While you will plan the Activating Strategy after you plan your Learning Activities, an Activating Strategy is done at the beginning of the lesson.

The Activating Strategy should only be about 10% of the total lesson time. If a lesson will take 3 hours (2-5 class periods depending on your scheduling), then you should make sure that your Activating Strategy is about 10 – 20 minutes. If you want your students to successfully learn the content in-depth during the remaining time in the lesson, these 10 – 20 minutes are crucial!

If your percentage of students from poverty is greater than 50%, plan to provide additional strategies and time for Activating. We recommend about 20% of the total lesson time for the Activating Strategy when half or more of your class is from poverty.