information can be invaluable when someone is trying to decide whether or not they want to try something new
  • Differentiated Instruction Strategies When you differentiate instruction, you emphasize what your students already know and how they do their best in learning. Here are some ideas for creating effective differentiated instruction lesson plans for your classroom.
  • Directive Model, The directive model instructional strategy can be broken down into three different stages: direct instruction, guided practice, and independent practice. Direct instruction includes the teacher demonstrating how to perform an activity and providing feedback on the learner’s performance. Guided practice involves guiding learners as they perform a task independently while providing feedback on their performance. Independent practice requires learners to complete tasks without guidance or feedback from teachers or peers.
  • Discussion Groups Discussion groups are often used for training purposes because it provides the opportunity for a group of people to learn together, as opposed to being taught individually. This allows the learners to ask questions and get feedback from other learners, which can be very valuable when it comes to learning new skills. Discussion groups also provide a chance for learners to interact with one another to create a more interactive environment that is not found in traditional teaching methods. The chance for interaction between participants also means that discussion groups can be much more engaging and interactive than traditional classrooms, which can lead to increased levels of engagement and retention among the participants.
  • Distance Learning Distance learning is a form of education that does not require the physical presence of both the teacher and student at the same location. Distance learning can be performed through various media, such as audio, video, and written text. Many teachers and students were given a crash course in this style of instruction during the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • Divergent Thinking Divergent thinking is the process of generating as many possible solutions to a given problem as possible. It is a creative process that can be used in many different contexts and situations. A person with divergent thinking skills can generate multiple ideas from a single source and find creative solutions to problems. This skill is very important in fields like design, advertising, and even psychology and can also be quite useful for students in an educational setting.
  • Early Childhood Learning: Please read our feature article! Why is Early Childhood Learning So Important?
  • Educational Leadership Educational leadership is needed for developing and implementing policies, practices, and programs that promote student learning. The success of the educational institution or organization depends on the leadership skills of its leaders. Leadership is important because it directs an organization or a school district.
  • Educational Technology Educational technology is the use of technology in education. It can be used to improve the quality of an educational experience and make it more engaging for students. . It can also be used to make it easier for students to learn.
  • ELAR English Language Arts and Reading.
  • Emotional Support Some schools are now integrating emotional support programs into their curriculum to help children with mental health disorders. This is done by creating a safe space for students to discuss their feelings and the root of their problems. Children need to be taught about mental health in school because it can help them understand themselves better and maintain good social skills.

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• • • Entrance tickets (also called Admission tickets)  Classroom entrance tickets are a simple instructional strategy that has been shown to increase student engagement and general classroom management. A study by the University of Pittsburgh found that students who were given an entrance ticket for the day were more engaged in their learning, as well as more focused on their task at hand. The study also concluded that this strategy is particularly effective for younger students, as it helps them to focus on their task at hand and keep track of time. This instructional strategy can be implemented in a variety of ways, depending on the needs of the teacher and classroom. For example, teachers may give out entrance tickets at the beginning of class or when they need to get students’ attention; they could also use them as a reward system or to monitor behavior throughout the day.
    • ESL ESL education is the process of teaching English as a second language to students who do not speak English as their first language. This process can involve teaching the student in their native language and then teaching them English, or it can involve teaching them in English and giving them time to learn their native language.

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  • Exit Tickets Exit tickets are a quick and easy way to assess students’ understanding of the lesson. Students answer questions about what they learned at the end of class, and then you can use their answers to further discuss what they learned. Exit tickets also provide teachers with valuable information about how well their students understand the material that was taught in class.
  • Experimental Learning  Experimental learning is an approach to teaching that emphasizes experimentation and hands-on experience as the primary means of learning.
  • Flexible Seating  The purpose of flexible seating is to promote movement and collaboration, which can help students focus on their tasks and improve their behavior. Flexible seating also provides a calming space for students who need to take a break from their work.

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• • • Flipping Your Classroom In a flipped classroom, students are expected to watch a prepared video on their own time (at home) before coming to class. The video is prepared by the teacher or a third party. The idea is that students will already have a base knowledge when they enter the classroom. Class time can be spent focusing more on the students instead of a lecturing teacher. Read more in our full length post Flipped Classroom: A New Approach to Teaching and Learning
    • Formative Assessments A formative assessment is a form of assessment that gives teachers information about what students know and can do, as well as how they are progressing toward meeting the learning goals. Formative assessments are not summative tests. They are used to help teachers assess where a student is in their learning process and provide feedback on how they can improve. Formative assessments are generally considered to be low-stakes since they are used to measure current understanding of a concept, and they provide students with an opportunity to review the material.
    • Four Corners  The four corners strategy is one of the most popular instructional strategies used in classrooms. It is a way to help students understand the different perspectives of an issue by using the four corners of a square. The four corners strategy is used by educators in different lessons. This can include discussions about topics such as history or climate change. One way to avoid bias in these discussions is to have students start from different points at the same time, as they will likely be more receptive to new viewpoints when listening from a variety of perspectives instead of always hearing one side of an argument. The strategy can also be applied to writing prompts that have multiple possible solutions so students will apply their knowledge of the strategy to generate a variety of viable options.
    • Frayer Model  The Frayer Model is a strategy for summarizing and synthesizing information. It is used to help students organize their thoughts and ideas about what they are reading.

