Strategy
1. Flexible Seating
2. KWL Charts
3. Think-Pair-Share
Goals/Outcomes
‣ To allow for a change in routine to the daily
classroom setup.
‣ Reduces prolonged seating
‣ Allows the teacher an opportunity to separate any
disruptive students who normally sit next to each
other without creating a scene/disrupting the rest of
the class, AND/OR
‣ Establish new friendships/communication lines
between students.
‣ To help students focus on a subject before, during,
and after it has been discussed in class.
‣ Allows the teacher a reference point of where each
student is at any given time during the teaching of a
subject.
‣
Students that are not as comfortable asking questions
in a classroom have an avenue to make sure what
they are curious about gets back to the teacher who
can then discuss any such topics with the entire
classroom.
‣ To encourage and strengthen teamwork and
problem solving skills with a partner.
‣ Allow an opportunity for students to pose questions
to someone other than the teacher.
‣ Allows students to drive the conversation forward
for a change.
‣ To establish a public speaking role for each student
on level ground.
‣ Teachers are able to evaluate the class from a
position other than asking/responding
4. Exit Cards
‣ Avenue for students to provide helpful feedback to
teachers about what they have taken away from their
time in class.
‣ Allows
for consistent communication between teachers and
students who are less comfortable speaking in class.
‣ Provides a short period of social time at the end of
class that is still aimed towards class activities
‣ Can be used to better relate to students through
asking about what they have planned for their
evenings/what their weekends were like.
‣ Invites students to learn more about places other
than their own city/country.
‣
Allow students the opportunity to work with and
understand real-world situations involving distance,
time, currency, and mapping.
‣ Students are able to share real-life experiences
about places they have visited or even lived.
5. Traveller
6. Turn and Talk
‣ Effective way to take a break or change pace in the
middle of a lesson.
‣ Promotes peer-to-peer discussion about learning.
‣ May result in a better understanding when discussed
with a peer from a different perspective than what the
teacher is presenting.
‣ Students that have an understanding of the content
are able to speak confidently about it further
enhancing their grasp.
‣ As opposed to the teacher answering a finite
number of questions from students during a lesson,
each student now has an opportunity to air their
confusion or queries about what is being discussed.
‣ Quick and effective, requires minimal disturbance
to the flow of class.
7. Brain Dump
8. LAR (Learn, Apply,
Reflect)
‣ Used to help the teacher evaluate where a student or
the entire class is at in its learning of a subject/lesson.
‣ Emphasises retrieval as an effective learning
strategy for students moving forward
‣ Helps weed out incorrect associations students may
have about the content covered in class.
‣ Speed
factor provides this activity with a game-like element
that could translate to prizes or benefits to students
who make the most correct associations.
‣ To gauge or reinforce students' understanding of a
term/concept by having them apply it to situations
they are interested in.
‣ Can be applied to a variety of subjects.
‣ Allowing students to choose how they want to apply
the concept as a way of rewarding good in-class
behaviour, but can be assigned by teacher if there is a
lack of focus or understanding.
‣ Not limited to the classroom in terms of
where/when this strategy can be utilized, possibly
freeing up more time for other activities in-class.
‣ Takes students' minds outside of the confinements
of the classroom to think about why what their
learning is practical.
‣ Having students choose how or where to make the
transfer may give the teacher better insight to their
students' interests.
9. Group Peer Quiz
10. Chain Notes
11. Walk and Talk
‣ To have students create and answer quizzes made
by their peers.
‣ Reinforce team-work and communication within
groups.
‣
Provide feedback on where the class is at in its
overall understanding of a lesson.
‣ Gives responsibility/power to the students in that
they decide what the content is and then grade the
quiz before presenting to the class.
‣ Provides various perspectives/ideas to students
from their peers as opposed to the same perspective
of the teacher to all the students.
‣ Help keep active lines of communication open
between teacher and students.
‣
Teachers can gauge whether or not there is common
understanding within the classroom or if the lesson
needs to be approached from a different perspective.
