Strategy Name

Explanation

Key Considerations
/Reflections

Peer Practice
(interactive)

After a teacher led activity, students are

paired in Coach/Learner pairs, where they
do supplemental activities. Roles and pairs
are changed regularly. Most effective where
the student activities build on what was
modeled by the teacher in the teacher led
activity.

Panels (interactive)

A discussion among a group of students in

conversational form with a leader. Students
acting as experts on the panel are given
time beforehand to prepare/study. This can
be done a day or a few days in advance. On
the day of the panel, the student experts
who have prepared can give some
statements or explanation based on their
study. Other students observe, consider the
information presented and then join in by
asking questions. Layout of the classroom
can be important and varies depending on
the model of panel discussion you want to
have. In a fishbowl a group of students

By taking on the role of coach, students

are able to gain greater mastery of the
subject matter as they synthesize it and
help their peer understand it and practice
it. Allows greater flexibility for the teacher
to do formative assessment on the fly as
they observe students trying to
communicate and teach information to
each other. It assumes that students will
have gained enough information from
previously participating in the teacher-led
activity to be able to take a turn as
coach. In this interactive instruction,
students Analyze and Apply learning by
rephrasing what the teacher has taught,
and coming up with new explanations for
the classmates if they arent
understanding the material as it was
taught by the teacher.
Also fishbowl. I have used this strategy
in 2500, and found it to be an interesting
way to lead into a more divisive issue
before you want debate to begin.
Strong personalities/charismatic people
can overshadow subject matter.
Remember, Understand, Analyze,
Evaluate. Students may be reluctant to act
as Experts if they lack confidence in
either the material or in their own
capacities as public speakers. This gives
interesting possibilities as far as assessing
the presenters, because it requires more
than just a fundamental knowledge of the

Didactic Questions
(direct)

Mastery Lecture
(direct)

sits, surrounded by the larger body of the

class, so that the students having the
original discussion arent having to focus on
an audience until after they have had a
primary, more informative discussion
amongst themselves.
Guided questioning, often by the teacher,
used to guide students to recall previous
information or form connections to previous
knowledge. Questions can range from
simple recall and understanding questions
to questions that ask students to use the
knowledge in a novel way. This method
requires no special equipment or classroom
setup. I could envision this being used in
conjunction with another idea, such as
taking the students out of the classroom for
a walk, or encouraging movement with
answering the questions as a way to access
multiple intelligences, and to formatively
assess in a low stress, low stakes way.
Students are taught in a direct instruction
method, at a high level, using multiple
resources, such as video. It involves
providing an advance organizer, questions
to consider and answer during the lecture. I
compare this to TED Talks. This strategy
takes Direct Instruction and tries to make it
more interesting, memorable, and more
monitored (through the use of questions)

subject matter, as they can really be

asked a variety of unexpected questions
by their classmates.

Can be used to promote critical and

creative thinking. Although this strategy
maintains the power dynamic of the
teacher as the holder of knowledge, many
people have employed this method as a
way to get students unstuck when
theyve pursued a topic to what they feel
is a logical conclusion, but there is much
more that remains to be considered.

Depends on a dynamic speaker and great

resources to generate interest and
attention. Much formative assessment
must be done along the lecturing to
determine whether mastery is being
achieved. Little personal student
attention, power is consolidated in the
teacher. Connects to Scholar Academic
ideology, in that the teacher mediates the
knowledge from experts on video/media to
the students, who have questions in front
of them to assure that they are drawing
the appropriate conclusions.

Concept Formation
(indirect)

Concept Attainment
(indirect)

Students learn to understand a concept by

studying examples of that concept, and
developing a set of criteria that allows them
to understand what does and does not fit.
Can be used with physical props or be
entirely conceptual, using a list of words or
pictures.

Students are provided a list of examples

and non-examples of a concept. They
generate a hypotheses to label and
understand the concept.

