InTASC Standard #8: Instructional Strategies
The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.
In order to be an effective teacher, I apply many different instructional strategies to reach all of my students. A few of the most effective ways that I instruct my students are through different instances of intentional grouping, appealing to a variety of learning styles, and encouraging student communication. In the following section, I will highlight some of the strategies I use in detail, from cross-curricular strategies like arts-integration, to different types of small groups such as guided reading, to graphic organizers used in whole group as in Just Think Literacy, to independent learning opportunities such as W.I.N. and math centers. I will also review some of the Kagan strategies I employ daily to encourage student communication and critical thinking through verbal communication.
In this section I detail a few examples of how I have used arts-integration to help deepen students' understanding of core content knowledge. Using the arts to teach content helps students build cross-curricular connections and gives multiple opportunities to apply knowledge in a variety of ways.
This is an example of small group intervention, where my direct instruction for a small group is target towards individual students' learning goals. Guided reading groups are flexible groups that are leveled to allow for targeted instruction.
This instructional strategy revolves around whole group reading comprehension lessons which use a graphic organizer to target visual learners and help students consider plot points in books and emotion words in a different way.
These are independent learning centers based off of the Daily Five model. These centers are structured and students rotate through them each week to practice a variety of literacy skills from phonics games, to reading, to writing.
My math centers are free choice and highlight an instructional strategy of allowing early childhood students to explore a subject from multiple angles. Each center, whether solo or partner work, encourages students to think critically and communicate well with their classmates.
These strategies provide daily and weekly opportunities for students to communicate with each other in a variety of ways. They also allow for partner and small group activities that promote a sense of community.
Using a variety of strategies helps support my instruction by helping me appeal to my students' individual learning styles. For example, some of my students may struggle with verbal explanations, but enjoy expressing their thoughts through visual arts. Or they may have difficulties understanding a concept in whole group lesson, but respond favorably to the same concept during centers. All of these techniques also encourage students to apply skills in a variety of ways, increasing their comprehension, internalization of content, and practical application of these skills in a way that is meaningful.