Instructional Strategies

1. (2018). 5 examples for universal design for learning in the classroom. Understood: For Learning and Attention Issues. Retrieved from https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/treatments-approaches/educational-strategies/5-examples-of-universal-design-for-learning-in-the-classroom#slide-2. This article mentions a UDL strategy of giving assignment options to students. One of the examples listed is the choice of creating a podcast or video instead of an essay, all of which allows students to convey what they know. Other examples include allowing students to select their own topic for a reading or writing assignment, so long as it fits into a broad and/or appropriate category. Lastly, a student may create a comic strip to display a sequence of events in a story. This type of student empowerment facilitates excitement and responsibility in and for their school work.

2. (2018). Instructional strategies. For The Teachers: Planning for Effective Meaningful Instruction. Retrieved from http://www.fortheteachers.org/instructional_strategies/. This website offers an abundance of instructional strategies for use in both general and special education classrooms. One such is creating assignments with problems/questions on real-world scenarios and situations. This enables students to understand how the skills and concepts they are learning will or are already align to their personal and academic lives. A few examples are learning how democracy plays a critical role in their lives and how they could use decimals someday.

3. Alber, R. (2015, February 27). Curriculum planning: 5 highly effective teaching practices. Edutopia: A George Lucas Educational Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/5-highly-effective-teaching-practices-rebecca-alber. As the article states, five effective teaching practices or instructional strategies are listed including facilitating classroom instruction. This broad concept is narrowly defined in the article as a teacher frequently stepping offstage and allowing students to give input and learn from each other. Not only is this great practice for getting students involved in their own learning, but it also gives the teachers a chance to formatively assess them through observation on new concepts and terms.

4. (2018). Helping the student with ADHD in the classroom. LD Online: The Educators Guide to Learning Disabilities and ADHD. Retrieved from http://www.ldonline.org/article/5911/. This article offers a slew of instructional strategies for teaching students with ADHD. One strategy I will explain in depth is the concept of appropriate academic scheduling during the school day. Research-based evidence shows that students with ADHD tend to progressively behave worse and experience diminished focus as the day goes on. Therefore, the article suggests to schedule academics in the morning when problem solving skills are fresh, and then plan to do non-academic activities, or at least less stringent work, in the afternoon such as PE, independent reading, computer programs, etc.

5. (2018). Elementary teaching methods. Teach Elementary. Retrieved from http://www.teachelementary.org/elementary-teaching-methods/. This elementary teaching resource gives an important strategy of starting at the end of the lesson planning and working backwards in preparation. Teachers can then mold the lesson correctly to the Common Core standards, or whatever the learning objective is that students should know, and also how they will be assessed by it overall. Teachers can then reinforce these skills or ideas with pre-planned hands on activities, lectures, and collaborative learning.

6. Fisher, D. & Frey, N. Checking for understanding: Formative assessment techniques for your classroom. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. This textbook discusses an important instructional strategy of using misconception analysis. The author states that this formidable term can include preconceived notions, non-scientific beliefs, naive theories, mixed conceptions, and conceptual misunderstanding. This strategy enables students to collaborate, often in small groups, the misunderstandings they may have. The teacher will usually state the typical misconceptions and misunderstandings prior to the group collaboration occurring.

7. {Let's Teach}. (2016, January 24). Instructional Strategies: The ten plus two method. {Video File}. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2udPWz_3vg. This video advocates a unique strategy called ten plus two for lesson planning. The teacher lectures for ten minutes, and then allows two minutes for students to collaborate with one another on the topic, do quick journal writing, or anything else the teacher can think of that would benefit their class. The main idea is that student's thinking drifts off after a certain amount of time, and that student engagement in the classroom is needed to promote effective learning. It ends with a statement I'll paraphrase as, "The one who talks most usually is learning most".