Best Practice #1: Reteaching
Reteaching is when teachers meet with students individually to check their understanding after a minilesson. Often times, these conferences reveal vastly different levels of understanding. As such, reteaching often happens in a one-on-one conference setting, where a student is able to relearn the information with focused assistance from the teacher. The research basis for this strategy comes from 180 Days, by Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle. They discuss how "writers in our classrooms are often in different places, which means that any given minilesson will not connect to all students and will possibly distract them from the important work they need to do as writers that day" (Gallagher, Kittle, Pg. 92). In Kittle and Gallagher's minds, reteaching is rooted in the logic that students are at different levels of understanding after each lesson, so remedial meetings are necessary to ensure progress is made. I have seen this strategy in action at my fieldwork placement. Student achievement levels range from around 1st grade to 6th grade. As such, my host teacher frequently needs to meet with students independently to check for understanding or keep them on task.
Best Practice #2: Experiental Teaching/Bringing the Text to Life
Experiental teaching, or bringing the text to life, is a strategy supported by Lorena German in Textured Teaching. It involves active engagement with the books students read through the five senses. German describes numerous methods of employing this instruction style. Some examples include: field trips to sites relevant to the text, recreating the setting of the text, or using related online materials. Essentially, this strategy seeks to bring the world of the text to life in the classroom, and help students see the text in person. One example that German discusses is recreating a runaway slave's hiding place while teaching, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. This lesson helped her students visualize the writer's experience, empathize with her, and think critically about the challenges she faced in her life. German argues that, "[b]ringing the text to life allows students the chance to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel the elements of a moment or scene" (German, 84). This instruction method effectively allows students to interact with a text in the real world and see how relevant it is to them. It is this relevance that makes experiental teaching such an effective instruction practice.
Best Practice #3: Flexible Discussions
Flexible discussion is an instruction strategy that emphasizes the need for frequent and varied discussions in the classroom. This practice is effective because it allows students to think critically and share their thoughts with the rest of the class. German argues that "[s]tudent talking is a form of thinking and processing...[w]e want our students to be so engaged in the material that they are overwhelmed with the urge to share their thoughts with partners" (German, 99). The logic here is that the more students the discuss the material, the more engaged they will be. One key strategy to encourage engagement and reduce boredom in discussions is to provide a variety of formats. German lists several effective form in Textured Teaching, including: partner, small groups, rotating leader, philosophical chairs, and gallery walks. Sometimes the most effective instruction a teacher can give involves taking off the training wheels and letting students think in a free and unfettered environment. Flexible discussions are an effective instruction practice because they keep students engaged and help them gain agency over their learning.