Students learn to differentiate,

summarize, label, categorize, and the
attempt to apply a set of criteria to
something new. Potentially a good way to
lead into some more self-directed study on
a topic. Perhaps the most value that will
be gained will be in determining how
something does or does not fit in a specific
grouping, which pushes the limits of
equilibrium.
This strategy is infinitely scalable, in that
is can be used on the most basic levels,
e.g. sorting by size, colour, shape, etc.,
and moving on to more and more complex
sets, and creating dialogue and
understanding by comparing and
contrasting what fits or does not fit.
Sounds a lot like Piagets construction of
schemata. Students are building different
frameworks for understanding their world,
and when they encounter something new,
they will be able to assimilate it
(theoretically) into some category.
In Blooms taxonomy, this fits into the
Create section. Students develop critical
reasoning in analyzing what
characteristics something has, and which
are valid as criteria for categorization.
The assessment for this activity would
have some bias based on the idea that
different groups, (Im specifically thinking
of different cultural groups) might group
items differently than a North American

Synectics (experiential)

Generating metaphors between two

concepts, creating a new connected way of
looking at something.
1. Select a topic or concept of study
2. Provide facts on that topic
3. Present an analogy
4. Personalize
5. Identify expressed conflicts
6. Critique the original analogy
7. Discuss and generate alternatives
8. Debrief (set this new knowledge)

Model Building
(experiential)

The use of construction of concrete

representations of
concepts/processes/phenomena/relationshi
ps in order to create mental pictures.

teacher would. (Im thinking of the

example where, given fruits and farm
implements, I might group those as two
separate groups, but someone else might
group each fruit with the farm implement
used in its cultivation).
Democratizes learning, students can come
up with any analogy, and the analogy
doesnt have to be correct, because it
will be critiqued and potentially replaced
with a new analogy. A potential benefit to
this strategy might be increased retention
brought about by cognitively connecting
details about the topic with something
novel or memorable.

By generating a tangible observable

representation of their thinking, teachers
can assess for incorrect understanding or
misconception. Incorporates multiples
modes. Brain-based approach.

Requires physical materials and

preparation. Depending on what is being
assessed, and the preparation that is given,
models may be more abstract or more
representative.
Homework
(independent)

The assignment of specific tasks to be done

during the students own time.
In order to be successful, students must be
given a limited amount of homework that is
considered meaningful by those completing

Allows for repetition after a period of time,

which promotes retention.
Issues: Parents help students or force
students to redo assignments until correct,
so teachers miss formative assessment
and do not know if content is actually

it.
Teachers should carefully consider what
homework will be assigned, rather than
using it as a method to catch whatever
was missed in class because time ran out.

Learning Activity
Package (independent)

A planned series of activities that involved

the student in exploring a topic, skill, or
concept.
Time consuming to set up. Variables to be
considered include quantity needed,
optimal quantity of students interacting
with the props at a given time, amount of
supervision required for safety, fragility of
the materials.
A teacher could set up a LAP for each
individual student, which could be referred
to over time as a way of promoting recall.
As students knowledge deepens, the
understanding of the LAP might change and
grow, and students might look at the same
items in new and different ways.

Bibliography
http://www.lessoncorner.com/l/gwitkoe/PeerPractice/ReciprocalLearningLesson
http://nycdoeit.airws.org/pdf/Supplemental%20Peer%20Practice.pdf
http://kumu.brocku.ca/twiki/Teaching_Methods_and_Strategies

learned.
Teachers may not be aware of the quantity
of homework being assigned by other
teachers, and may assign too much or
none at all.
Powerful applications can include allowing
students flexibility to demonstrate
knowledge of content in different ways, or
to pursue individualized learning.
Multi-modal, differentiated, studentcentered. Quantity must be sufficient for
number of students. Can be costly,
breakable, stolen.

http://www.beesburg.com/edtools/glossary.html
http://www.spiritsd.ca/curr_content/onlineteach/instructionalstrategies/directinstruction/didacticquestions.htm
http://www.spiritsd.ca/curr_content/onlineteach/instructionalstrategies/directinstruction/masterylecture.htm
http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/25184
http://ed.ted.com/on/2pET0DHg
http://www.udel.edu/dssep/teaching_strategies/synectics.htm
https://books.google.ca/books?
id=IXjaAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA81&lpg=PA81&dq=model+building+teaching+strategy&source=bl&ots=cb7B7mJh8N&sig=57M4RuN
bT1rJYYNlNG1SvmbGVho&hl=en&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBmoVChMIq56Xg_ydyAIVDTuICh1vxg-3#v=onepage&q=model
%20building%20teaching%20strategy&f=false
http://education.wm.edu/centers/ttac/documents/packets/practiceandhomework.pdf
http://www.spiritsd.ca/curr_content/onlineteach/instructionalstrategies/independentstudy/learningactpkg.htm