‣ Can be used to submit anonymous questions or
comments to the teacher regarding content that is
confusing or sensitive.
‣
Conflicting questions/perspectives could be placed
on two envelopes to fuel further conversation about
learned content.
‣ Have students engage in class-relevant conversation
while being active at the same time. ‣ Can promote
peer bonding.
‣ Breaks up long
periods of seating.
‣ Promotes being
active.
‣ Can be a memorable
portion of the students day and therefore make a
lasting connotation with the subject discussed.
12. Four Corners
13. Letters Through Time
14. Literature Circles
‣ A fun and active way of separating the classroom
for the purposes of answering questions, forming
groups, while evaluating or learning more about your
students.
‣
Breaks up long periods of seating.
‣ Effective ice-breaker activity for the beginning of
the year to establish a base-understanding of where
various students are at.
‣ Promotes on-the-fly thinking as students move and
think quickly to answer questions by getting into
position.
‣
Can establish new relationships between students as
similarities in interests are discovered through their
answers to certain questions.
‣ Effective formative assessment strategy to evaluate
students' knowledge of history lessons as well as the
actions of historical figures.
‣ Students are able to work both individually (in
drafting their letters) as well as with a partner
(discussing the context of their setting).
‣ Encourages peer-to-peer discussion relevant to inclass readings.
‣ Assists students who may not retain as much
through readings alone or that struggle with reading
in general.
‣ Can
start as one large circle at the beginning of the year
and break into smaller groups as lessons progress.
This allows for the teacher to establish what's
expected within these circles early and then hand
over responsibility to the students over time.
‣ Promotes communication and public-speaking.
‣ Potential for leadership qualities to emerge within
students willing to lead and expand discussions.
‣ Allows the teacher to move from circle to circle and
add points or ideas from other circles.
‣ An attempt to better connect one-on-one with each
student to make sure they are able to take away as
much as possible from a teacher.
‣
Class-long lectures are replaced as slide-shows or
videos to be completed as homework as opposed to
being done in-class.
‣ While this may not be practical for classes with a
15. Personalized Learning high volume of students, it can be more effective than
spending the bulk of class-time addressing everyone
as though they're on level ground, educationally.
‣ Allows for teachers to get to know their students on
a much more personal level, utilizing their likes,
hobbies, dislikes to the teachers advantage in lessons.
16. Pro and Con Grid
17. Reciprocal Teaching
‣ To challenge critical thinking in students and not
have them take the lesson at face value.
‣ Generate new perspectives on what the lesson
taught various students.
‣
Have students consider other ways of understanding
the content based on answers their peers come up
with.
‣ Turning reading assignments into more by having
students complete a series of tasks before, during,
and after the reading takes place.
‣
Reinforces co-operation as groups work together to
complete tasks.
‣ Can
remove stress involved with students that may be
weaker readers as they can reflect within a group
about ideas.
‣ Class
readings won't be held up by individual slow readers
who can be grouped with stronger readers to lean on.
18. News Analysis
19. Jigsaw
‣ A interdisciplinary approach to generate
conversation, use critical thinking, and apply lessons
learned in class to tackle new challenges.
‣ Showcases how lessons learned in-class can be
applied in real-world scenarios.
‣ Students become aware of various initiatives within
their community, can be especially impactful for
those that may be new to the school/town.
‣ After assignment presentations allow for peer-topeer questions and feedback.
‣ Providing students the opportunity to research a
specific aspect of a lesson, familiarize themselves
with that aspect, then teach that aspect to their
classmates.
‣
Simultaneously exercises team-work, leadership, and
speaking skills for each student.
‣ Each student is given the responsibility of teaching
their classmates, changing up the usual teacher-led
lessons.
20. CRT (Culturally
Responsive Teaching)
‣ An effort to make all students comfortable in the
classroom based on their unique culture/backgrounds.
‣ Ensuring students that do not speak the same
language or that struggle to relate to in-class
scenarios still have an avenue to connect to the
learning.