      The model has three steps:

      1) break the information into sections

      2) write a summary of each section

      3) compare the two summaries to identify the main points of disagreement or confusion.

    • Gamification is the use of game-like elements in a non-game context. It is not just about points, badges, and leaderboards. It’s about motivating people to do what they would otherwise find boring or difficult by adding game-like elements like points, badges, and leaderboards. The goal of gamification is to make learning more engaging for students and to increase their motivation to learn.
    • Give One / Get One Give One / Get One is a strategy that can be used to teach students about the value of money. It is also an effective way of teaching them how to save and spend their money wisely. The Give One / Get One strategy requires students to set up a “savings account” to deposit one dollar for every dollar they receive. The savings account can be used for several purposes, such as buying something or saving up for larger purchases.
    • Grab Bag  A grab bag can be used as a form of instructional strategy where the teacher gives students an assortment of items and assigns them to be creative with it. It is usually used in classrooms where students are given random objects to use for their lessons or project.
    • Group-Based Instruction Group-based instruction is a rapidly growing trend in the world of education. The teachers divide students into groups, usually by skill level or subject area. This allows the students to work together and learn from each other while they teach each other.
    • Group Work Students work together toward some common learning objective. This is often a class project. Working in groups is also used as a way to teach students about cooperating with others and sharing responsibilities.
    • Group Writing Group writing is a technique in which students work together to produce written text. Group writing has been shown to help with the following:-improving writing skills,-creating interest in learning,-helping students learn how to work cooperatively.
    • Hand It In / Pass It Out  Hand It In and Pass It Out are instructional strategies in which students work on assignments individually, then share their work with classmates for feedback.

      The Hand It In strategy is the most common strategy used in classrooms. Students complete one assignment at a time and hand them to the teacher. The teacher will then grade the assignment and return it to the student.

      Pass It Out is a variation of this strategy where students complete an assignment individually, but instead of handing it to the teacher, they pass it out to their classmates so that they can provide feedback on their work.

    • Hess’s Cognitive Rigor Matrix  Cognitive rigor is the way in which a person’s thinking is structured. A person with high cognitive rigor will have a more organized and logical thought process than someone with low cognitive rigor. Instructional strategies are ways of influencing the cognitive rigor of students. The Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrix is a two-by-two grid that helps educators identify instructional strategies that match the level of cognitive rigor they want to achieve. The first dimension of the Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrix represents instruction methods: active or passive, while the second dimension represents content type: sequential or thematic. In this way, educators can identify their desired level of cognitive rigor and then find instructional strategies that will help them achieve it.
    • Highlighter Activity A highlighter activity is a strategy teachers use to teach students how to summarize texts. This strategy is used in classrooms to help students learn how to read and analyze texts. The use of highlighters helps teachers identify the most important points in the text. The highlighter activity can be done by highlighting keywords or phrases in a text, underlining them, or circling them. It can also be done by using different colors of highlighters. Highlighting keywords and phrases helps students find their way through longer texts by focusing on the most important points within the text.

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  • • • Illustrations are an important part of a classroom. They can be used to help students understand concepts, ideas, and information more effectively. The illustrations in the classroom should be appropriate for the age group.
      • Information Technology Information Technology in a classroom is not just about teaching students how to use computers. It also teaches them how to use the internet, social media, and other digital mediums responsibly and ethically.
      • Inquiry-Based Learning Inquiry-based learning is a style of teaching that emphasizes student-centered learning. The goal of inquiry-based learning is to have students engage in deep and meaningful thinking, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. Inquiry-based learning can be used in all subjects, but it is most often associated with science education.  Please read the full-length article: Inquiry-Based Learning: A Comprehensive Guide for Teachers
      • Instructional Scaffolding Instructional scaffolding is a technique in which teachers support their learners as they work on tasks. The goal of this technique is to enable students to gradually take on more responsibility for their learning and understanding.
      • Instructional Strategies for Teachers  Instructional strategies are a set of teaching methods that help teachers to teach students in different ways. Instructional strategies can be used to motivate the students, engage them and provide them with opportunities to explore the subject matter.

