Instructional strategies

Instructional Strategies What are they? Basic techniques used to promote learning.

What’s more important? Knowledge or Thinking Skills

Key Instructional Skills

Questioning Why do teachers use questioning? Generate interest Stimulate learning Check for understanding Encourage participation Develop thinking skills Evaluate learning

Questioning As a teacher you must decide When questions are appropriate How to ask them How to respond to answers

Questioning Keep these guidelines in mind when creating questions: Plan questions along with the lesson Ask questions of varying difficulty Bloom’s What do varying difficulty questions accomplish? Include open ended questions What are open ended questions?

Questioning: Encouraging Participation What if you ask questions and no one answers? Wait time

Questioning: Responding to Students Answers How should you respond to student’s answers to your spoken questions?

Using Examples What can a teacher use as an example in a class? Math? Science? History? English? Kindergarten?

Closure What do you think closure is? Helps students draw conclusions about what they learned.

Basic Teaching Strategies

Two Classifications Teacher – Centered Methods Teacher presents information to learners Teacher directs learning process Learner – Centered Methods Teacher acts as a facilitator or guide for learning

Lecture Most basic – teacher orally presents information and students listen Drawbacks? Benefits?

Reading Basic way of learning a wealth of information.

Discussions Can be teacher centered or learned centered Must start with a question Why are discussions beneficial? Why do teachers have to set ground rules?

Guest Speakers Every school has different policies on guest speakers.

Simulations Skits, role playing, case studies, mock trial Computer based simulations

Reflective Responses Students think deeply about an issue or something they have learned. Can be verbal or written

Labs Productive lab creates something Experimental Lab uses a formal process to research a problem

Cooperative Learning Everyone in a group works together to achieve a common goal. Individual accountability is important

Student Presentations Students share what they learn Communication skills Leads to a better understanding of material

Questions to discuss Which instructional strategy that we discussed today do you think is best?