‣
Provides an opportunity for teachers to have a better
relationship with their students.
‣ Fellow students are exposed to learning about other
peoples cultures, beliefs, or backgrounds.
‣
Over time, other students may walk away with a
better knowledge of the lesson material by
associating it with these experiences.
In-Class Application
‣ Randomly select days of the week/month
where the normal row of desks and chairs is
replaced by outside-the-box arrangements.
‣
Examples can include radical changes such as
bringing in bean-bag chairs or exercise balls for
students to sit on or can be as simple as
rearranging the chair or desk layout.
‣ This can be applied to the entire class as a
whole or can be done in groups/stations where
students can move around, i.e. from chairs> bean
bags> balls.
HLP Association
‣ HLP 1: Leading a group discussion.
‣ HLP 5: Implementing norms and
routines for classroom discourse and
work.
‣
HLP 9: Setting up and managing small
work groups.
‣ Charts can be pre-made by teachers or blank
sheets can be handed out to allow for the
students to create their own chart, unique in style
to them.
‣ Students
then fill out the first two rows prior to a lesson
(K - What I Know About this Subject and W What I Want to Learn About this Subject)
‣ Upon completion of the lesson, have the
students fill in the final row (L - What I Learned
About this Subject) and review rows K and W.
‣ HLP 6: Coordinating and adjusting
instruction during a lesson.
‣
HLP 13: Setting long- and short-term
learning goals for students.
‣ Pose a question to the classroom or allow them
to choose from a pre-determined list of
subjects/scenarios.
‣
Assign or allow students to pick (reward for
positive classroom behaviour) partners to discuss
and/or come up with a solution.
‣ Have the
pairs deliver their answer/solution in front of the
rest of the class, allowing opportunity for
questions and feedback from peers as well as the
teacher.
‣ HLP 1: Leading a group discussion. ‣
HLP 7: Specifying and reinforcing
productive student behaviour.
‣
HLP 15: Checking student
understanding during and at the
conclusion of lessons.
‣
HLP 18: Providing oral and written
feedback to students.
‣ Just prior to the end of class, have students
respond to a few questions posted on the board
such as "What was your favourite part of class
today?" or "What 3 things did we discuss/learn
about today?".
‣
Teachers can choose to utilize a standardized
sheet with the same questions, handed out each
class or the use of a journal if the questions vary
from class-to-class.
‣
Students can work alone or in small groups to
discuss the days activities and can only leave
after submitting their responses.
‣ HLP 5: Implementing norms and
routines for classroom discourse and
work.
‣ HLP 10: Building respectful
relationships with students.
‣
HLP 15: Checking student
understanding during and at the
conclusion of lessons.
‣
HLP 17. Interpreting the results of
student work, including routine
assignments, quizzes, tests, projects,
and standardized assessments.
‣ Best suited for geography or history courses,
students design a dream (or recently taken)
vacation.
‣
Option to have students select a destination of
interest prior to beginning of the lesson and let
them research and apply what they learn as they
go.
‣ Drawing
off of content covered in class, students go into
detail about highlights of their vacation.
‣ Students discuss historical events or landmarks
that exist in their country/ies.
‣ Content
such as language, currency, weather can be
incorporated, depending on what is best suited to
the content learned in class.
‣ HLP 7: Specifying and reinforcing
positive student behaviour.
‣
HLP 12: Learning about students'
cultural, religious, family, intellectual,
and personal experiences and resources
for use in instruction.
‣ HLP 13:
Setting long- and short-term learning
goals for students.
‣ During a lesson teacher tells students to turn to
the person beside/behind them to discuss the
content of the current lesson.
‣
Students can provide clarity to those that are
unsure, ponder further applications of the lesson,
or work together to generate feedback for the
teacher.
‣ Turn and
Talk can be something that is pre-determined to
take place during the lesson by the teacher or
inserted on-the-fly if there is a sense of confusion
or that some students have gotten lost along the
way.