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    • Interactive Activities Interactive activities in the classroom are a form of instructional strategy that is used to engage students in the learning process. They are meant to be fun and engaging. They are often used as a reward for students who have completed their work or have done well on an assignment. Interactive activities can be anything from a game, puzzle, discussion, or hands-on activity.
    • Interdisciplinary Teaching One of the most effective methods of teaching is Interdisciplinary Teaching. It is a teaching methodology that combines subjects and topics from different disciplines, which are usually unrelated. The goal is to create a more interesting and engaging experience for students by integrating concepts from different subjects into one lesson. Interdisciplinary Teaching can be used in many different ways. For example, teachers can use it to teach about Native Americans in a history class or English class. They can integrate lessons from math, science, art, and social studies into one lesson to teach students about the culture and history of Native Americans in North America.
    • Jigsaw activities are often used in classrooms as a way to promote cooperation and collaboration among students. They can be used for any topic or subject area but are most often used for math, science, and social studies. Teachers choose to use them because they can help students see concepts visually. It is a way to get students to work together and solve problems together as groups of students become “experts” in one part of a problem’s solution and then share what they have learned with the group.
    • Kinesthetic learning strategies involve learning through movement and hands-on experiences. These strategies can be used in a variety of settings, including classrooms, workshops, and studios.
    • KWL charts A KWL chart is an instructional tool that is used in the classroom to help students set goals for what they want to learn, what they know about the topic, and what they learned. The KWL chart can be used by educators to help their students set a goal for learning, outline what they already know about the topic, and then list new information that was learned.
    • Language Development  The goal of language development in the classroom is for students to gain an understanding of how language works and how to use it. This includes developing an awareness of the different forms of language (spoken, written, oral) as well as their functions. Educators can help students develop their language skills by teaching them about grammar, vocabulary, and spelling. They can also help them learn how to read and write by providing instruction on comprehension skills, writing strategies, and phonics.
    • Learner-Centered Digital Badging with Distance Learning  Learner-Centered Digital Badging is an instructional strategy that uses digital badges to recognize and reward students for their achievement in the classroom.
    • Learning Logs Students keep track of their learning. They write about how they responded to learning challenges given by the teacher. Learning logs are a way to document student learning. They are a way for students to reflect on their learning and for teachers to look back on what they have done.
    • Learning Support The instructional strategy of Learning Support is important in the classroom because it helps students with various learning needs. Learning Support can be used in a variety of ways including:-helping for struggling learners to catch up to grade level standards-providing extra help to gifted learners who need less repetition-providing additional support for English language learners or students with disabilities. This strategy is important because it helps students who are struggling and need extra help. It also helps students who are gifted and don’t need as much repetition. And finally, it helps English language learners or students with disabilities by providing them with additional support.
    • Letters Through Time  Letters Through Time is a program offered to schools in the United States. It was designed to teach kids about history through letters from the past. Students are given a letter from the past and then have to write a response letter by adding their thoughts, feelings, and questions.
    • Math Journals These are notebooks that show the student’s process while solving problems. Students document their thought processes and strategies, not just the solutions to problems they are given. This activity helps students to explain what they have learned during a lesson.
    • Math Multiplication Games Math multiplication games are an instructional strategy used in the classroom to help students learn how to multiply numbers. The games can be a lot of fun, and students enjoy them.

