ACT

What processes and strategies can we use to get our students to the target?

Documents

Overview of High Yield High Engagement Strategies

Costa's Levels of Questions - Sentence Stems

5 Steps to a Student Centered Classroom

In student-centered classrooms, students are directly involved and invested in the discovery of their own knowledge. Through collaboration and cooperation with others, students engage in experiential learning that is authentic, holistic, and challenging. Students are empowered to use prior knowledge to construct new learning. Through the development of the metacognitive process, students reflect on their thinking. Curriculum and assessment are centered on meaningful performances in real-world contexts. As a partner in learning, teachers intentionally create organized and cohesive experiences to assist students to make connections to key concepts.

From: Characteristics of an Effective Classroom, by: Iowa Core

In today's educational landscape we frequently hear the term "effective teaching strategies" used to describe anything and everything...From Marzano's Teaching Strategies that Work, to project based learning and educational technology. The reality is there are millions of teaching strategies that are effective in creating a "challenging, dynamaic, and engaging" classroom when they are both aligned to the work, and executed correctly. But those same teaching strategies can become ineffective when they were picked for the wrong reasons, implemented incorrectly, or simply not the right fit for the kids in the room.

During the act stage of the Standards Based Teaching and Learning Cycle, we ask teachers to think about the steps needed to create a student centered learning environment, and contemplate the tools and strategies that will both engage and teach students the knowledge and skills necessary to meet the target.

At North Marion School District we have pinpointed several key strategies that are research based and proven to provide high engagement and high levels of learning. However, we know they are just a small sampling of the many strategies you can choose from. Ultimately we want you to think about the following questions when working to create a dynamic learning environment for your students.

From: How Student Centered Is Your Classroom, by: Rebbecca Alber

Use these questions to reflect on the learning environment you design for students:

In what ways do students feel respected, feel valued, and feel part of the whole group?
In what ways do students have ownership of the classroom? Do they ever make decisions about resources, environment, or use of time? When? How often?
Do they have ownership in their learning? Do they have choices and options for projects, assignments, and partners for group work?
When are students comfortable with expressing who they are and their thoughts and ideas? When are they not?
When do you inquire about the needs of your students? How often do you do this? How often do you check for group understanding and adjust the instruction accordingly?
How are desks arranged? Are students facing each other? Do they have multiple opportunities each week to share with fellow classmates, and to share with a variety of classmates?
As the instructor, what is my "air time" each class session? How much direct instruction is there? How might I change some of that directing teaching to facilitating?