‣ Once finished, the
classroom can provide more concentrated
feedback/questions to the teacher in the interest
of moving the lesson forward from this point.
‣ HLP 1: Leading a group discussion. ‣
HLP 6: Coordinating and adjusting
instruction during a lesson.
‣
HLP 15: Checking student
understanding during and at the
conclusion of lessons.
‣ A Brain Dump can be done at an individual,
group, or classroom level.
‣
More effective when done multiple times
throughout the learning of a lesson (start, middle,
end for example).
‣ Teachers
will pose a term/idea that was or will be
discussed in the class and the students record
everything they know, or think, associates with
that idea.
‣ Common answers
can be recorded quickly and removed from
conversation to focus more on less-common
suggestions.
‣ HLP 1: Leading a group discussion. ‣
HLP 3: Eliciting and interpreting
individual students' thinking.
‣
HLP 4: Diagnosing particular common
patterns of student thinking and
development in a subject-matter
domain.
‣
HLP 15: Checking student
understanding during and at the
conclusion of lessons.
‣ Once a lesson has completed have students
make connections to real-world situations and
report back on how and what they have learned.
‣ Can be done in-class or as a take-home
assignment.
‣
Examples could include: For mathematics,
having students determine the height of their
house or a tree after a trigonometry lesson. For
English, having students identify parts of movies
or video games, of their choosing, such as the
climax or which characters are the protagonists.
‣ HLP 2: Explaining and modeling
content, practices, and strategies.
‣
HLP 3: Eliciting and interpreting
individual students' thinking.
‣ HLP 7: Specifying and reinforcing
productive student behaviour.
‣
HLP 10: Building respectful
relationships with students.
‣
HLP 15: Checking student
understanding during and at the
conclusion of lessons.
‣ Break the classroom into an even number of
small groups.
‣
Each group will create a quiz (i.e. 5 questions)
focused around an on-going or recently
completed lesson.
‣ Questions
can be thought of by the students, selected from a
larger, pre-determined list provided by the
teacher, or a hybrid of both.
‣ After the quizzes have been exchanged between
groups and completed, exchange completed
quizzes with a third group for marking.
‣ Once marked, return quizzes to original group
and have each group explain what was asked,
answered, and debate why it was right or wrong.
‣ HLP 1: Leading a group discussion. ‣
HLP 8: Implementing organizational
routines.
‣
HLP 9: Setting up and managing small
group work.
‣ HLP
14: Designing single lessons and
sequences of lessons.
‣
HLP 15: Checking student
understanding during and at the
conclusion of lessons.
‣ The teacher poses a question to the class and
writes it on an envelope then passes it around the
class.
‣
Students write down their response, put it in the
envelope and pass it to the next student.
‣
When the envelope has been returned to the
teacher answers can be pulled out and
discussed/debated by the whole classroom.
‣ HLP 1: Leading a group discussion. ‣
HLP 4: Diagnosing particular common
patterns of student thinking and
development in a subject-matter
domain.
‣
HLP 15: Checking student
understanding during and at the
conclusion of lessons.
‣
HLP 18: Providing oral and written
feedback to students.
‣ Pose a question/thought/topic to the classroom
and have them pair up.
‣ Depending
on circumstances related to the school
environment, get the students into an area where
they are free to walk around (i.e. gym,
playground, hallways).
‣ Pairs
then debate/find a solution to the problem
delivered in-class, where they can return and
discuss.
‣ Once again
depending on circumstances, final class
discussion could take place gathered in the
playground/gym to provide a unique end to the
activity.
‣ HLP 1: Leading a group discussion. ‣
HLP 5: Implementing norms and
routines for classroom discourse and
work.
‣ Label the four corners of the room, i.e. A, B, C,
and D.
‣
Conduct a multiple choice test wherein the
students answer by moving to the corresponding
corner of the room with their answer.
‣ Can also be an effective way to break the
classroom into groups.