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  • Media Literacy Media literacy is the ability to analyze, understand and use media in a way that is appropriate and responsible. Media literacy can be introduced to students early because it is not something that needs to be learned from one specific media source. It can be taught from different sources like television, books, video games, or even social media platforms.
  • Mental Math Mental math is a strategy that helps students make calculations in their heads instead of writing them down or using a calculator. It can be used to teach students how to do basic arithmetic operations such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing without using any tools other than their brain power. This strategy can also be used to teach more complex mathematical concepts such as fractions and decimals. A lot of educators believe that mental math is an excellent way for children to develop their number sense, which is the understanding of numbers in relation to each other.
  • Metacognition Thinking about your thinking processes. In education, this relates to how students think about their thinking and learning.
  • Metacognition sheets are a strategy that teachers use to help students monitor their learning. The sheets provide students with the opportunity to reflect on their understanding of a lesson and identify what they do and don’t know. Students are asked to write down what they learned, how they learned it, and any questions that they have about the lesson. This allows them to reflect on what worked for them during the lesson and what didn’t work for them. This strategy helps students develop metacognitive skills like self-awareness, problem-solving skills, critical thinking skills, and reflective thinking skills.
  • Modular Tools The use of modular tools in a classroom can be defined as the use of modular tools such as game boards, cards, puzzles, and other materials to teach and assess students. Modular tools are used in classrooms because they are engaging for students. They also allow teachers to assess student understanding more efficiently than traditional methods. Some teachers believe that the use of modular tools can increase student engagement and motivation.
  • Nearpod Nearpod is a mobile app that helps teachers create interactive lessons on their smartphones or computer. The Nearpod app includes an interactive whiteboard, quizzes, polls, and more. Teachers can also share their screens with students or show content from the internet.
  • One Minute Papers One Minute Papers or One-Minute Paper is a classroom management strategy that helps students to stay engaged in class. It is an instructional strategy where the teacher gives the students a one-minute paper with a prompt and asks them to write for one minute on it. The teacher then collects the papers and reads them out loud for all the students to hear. This activity can be done as an introduction, as a break, or as homework.
  • Partner Quiz Partner Quiz is a game that helps students review and learn information differently. In Partner Quiz, students work with their partners to answer questions. The questions are usually related to the content they are studying, and they must answer them as quickly as possible. If they get the question right, they take a step forward. If they get it wrong, they take a step back. The game is played until one team reaches the other end of the room or answers all of the questions correctly.
  • Peer Discussions Peer discussions are a teaching strategy that is used in classrooms to engage students in dialogue about what they are learning. This strategy is used as a way to help students develop their speaking and listening skills, as well as their understanding of the material. Peer discussions can be done in small or large groups and may include the whole class or just a few students. The goal is to get students talking with each other about what they have learned, how they feel about it, and what might happen next. Students should be encouraged to share their thoughts with others and listen carefully to what others have said.
  • Peer Teaching Peer teaching can be done in many different ways, but the most common way is for one student to teach their peers about a topic or skill that they are learning about. When using peer teaching as an instructional strategy, the teacher needs to provide support and guidance for the students as they are teaching each other. The teacher will also need to make sure that the students are being respectful of each other and not just talking over one another. Peer Teaching allows students to learn from one another while also giving them a sense of responsibility and ownership over what they have learned. It also helps when it comes time for exams because the student will have more experience understanding the material, which will help them do better on their exams.
  • Personalized Learning  Personalized learning is a term that has been used in education for a while now. It is a type of instructional strategy that focuses on the individual needs of students and tailoring lessons to those needs. The goal of personalized learning is to achieve student success by adapting the lesson plans, teaching methods, and content to each student’s specific needs. This can be done through different techniques, such as grouping students according to their proficiency level or giving them different tasks based on their interests.
  • Phonics is a way to teach reading and writing. It is a method of teaching children how to read words by using the sounds that letters make. Phonics can be taught in many ways:- Teaching children the letter sounds and letter names- Using letter tiles or flashcards to teach the alphabet- Reading aloud books with phonetic words in them- Practicing reading with children who already know how to read
  • Podcasts are a great way to get students engaged in the classroom. They are a new and exciting way of teaching, which can be more immersive than traditional lectures. Podcasts can be used in a classroom to teach students about different topics. For example, podcasts can be used to teach students about an upcoming test or quiz. Podcasts are also a good way for teachers to provide feedback on assignments or projects.
  • Problem-Based Learning Problem Based Learning is a teaching method that has been around for many years. It has been used in medical schools and engineering schools for decades, but now it is being used in classrooms across the globe. It is an instructional strategy that forces students to think critically and solve problems on their own as opposed to being given the answers. The idea behind Problem Based Learning is that students learn best when they are active participants in their learning process. They need to be engaged with the material and have a chance to explore it at their own pace. This way, they are more likely to remember what they learned and be able to apply it when necessary.
  • Project-Based Learning  Project-based learning is a student-centered approach to learning that emphasizes the application of knowledge to solve problems, extend understanding, and make new connections. It can be used in any subject area and at any grade level.

    The project-based learning process typically begins with a question or problem posed by the teacher or student. The students then work individually or in small groups to investigate the question or problem, gather information, and share their findings. Finally, they create a product of their investigation, such as a presentation, video game, website, etc., which they present to the class and/or community.

