It is crucial that educators have a large bank of instructional strategies to use while teaching because these strategies are what make the content become engaging and lively for learners. Educators with a wide variety of strategies for instruction will be able to offer learners multiple representations of concepts, and consequently learners will have opportunities to demonstrate their new skills and knowledge in different kinds of products. Diverse instructional strategies allow the educator to differentiate, encourage deep inquiry, and foster meaningful application of knowledge.
One way I implement this standard is through the use of instructional videos as a way to introduce content. Instructional videos are a fabulous tool for classroom use because they incorporate many of Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences and integrate technology into the learning experience. In the creation of this instructional video above, I used Powtoons to design an informative narrative about bell hooks, an educational philosopher. Even if the video is not handmade by the teacher, it can be a very effective way to begin a lesson and welcome a new presence into the classroom. During my Transcendentalism unit, I and my students enjoyed watching Crash Course videos to learn about the historical contexts of our literary explorations.
An important instructional strategy is to use the Madeline Hunter lesson plan format and include a warm-up activity for each lesson. Warm-ups get students engaged right away and prime their brains to learn. Often I enjoy using journal prompts to stimulate prior knowledge, generate discussion, and/or settle the class into a thoughtful place. One warm-up activity that was particularly successful was playing the music video for Foster the People’s song “Call It What You Want”. Students had the lyrics in hand during the song and were asked to parse the meaning of the song. Then, we worked together as a class to discover how this song relates to the Transcendentalist ideas that had been introduced in the previous class. The upbeat, popular song and investigative nature of the activity really engaged the class.
An instructional technique that I really enjoy using is the jigsaw technique. During a lesson on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poetry, I assigned students partners with whom they would learn about one of the poems. Then, they switched to another assigned partner who had studied the other poem. In turns, each student would teach their new partner about the first poem they’d studied. They had to fill out mood and context graphic organizers for each poem, and ultimately answer analytical questions about them. Having to teach another person pushes students to interact more deeply with the class material and be more accountable for their own learning (and for the learning of their peer!).
For more information about my perspective on this professional standard, please see my reflections on instructional strategies.