‣
Replace the A, B, C, D format with pictures as
answers to learn more about your students while
still breaking into groups (i.e. which ice cream
flavour is your favourite? Then have photos of
various flavours). This can be expanded beyond
the 4 answers to establish numerous, smaller
groups.
‣ HLP 3: Eliciting and interpreting
individual students' thinking.
‣
HLP 4: Diagnosing particular common
patterns of student thinking and
development in a subject-matter
domain.
‣
HLP 9: Setting up and managing small
group work.
‣ HLP
10: Building respectful relationships
with students.
‣ HLP 15:
Checking student understanding during
and at the conclusion of lessons.
‣ Students are divided into pairs and given a
scenario, typically historical but could also be
applied in political or English based lessons.
‣ Partners then send letters back and forth to each
other demonstrating their knowledge of the
period of time or specific backdrop of their
scenario.
‣
Attaching students to the perspective of a realworld figure can add another layer to the
information available.
‣ HLP 3: Eliciting and interpreting
individual students' thinking.
‣
HLP 9: Setting up and organizing small
group work.
‣ HLP
14: Designing single lessons and
sequences of lessons.
‣ During or following a text-based lesson,
students arrange themselves in a circle, either as
a class or in groups, to breakdown the content of
the readings.
‣ The teacher
is encouraged to move within the classroom to
sit in or simply observe the circles as they
discuss
‣ Teachers should
look to push the conversation in certain
directions as they see fit.
‣ HLP 1: Leading a group discussion. ‣
HLP 8: Implementing organizational
routines.
‣
HLP 9: Setting up and managing small
group work.
‣ Normal class structure of teacher speaking to
the room is replaced by increments of
personalized time with each student.
‣
Lesson lectures are swapped with assignments as
homework, where students take-in the content
via a slideshow or video.
‣
Typical "homework" assignments are completed
in-class where teachers have the opportunity to
address questions as they arise instead of grading
them as homework the next day.
‣ HLP 2: Explaining and modeling
content, practices, and strategies.
‣
HLP 3: Eliciting and interpreting
individual students' thinking.
‣ HLP 7: Specifying and reinforcing
productive student behaviour.
‣
HLP 10: Building respectful
relationships with students.
‣
HLP 12: Learning about students'
cultural, religious, family, intellectual,
and personal experiences and resources
for use in instruction.
‣ HLP 18:
Providing oral and written feedback for
students.
‣ At the end of a lesson have students arrange a
list of pros and cons (maybe 10 each, for
example) based on an open-ended concept that
was discussed.
‣
Done individually or in a group setting.
‣
Review the various lists when complete and
make connections between similar or conflicting
opinions as to what is or is not a pro/con.
‣ HLP 1: Leading a group discussion. ‣
HLP 4: Diagnosing particular common
patterns of student thinking and
development in a subject-matter
domain.
‣
HLP 15: Checking student
understanding during and at the
conclusion of lessons.
‣ Divide students up into groups and assign roles
based on what information you are looking to get
from each group (i.e. having one student in a
group summarize the readings or identifying key
terms).
‣ As a group,
students then read the assigned passage, this can
be done silently or taking turns out loud
depending on the make-up of the class.
‣ While completing the readings students can
make connections or take notes based on what it
is their role dictates they are doing.
‣
Groups present their findings at the end and the
class can engage in discussion about their
different findings.
‣
Roles can be recorded and swapped for future
usage, ensuring students can experience different
objectives within their readings.
‣ HLP 4: Diagnosing particular
common patterns of student thinking
and development in a subject-matter
domain.
‣
HLP 8: Implementing organizational
routines.
‣
HLP 9: Setting up and managing small
group work.
‣ Teacher brings in newspapers or shows a
specific news clip to the class and then posses
questions based around the content.
‣
Students can break into pairs or groups to come
up with solutions to the questions.
‣ If the
potential exists for different groups to pick their
news article, this would provide an opportunity
for various presentations at the end of the
assignment.