  • Q-Matrix The Q-Matrix is a four-quadrant model that was created by Marion J. Hatchett to help teachers understand the different instructional strategies they can use. This model is based on the idea that there are four different types of learners: visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic. The Q-Matrix is made up of four quadrants which are divided into two axes: one for the task and one for the cognitive level. The quadrants represent a range from low to high task difficulty and low to high cognitive complexity.
  • Question-Answer Relationship The question-answer relationship can be seen as a two-way street. The teacher poses a question, and students are expected to provide an answer. When the teacher asks a question, they must listen to the response and ask follow-up questions. This way, students know that they are being heard and that their answers are valued. It also allows the students to clarify their thoughts if they have any confusion about the topic at hand or if they need help with something else that is related to what was just discussed in class.
  • Questioning This is a skill that is learned over time. An experienced teacher uses questions to direct the class, dig deeper into relevant issues, and encourage higher-level thinking in his or her students. New educators should make it a priority to learn the best questioning techniques for teachers. Here is a question that is meant to get you thinking: What is teaching? (Feel free to answer that one in the comments!!!)
  • Questions to the Teacher Students submit questions to the teacher related to a specific topic that will be discussed in class (see the link above about questioning techniques).
  • Quick Talk Quick Talk is a strategy that is used in the classroom to help students with their learning. The teacher uses it when they need to get the attention of all of their students quickly. It helps them with some important announcements or reminders, and it can also be used as a way to get students back on track when they are not focused on the task at hand. It is a great strategy for teachers because it only takes about 10 seconds and can be done from anywhere in the room without having to stand up. It is also quick, which means it does not interrupt instruction time for other students.
  • Quick Writes Quick writes are a strategy instructors use to engage students in the learning process. This is done by asking them to write a quick response to an essay prompt. Quick writes are used in the classroom for various purposes. They can be used as an introduction or conclusion to a lesson, as part of an objective test, or as a homework assignment. The strategy is highly effective because it engages students and gets them thinking about what they have learned from the lesson.
  • Read and Say Something  In the classroom, Read and Say Something is a strategy teachers use to teach reading comprehension. It is a technique in which the teacher reads a text aloud to students, then asks them to summarize it, identify the main idea, and make inferences from what they have read. This strategy is effective with all kinds of texts, not just fiction or narrative texts.
  • Reading Comprehension Reading comprehension is the ability to understand what one has read. It is one of the main goals of education, and it is also a skill that can be improved through practice. Reading comprehension instructional strategies are designed to help students improve their reading comprehension skills to become better readers. They can be used in a classroom or at home, depending on the needs of an individual student.
  • Reciprocal Teaching Reciprocal teaching is a strategy in which students fill the role of the teacher in small groups of readers. With teacher modeling, they learn to summarize, generate questions, clarify themselves, and predict what will happen. After this skill has been taught, students can take turns playing the role of the teacher in the group.
  • Response to Intervention (RTI)  RTI stands for Response to Intervention. This is a school-wide system that aims to identify students’ needs and provide them with the appropriate interventions to help them succeed in the classroom.RTI is a systematic approach that helps educators identify struggling students and provide them with the appropriate interventions. RTI has four tiers, which are: Tier 1: Classroom InterventionsTier 2: Small Group InterventionsTier 3: Targeted InterventionsTier 4: Intensive Interventions
  • Roll the Die Roll the Die is an instructional strategy where the teacher rolls a die and then asks a student to answer a question. This strategy can be used in different ways to teach different skills such as reading comprehension, math, science, and more.
  • Self-Evaluation Self-evaluation is a strategy that helps students reflect on their learning process. It helps them develop self-assessment skills and form the habit of self-evaluation to become more autonomous learners.
  • Sensory Rooms: Please read our featured post – Creating a Sensory Room for Your School: A Guide for Teachers
  • Sentence Starters  Sentence Starters or sentence stems are used in a classroom to give students a starting point for their writing assignments. These starters can be used differently to help the student with their writing.1) When the teacher assigns a topic, they will provide one of these sentence starters as an example of how to start their paragraph.2) The teacher may also provide the students with a list of these sentence starters and allow them to choose which one they want to use for their assignment.3) The teacher may also have the students use this strategy as a way of taking notes during class by writing down what is being said and then using one of these sentence starters at the end of each paragraph.
  • Service Learning  Service Learning is a form of experiential learning that integrates community service with classroom instruction. The goal of this instructional strategy is to provide students with the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge they are learning in school to a community service project. It is often used in classrooms as a way to teach students about social responsibility and civic engagement, but it can also be used as an instructional strategy for teaching any subject. For example, teachers may use Service Learning when teaching subjects such as science, math, or history by providing real-world examples of how those subjects are applied outside of the classroom.
  • Snowball Fights You have a classroom snowball fight by giving all of the students a piece of paper with a skill you would like to assess written on it. All of the students crumple their papers into “snowballs” and throw them at the other students. Each student then picks up a snowball and is tasked with whatever skill happens to be written on his or her paper.
  • Special Education Special education is a type of education that may be given to students with special needs. These students may have various disabilities or behavioral disorders. The goal of special education is to provide these students with the resources they need to learn and grow in an environment that best suits their needs.

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• • STEAM STEAM is a term that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math. The goal of STEAM education is to offer students a well-rounded learning experience. The term STEAM was first coined by the National Academy of Engineering in 2013 to describe how these disciplines are now intertwined in the modern world. STEAM education is not just about teaching these subjects but also about providing creative opportunities for students to learn them through different means. Take a peek at some instructional strategies for teaching science.
  • STEM One of the most common instructional strategies in classrooms is STEM. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. These are the four disciplines that schools focus on to get students to think outside the box and develop innovative solutions to real-world problems. The goal of STEM education is to provide an engaging learning environment where students can explore their interests, solve problems and find solutions that are relevant to their world.

