CRISS & Instructional Strategies
Project CRISS® (CReating Independence through Studentowned Strategies) is a professional development program for teachers that aims to improve reading, writing, and learning for 3rd- through 12th-grade students.
The implementation of Project CRISS® does not require a change in the curriculum or materials being used in the classroom, but instead calls for a change in teaching style to focus on three primary concepts derived from cognitive psychology and brain research. These three concepts include students: 1. monitoring their learning to assess when they have understood content,
2. integrating new information with prior knowledge, and
3. being actively involved in the learning process through discussing, writing, organizing information, and analyzing the structure of text to help improve comprehension.
In Project CRISS®, teachers incorporate these concepts into their regular classroom instruction through the use of comprehension strategies (such as using background knowledge, questioning, organizing graphically, and summarizing). Project CRISS® calls for students to apply these comprehension strategies to content they encounter, to gain an understanding of when and how it is most appropriate to use these strategies, and to learn to use the strategies that work best for them.
