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  • The Four Corners Teaching Strategy

The Four Corners Strategy-A Verbal, Active Method to Check for Understanding

May 11, 2022|

The Four Corners Strategy is a simple verbal strategy to help engage your students and improve discussion and discourse. In Four Corners, a question is presented to the class, and students are given time to think about their responses. Students will respond to the question by standing in a designated spot of the room that represents their answer choice. Typically, you allow for each corner of the four corners of your classroom to convey an answer choice. After posing your question, students will reflect on their answer and then move to their designated corner of the room. The Four Corners Strategy is a wonderful way to encourage debate and discourse in the classroom while also visualizing students' differences in ideas. By posing questions that elicit a more open-ended response, you can encourage students to think more critically about the question and their answer and prompt them to justify their choice.

  • Frayer Model

How to Use the Frayer Model in Your Classroom

May 10, 2022|

The Frayer Model was designed as a graphic organizer to help students learn the meaning of new vocabulary words. The vocabulary word is placed in the center of the page, and the definition, a picture or characteristic, example, and non-example surround the word in separate boxes. This structure allows for a visual representation of the vocabulary word that students are attempting to learn.

  • Positive Affirmations

Promote Positive Affirmations Between Students in your Classroom

May 5, 2022|

In a classroom context, positive affirmations are phrases and acknowledgments of positive aspects of a child’s personality, effort, behavior, or other characteristics. When affirmations are present in your classroom daily, it helps to set a positive tone within your classroom environment and enriches children’s perceptions of themselves. You may be most familiar with positive affirmations as a way for students to acknowledge aspects of themselves and use them as a mantra to help them continue to behave in a certain way. For example: “I am kind. I am smart. I am a hard worker. I am a helper. I am a leader.” Recited often, individuals may begin to have a healthier outlook on life, their character, and what they are capable of. The point of positive affirmations is to acknowledge yourself and others from a place of positivity and not criticism. This helps create motivated and happy children who value themselves, their work, and their peers.

  • ELL Writing Prompts

Building ELL-Friendly Writing Prompts

February 14, 2022|

The writing process can be challenging for any student, but English Language Learners tend to need increased support and careful lesson planning by their teachers for the best success in class. English grammar differs greatly from grammar constructs of other languages, and some of our common writing structures, such as a topic sentence followed by supporting details for an organized paragraph, may be unfamiliar to them. ELL students also typically have a limited English vocabulary, making it challenging to write their thoughts. Children need to comprehend many components of the writing process, including the written prompt, the piece they are responding to, or other tasks and instructions. These challenges can lead to great frustration for some students, which can even manifest as a lack of motivation. This blog article will present some considerations for designing ELL-friendly writing prompts to help set your students up for success throughout the writing process.

  • Reverse Brainstorming

Reverse Brainstorming: A Method to Build Creativity in Your Classroom

February 12, 2022|

Our educational system is not always constructed to best support creativity. Consider the countless hours students spend studying facts, reciting definitions, or learning how to solve math problems using provided formulas. Creativity may sometimes take the backburner in a lesson when important concepts must first be taught. But creativity in instruction is not an all-or-nothing focus. Just as we need to make sure that students are learning the foundational knowledge and skills within each lesson objective, we also need to make sure that students can use those concepts and apply them creatively through experiences and activities. Often, we see students thrive most when they are provided with opportunities to apply concepts, stretch their thinking, and complete tasks “outside of the box.” Sometimes, though, this can be difficult for students. While some students have a natural, innate ability to use their creativity in meaningful ways, others may struggle with expressing creativity. But this does not mean they can’t improve! In fact, most researchers agree that creativity can be practiced like a skill and improved. Though there are many types of creative expression, one specific kind is called divergent thinking. It is a creative process that can easily be implemented into classroom activities across content areas.

  • Pyramid Analysis

The Pyramid Analysis: An Effective Grouping Strategy to Promote Engagement and Dialogue Among Your Students

November 29, 2021|

Grouping your students in the classroom can be an excellent way to help promote dialogue and critical thinking within your classroom activities. While there is a place for independent work, direct instruction, and other models in your classroom, student grouping can also be incorporated to build more powerful lessons. With busy classroom schedules and arduous lesson planning, sometimes planning methods for grouping students can be placed on the back burner, resulting in the teacher repeatedly falling back on the same grouping methods. Adding a unique grouping structure occasionally to your classroom, when designed with a purpose to align with and enhance your lesson, can not only add some excitement but can help launch creativity within your students. This article will address a grouping type called the Pyramid Analysis, also known as a Pyramid Discussion. This article uses the term Pyramid Analysis to reinforce the notion that this grouping strategy works well at the analysis level or higher for activities that can enhance critical thinking.

  • SAMR Model Examples

Three Examples of Incorporating Technology into the Classroom Using the SAMR Model

June 28, 2021|

As technology becomes more and more a part of our daily lives, we begin to see its benefits in the classroom as well. When used purposefully, technology can truly transform the learning experience for both students and teachers. After reading this article, you will be familiar with the SAMR model of technology integration and how to implement technology at each level in order to transform your students’ learning experience.

  • Flipped Classroom Learning

Flipping the Classroom Script: Flipped Learning vs. Traditional Classroom Learning

August 3, 2020|

Many of us have heard the term “flipped classroom”, and especially as technology is becoming increasingly a part of education, more and more educators find themselves trying the strategies involved in “flipping” a classroom. Unfortunately, there are some misconceptions about true flipped learning, and oftentimes, educators are not utilizing the strategy to its full potential.

  • Differentiation in the classroom

Differentiation in the Classroom: Content, Process, or Product?

June 5, 2020|

When we hear the term differentiation, we often think of helping students with learning difficulties by providing students the right support so that they can be successful at high levels in the classroom. This is the most common practice, but differentiation can mean so much more! Learn some common strategies for differentiating the content you teach, the process by which your students learn, and the products they complete to demonstrate their knowledge.

  • storyboarding

Get the Most Out of Your Class’s Literature Studies: Movie Preview Projects-It’s All in the Storyboards

January 30, 2020|

Lights! Camera! Dying to inject tech into literature while getting the comprehension Action! you crave for your students? Just as in any film making process, when using movie preview projects to engage your class of readers, you have to keep your own audience in mind. In this article, we’ll review a must for ensuring you get the product quality you demand, and your (student) film crew gets the experience and understanding that makes any literature study project worthwhile.

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