Outline for Top 10 Classroom Strategies to Get Your Students to Think
Narrowing the Gulf Conference
March 18, 2010
Janice Thiel and Gail Lancaster
Presenter
Facilitator
Topic/Activity
Arrival – read article
Materials
Handout w/article, index cards,
pens
PowerPoint slide 1
Gail
Welcome – introduce presenters
Strategy #1: Create a safe environment
Gail
Peak Learning System – Spence Rogers
PowerPoint slide 2
Six motivational standards for a learning
environment: 1)Safety; 2) Success; 3) Fun &
Enjoyment; 4) Freedom & Independence; 5) Valued
Purpose; 6) Love & Belonging
Everyone’s opinion/viewpoint is respected by everyone –
including the instructor
Janice
Case study
Online strategies
Question: How do you create a safe environment in your
classroom?
Strategy #2: Get students to know each other
Janice
Online strategies
PowerPoint slide 3
Phases of Engagement (Conrad & Donaldson)
Index cards
Introducing each other is just one method – what methods
have you used?
Model one method: Partner activity – name, institution,
role, thing in common (share name and role only)
Strategy #3: Assign reading to be done outside of class & Strategy #4: Conduct five-minute quiz at the
beginning of each class
Gail
Fink
PowerPoint slides 4 & 5
Do not go over reading
Handout: quiz questions
Use class time for conversation, class activities, and real
world applications
Quiz (Individual, Then group)
Janice
Online strategies for 3 and 4
Question: How would this be of benefit to students with
disabilities?
Strategy #5: Try not to lecture more than 20% of the total class time
Gail
Involving Course Model
PowerPoint slide 6
Also in Fink’s book: Creating Significant Learning
Handout: Involving Course Model
Experiences
Also in materials for SLS
Janice
Online strategies
Strategy #6: Involve all students in discussions
Gail
Put student’s names on index cards
Combine that with the interactive method:
1. State (in your own words)
2. Elaborate (say in different words)
3. Example (give an example – within the content –
within life experience)
4. Illustrate (draw an analogy, metaphor, chart,
diagram, cartoon.)
How would this method help/hinder feelings of belonging
and caring and emotional safety?
Question: Comparing article and Involving Course Model
Strategy #7: Ask essential questions
Gail
Types of Essential Questions
 Analytic – questioning the structure of thinking
 Evaluative – determining value, merit, worth
 Questioning within academic disciplines –
questioning to understand the foundations of
disciplines
 Questioning for self-knowledge and selfdevelopment – questioning ourselves as learners
Online interactive model
Janice
Online strategies for 6 and 7
Strategy #8: Employ Socratic Questioning
Janice
The unexamined life is not worth living – Socrates
Probing with a purpose to clarify in their own minds, to
think critically.
PowerPoint slide 7
Completed index cards
Handout: Questioning strategy and
question
PowerPoint slide 8
Handout: Types of essential
questions and questions for each
standard
PowerPoint slide 9
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Raises basic issues
Probes beneath the surface of things
Pursues problematic areas of thought
Helps students discover the structure of their own thought
Helps students develop sensitivity to clarity, accuracy,
relevance, and depth
 Helps students arrive at judgments through their own
reasoning
 Helps students analyze thinking – its purposes, assumptions,
questions, points of view, information, inferences, concepts,
and implications
Online interactive model
Online strategies
Strategy #9: Ask students to write the logic of an article or paragraph or chapter in the text
Gail
Template for Analyzing the Logic of an Article
PowerPoint slide 10
Handout: template
Janice
Online strategies
Strategy #10: Relate the current topic or course to the whole (system, discipline)
Gail
Relating this presentation to the attendees “context”
PowerPoint slide 11
Handout: grid
 What do we need to know next?
 What information are we missing?
Janice
Online strategies