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• • • Sticky Notes Sticky Notes have been used in classrooms to provide an instructional strategy for many years. They are a great way to keep students engaged and help them find new connections between the material while providing a visual representation of what they should be learning. They can be used as a way for students to share ideas and questions in a “parking lot” during and after instruction.
    • Stop and Go This is a strategy of giving students a chance to stop for a moment so that they don’t get “burned out” during instruction. Giving them a small break can help them to maintain their momentum for the rest of class.
    • Student Engagement Student engagement is a term to describe the degree to which students are involved in the learning process. It is also a measure of how much they are interested in what they are doing. Many strategies can be used to promote student engagement, from physical activities to social interactions.
    • Summative Assessments Summative assessments are a form of assessment that evaluates the student’s understanding of the material at the end of a unit or course. This is different than formative assessments, which are done throughout the course to measure how well students are doing. Summative assessments are used to determine if students have learned what they were supposed to and if they need more help with the material. Summative assessments include tests, projects, presentations, essays, or oral exams. They can be used in an online setting as well as a traditional classroom setting. Teachers use these assessments to make sure that their students have learned what they were supposed to and if they need more help with the material.
    • Teaching Strategies We all need a plan, right? These are strategies for getting the point of your lessons across to your students as painlessly as possible. You will need to adjust your approach depending on the audience you are teaching. Teaching strategies are strategies that instructors use to teach their students. They are also used by teachers to make the classroom experience more effective. These strategies can be classified into five types: 1) instruction, 2) modeling, 3) coaching, 4) demonstration, and 5) feedback.
      Here are some strategies for teaching high school students.

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  • Technology-Infused Project-Based Learning  Technology Infused Project-Based Learning is a new instructional strategy that has been gaining popularity among teachers and schools. This instructional strategy is based on project-based learning, but it also includes the use of technology to enhance the learning experience.
  • Think-Pair-Share Think-Pair-Share is a classroom instructional strategy that is used to teach students how to think critically and creatively. It is often used in schools as an alternative to lecturing. In this strategy, the teacher poses a question and divides the class into pairs. The teacher then asks one student from each pair to offer their opinion on the given topic for about two minutes while their partner listens actively. After two minutes, the partners switch roles.
  • Think-Pair-Write Think-Pair-Write is a collaborative learning strategy that develops students’ thinking skills. It is a cooperative learning strategy that positions students in small groups of three. The first student writes for about 2 minutes, shares their ideas with the other two members of the group, and then passes the marker to another student. The other two members of the group share their thoughts on what they heard from the first student and try to come up with new ideas. This instructional strategy helps students develop thinking skills by allowing them to work together in small groups, share ideas and try out new ones.
  • Think-Write-Share The Think-Write-Share instructional strategy can be used as a brainstorming exercise for any content. It also provides opportunities for students to work collaboratively with one another, which improves their understanding of the topic at hand. It helps students generate content ideas, and it can be applied in different subject areas and grade levels.
  • Three Summaries Three Summaries is one of the instructional strategies that is used in the classroom to make sure that students are following the lesson and understanding what they are learning. It is a strategy that can be used in any subject, but it is most commonly used in English classes. The idea behind this strategy is for students to summarize what they read, heard, or saw. Students write summaries of three different lengths. They are instructed to use a specific range of words for each of the three summaries. For example, ten to twenty words, thirty to fifty words, and sixty to one hundred words.
  • Transfer the Concept This strategy is based on the idea that students are more likely to remember a concept if they can transfer it from one context to another. It is also based on the idea that students will better understand a concept if they can relate it to something they already know.
  • Transformed Text  Transformed Text is a technique that was first developed by David J. Black and Richard L. Tierney in the year 1981. It has been around for decades, but it has only recently been recognized as a valuable instructional strategy that can transform one’s writing skills. It is used in schools and classrooms to help students learn how to analyze and think critically about the text they are reading. The goal of Transformed Text is not just to teach them how to read but also how to write well-structured essays that incorporate evidence from their readings into their arguments. The process of Transformed Text begins when students read an assigned passage or short story and then identify one or two specific sentences that embody the author’s main idea or message (these are called “clues”). Next, students write a short answer or explanation in their own words.
  • Video Mini-Lessons Video mini-lessons are instructional strategies that teachers use to teach students. They can be used in a classroom to help students learn new material, or they can be used online as a way of providing instruction and guidance for those who are learning independently. The videos can be short, but they should provide enough information for the viewer to understand the topic. Teachers should try to keep them short because this will make it easier for students to remember what is being taught.
  • Virtual Classrooms Most teachers and students today have experienced virtual classroom settings due to the coronavirus pandemic. Virtual classrooms provide an environment where students can interact with their peers, teachers, and other resources in the virtual world. It has many benefits, such as reduced cost, increased flexibility, and improved learning outcomes. They can be used to teach students on any topic or grade level. It is also used to complement or substitute for traditional classrooms in schools. I’ve had quite enough of them and don’t ever want to use them again, if at all possible. Please read our featured post: Virtual Reality in Education: the Good, the Bad, and the Future
  • Virtual Field Trips Virtual Field Trips in a classroom can be used to teach students about the great outdoors in their backyards. It can be used as an educational tool to teach students about the environment and conservation or to study the habitats of animals and plants. Students can explore different environments and learn about the natural world without leaving their classrooms. Some apps like Nearpod offer virtual field trips as an easy-to-add activity in their lessons.

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• Whole Brain Teaching Whole brain teaching is a new way of teaching that incorporates the use of all the senses to help students learn. This technique has been proven successful in classrooms where teachers have implemented it. This instructional strategy is based on the idea that people learn better when they are engaged with their environment and can interact with it differently. Thus, whole-brain teaching promotes a hands-on approach to learning through tactile activities, discussions, and other multisensory experiences.