‣
Examples could include: An article discussing
building a new park in the community. Tying this
in with a science class, where is the best place to
place the new park? What kinds of ecosystems
would exist? Is there a prominent water source, if
not, can one be developed?
‣ HLP 9: Setting up and managing small
group work.
‣ HLP
14: Designing single lessons and
sequences of lessons.
‣ HLP
17: Interpreting the results of student
work, including routine assignments,
quizzes, tests, projects, and
standardized assessments.
‣ Students are assigned a fragment (x) of a
subject following a reading or completion of a
lesson.
‣ The
class is then divided into four "home" groups,
comprised of students with various fragments (x,
y, z).
‣ Once familiar
with their home groups, students then breakaway into a second "expert" group with students
who share the same assigned fragment (x).
‣ Discussing with their expert groups, students
can formulate a better understanding of their
fragment.
‣
Finally, students return to their home groups to
teach/explain their fragment and its applications
to the rest of their group.
‣ HLP 1: Leading a group discussion. ‣
HLP 4: Diagnosing particular common
patterns of student thinking and
development in a subject-matter
domain.
‣
HLP 6: Coordinating and adjusting
instruction during a lesson.
‣
HLP 9: Setting up and managing small
group work.
‣ Teachers must do their best to establish a baselevel understanding of any cultural differences
that may exist within the classrooms.
‣ When identified, make a conscious effort to
incorporate imagery or phrases that may be
familiar to students' unique backgrounds.
‣If
they are comfortable, invite students to talk about
their cultures/beliefs during a lesson. Teach the
class a new word that mirrors one being
discussed in-class, or have them provide
scenarios that may better relate to their
experiences.
‣ HLP 1: Leading a group discussion. ‣
HLP 10: Building respectful
relationships with students.
‣
HLP 12: Learning about students'
cultural, religious, family, intellectual,
and personal experiences and resources
for use in instruction.
Drawn From
‣ https://www.prodigygame.com/mainen/blog/flexible-seating-classroom-ideas/
‣ https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-
library/teaching-strategies/k-w-l-charts
‣
‣ https://teaching.utoronto.ca/teachingsupport/active-learning-pedagogies/activelearning-adapting-techniques/think-pairshare/
‣ https://sites.up.edu/tl/exit-cards-a-simpleformative-assessment-strategy/
‣ Expanded upon off of concept found in
link below.
‣https://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/t
echlp/techlp028.shtml
‣https://www.rbteach.com/sites/default/files
/turn_and_talk-west_and_cameron.pdf
‣ https://ditchthattextbook.com/stickylearning-digital-brain-dumps-with-flipgridand-socrative/
‣ Concept utilized in my Grade 11 math
class that I have expanded on to apply to
other subjects.
‣ Expanded upon from commonly found
peer-to-peer quizzes that were popular
during my elementary school years.
‣https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/exlnt/entr
y/8669/view
‣https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/sites
/default/files/pdf_files/EYM_walk_talk.pdf
‣ Demonstrated by Professor with entire
class in my B.Ed. Aboriginal Education
course.
‣ Experienced as a paper that was assigned
to me, though as an individual assignment,
in my Russian History course at Lakehead.
‣https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/t
eachers/teachingresources/discipline/englis
h/literacy/readingviewing/Pages/teachingpr
accircles.aspx
‣https://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/3/per
sonalized-learning-what-it-really-is-andwhy-it-really-matters
‣https://li.wsu.edu/documents/2018/01/stud
ent-engagement-strategies-pro-and-congrid.pdf/#:~:text=Pro%20and%20Con%20
Grids%20can,encouraging%20the%20shari
ng%20of%20ideas.
‣https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/
reciprocal_teaching
‣ https://www.prodigygame.com/mainen/blog/interdisciplinary-teaching-activitiesexamples/
‣ Discussed in-class, detailed in link below.
‣https://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.p
hp/tool/jigsaw
‣http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynum
eracy/inspire/research/cbs_responsivepedag
ogy.pdf