• Word Splash A collection of words related to a given topic is presented in a “splash” style to get students thinking about and discussing the topic. Word Splash was developed by Dr. David Francis, who has taught for over 30 years. Word Splash was designed to help students learn vocabulary in English language arts classes. It also helps them learn about word meanings, spellings, and word parts.
• Worksheets are a form of instructional strategy that teachers use in the classroom. They are often used for review, reinforcement, and practice. Worksheets can be used for a variety of subjects and skills.

  There are many benefits to using worksheets in the classroom:

  – They help students to better understand their subject or skill

  – They can be used as a form of assessment

  – They provide students with a way to track their progress

• Writer’s Workshop Writer’s Workshop is an instructional strategy that focuses on the development of creativity and writing skills. It is a time-limited activity in which students are given a prompt and have 10-15 minutes to write. The goal of this type of workshop is for students to use their creativity, explore their thoughts, and produce self-directed writing. This technique helps students become more aware of what they want to say and how they want to say it. It also helps them develop better writing skills by practicing different types of sentences, paragraphs, and formats.
• Written Conversations After instruction, students are paired up and instructed to write notes back and forth to each other describing what was learned during the lesson.
• Writing Prompts The idea of using writing prompts in a classroom is not a new one. It has been around for some time now and has been used by many teachers around the world. The idea behind using this technique is to help students develop their writing skills and also to teach them about different genres. The variety of types and styles of prompts is only limited by the teacher’s imagination.
• Writing Strategies A writing strategy is a set of explicit steps teachers use to help students learn to write better. It is a systematic way of teaching the skills of writing while providing the opportunity for students to learn how to take control of their learning. There are four main types of writing strategies: metacognitive, cognitive, social, and affective. Metacognitive strategies focus on what is going on in the writer’s head: how writers know what they know and plan their work; cognitive strategies focus on what writers do with all that knowledge; social strategies focus on how writers interact with audiences and with other people who will read or respond to their work; affective strategies focus on how writers feel about what they are doing.
• Zooming in Zooming in is a classroom instructional strategy that helps students focus on one small detail of the content at a time. This strategy is useful when students are reading, writing, or studying. In this strategy, the teacher asks the student to read or study a text or diagram and then zoom in on one detail of that content to answer questions about it. The student can then share their answer with the class, and other students may zoom in on another detail of the content.
• Always More to Come!

Please comment and share if you found this helpful!

THANK YOU! 😊

 

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I wanted to include an infographic about Marzano’s 9 instructional strategies for teachers.  Why?  Because some people think that this short list is all there is when it comes to planning instruction, and that’s what they’re looking for right now.  Here’s his list, but I invite you to keep on reading it after you check it out.  There is SOOO much more here, and it is all meant to help teachers and students to achieve new levels of success!

Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics

A Resource for Teachers

I want this site to be one of the best online resources for teachers.  As a teacher, becoming familiar with a variety of techniques for teaching is essential if you want to keep students interested in their education and active learning in your class. These strategies and methods of teaching are the tools of your trade. Taking the time to learn about them will help both you and your students. In addition, adding some variety to your teaching is a great way to prevent yourself from burning out.

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Establishing and Breaking Routines

Routine is nice up to a point, but there is a very real danger of falling victim to a creeping complacency that can lead to boredom and disinterest for both teacher and student. Don’t let that happen! Above, you will find a list of instructional strategies for teaching that can give a new spark to your teaching style. Feel free to print it out and then check off different strategies as you use them. As this site grows, more strategies, definitions (help with all of the academic jargon), and specific methods used by teachers will become available. Even without step-by-step instructions, though, just looking through this list of ideas should help to get you out of any teaching rut you may have fallen into over your years of teaching. You’ll no doubt notice that I like to write in bullet points. What can I say? That’s just my style, and I never intended to create another purely academic site.

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New Ideas for Teaching
If you are a new teacher with at least nine weeks of classroom experience, you have no doubt learned by now that there are a lot of different ideas and teaching strategies that trickle down from the powers above you.  You will often be introduced to these ideas during a half-day in-service presentation and then be expected to implement them in your classroom based on a plastic 3-ring binder filled with Xeroxed copies that someone brought back to your district from yet another in-service meeting that was held specifically for administrators.  (Wouldn’t you love to speak at one of those meetings one day?)  These binders, and the often confusing instructions they contain, can sometimes induce spontaneous panic attacks in teachers.  Another purpose of this site is to make these surprise packages a little bit less scary and to help us all to become the best teachers that we can be.

Becoming a Better Teacher

Do you remember your time in school? I remember a lot of fun moments and a lot of time spent playing with other kids during recess. In my later years in school, I remember a lot of the time spent between classes as I talked with friends, but in the learning environment, I remember only the moments when our teacher went above and beyond to teach us. Day-to-day activities certainly are the backbone of good teaching, but without any special application, many of these lessons were not striking or memorable to me.  Now, as a teacher, I sometimes reflect on my own experiences as a student and try to adjust my teaching to become more “sticky” for my students.  I also sometimes consider my teaching methods when I’m sitting in an interminable in-service presentation.  As I sit listening to one person after another reading from PowerPoint slides, I always vow silently to myself that I’ll never do anything like that to a classroom full of students again.

What Are These Strategies for Instruction?

Makeup as many names and acronyms as you like, but instructional strategies are just the methods you use to teach your students.  Teachers have been looking for the best ways to get their message across for years.  They try things, see if they work, and adjust when necessary.

Don’t Get Buried in Academic Jargon

The field of education has quite a bit of jargon.  Most of the teachers I know are very busy teaching a classroom full of students.  There is a chance that they missed the latest article on the best practices in education.  They’re too busy grading papers, preparing lessons, filling out weekly progress reports, and dealing with actual student issues.  The teachers who taught me used many of the same methods that are presented on this and similar sites.  They didn’t have as many fancy names for what they did.  That is part of the reason why I decided to start this site.  I believe that keeping things as simple as possible is a good idea.  This page gives very summaries of some of today’s popular teaching methods.  Some will look familiar to veteran teachers, and you may even know them by another name.  I hope these teachers will chime in with comments to share what they have learned through their years of experience.  There isn’t that much new stuff under the sun, but knowing when and how to use various strategies is something that comes with experience.  Newer teachers will find ideas to help them with “real-life” situations they cannot prepare for in college.  I hope this site will present effective strategies for teaching that might help all of us to become the best teachers we can be.

Becoming an Effective Teacher for Your Students

It takes a special person to make a lasting impression on kids, but it’s not impossible. If you want to make a lesson effective, it takes a bit of planning and preparation and a wide variety of teaching approaches for the classroom.  I hope that this site will introduce you to some effective teaching methods.  Implementing them isn’t all that hard either if you plan them out in advance, and in most cases, it’s worth implementing a few strategies at a time so that kids that learn in different ways all have a chance to connect to the material (differentiation). For me, I always did learn best when implementation was involved. When we read books, I enjoyed projects where we would take the material in the book and create something tangible to demonstrate our comprehension of the material. I remember making a picture depicting the entire storyline of James and the Giant Peach once when I was nine or ten. Not only did I read the book, but my drawing was a simple way for me to demonstrate my understanding of the story and share it with other students around me.

Practical Application and Differentiating Instruction

In my math classes, I always responded better to practical applications. It wasn’t enough for me to learn what signs and cosign were; I needed to understand how these functions applied to the real world. As teachers, we are tasked with connecting with lots of different kids in lots of different classes. Not all kids respond the way I did to hands-on applications, and not all kids learn the same way, either. It is not easy to reach everyone, but by incorporating a variety of delivery strategies into your repertoire, it becomes easier to reach more kids in a meaningful way.

Different Teaching Styles for Different Students

Group work is an area that lots of people, including children, connect with. Although it’s not particularly helpful for every kid, some thrive on it. Independent study is another technique that is beneficial to some kids while not as great for others. By identifying the students in your classes that seem to do well with one method over another, it becomes easy to start building your curriculum around all forms of teaching and learning. Some types of teaching strategies may include things as simple as introducing books on CD to kids instead of only having them read from the text. Although many students have no trouble comprehending text, some kids can better learn to comprehend material when isolated from the actual reading of the text. One other technique to help teach kids how to comprehend reading is to use acting in the classroom. Again, not all kids will respond to this, but some will. It’s all about covering different methods of learning.

To Group or Not to Group

For mathematics, I remember our teacher separated us by skill level. Kids that could do more advanced math worked in one area of the class, while kids at a lower level worked on lower-level math together. This is sometimes called accelerated or individualized math.  Others may call it a form of ability grouping.  It is an effective way of keeping advanced kids interested and motivated while not discouraging kids at a lower level.

Spiraling previously learned material is another way to ingrain important material into the minds of kids who need repetition to learn something important. By introducing concepts and then summarizing them every day while building upon them in different ways, a teacher can easily emphasize what’s most important. That teacher can then properly prepare their students for advanced material that is based on the foundational concepts which are repeated daily.

Remembering What You’ve Learned

Another very common strategy for driving learning in any course is to use Mnemonics. These are the simple association techniques that can sometimes help describe a process in one’s brain. Many common mnemonics stick with kids well into adulthood – “I” before “E” except after “C”. You probably still use that one to this day. The takeaway here is this. There are many different learning and teaching strategies that can be implemented in the classroom independent of student age or skill level. The trick in implementing them effectively is to choose a variety of techniques that support your material and present the information to your classroom using them all. Some kids are simply going to respond to certain teaching strategies better than others. It’s your job as a teacher to cycle through various teaching methods in an attempt to reach all kids in the class.

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