Instructional Strategies
​InTASC Standard 8: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.
Using a variety of instructional strategies helps me effectively support students in developing a deep understanding of English language arts content standards and their overall connection to one another. Instructional strategies are at the foundation of every lesson. They provided the way students interact with the content I am delivering. Each instructional strategy serves a unique purpose. Using appropriate instructional strategies helps all learners engage in complex thinking and meaningful learning activities. Therefore, I need to strategically select which instructional strategy will most effectively help my students build skills to apply their learned knowledge in meaningful ways.
When thinking about instructional strategies, I first think about the needs of my students. It is fundamental to think about any adaptations that will need to be made in order to help learners meet the learning goals. I consider how I can leverage areas of strength in order to fill knowledge gaps. In addition, I think about the learning styles of the learners in my classroom and how I can incorporate that into my daily instruction. Thinking about the contexts of my students helps make instruction meaningful and relevant to them. Over the course of my teaching career, I have been working to personalize my students learning. This means my instructional role varies. At times I am instructing, while at other times I am facilitating my students constructing their own knowledge. Students engage in both independent and collaborative learning activities that allow them to build their skills and apply their knowledge.
Varying the instructional strategies I use allows me to give my students multiple opportunities to increase their reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. In order to vary my instructional strategies, I find value in using technology. Technology helps me meet the purpose of my classroom by enabling me to provide my students multiple avenues to access, interpret, evaluate, and apply content information. It allows students to experience content in a novel way. In addition to using technology as an instructional strategy, I have found it crucial to provide my students with ways to develop higher order thinking skills and metacognition skills while synthesizing information from a source. Students are provided this opportunity while they are taking notes during a guided lesson or while watching a teacher created video. Finally, I have explored ways that I can help learners articulate their ideas and thinking processes through the writing process. I am continuously looking for ways I can stimulate students’ curiosity about their ideas and opinions.
​
Below you will find evidence of my efficacy in using instructional strategies as a tool to thoughtfully engage my students in their learning journey. Using a range of strategies has allowed me to aid students in developing a deep understanding of the English language arts standards.
Click the images below to get more detailed information about how I use a variety of instructional strategies in my 8th grade English language arts class.
Integration of Technology
Using technology as an instructional strategy allows me to provide students with multiple ways to demonstrate their knowledge. Students are able to access various applications through their IPads, in addition to websites, that help them apply their higher level thinking skills in meaningful ways. Using technology to help demonstrate their knowledge also aids students in developing 21st century communication skills. In addition to allowing students multiple ways to demonstrate their knowledge, integrating technology in my classroom aids in facilitating discussions that help students articulate their ideas and stimulate curiosity about the topics and themes we are reading about.
I have found PuppetEDU, Mentimeter, and Kahoot to be effective and relevant instructional tools that aid students in applying their content knowledge. PuppetEDU allows students to create a mini-podcast about the content and skills we are currently working on. Mentimeter allows students to engage with teacher generated questions by responding in real-time. From student responses, discussion is stimulated. Kahoot allows me to assess student's knowledge in real-time. Assessing student's knowledge in real-time allows me to make quick adjustments to my instruction in response to student learning needs.
​
Demonstrating Knowledge through Technology
​
Here you will see an example of a PuppetEDU that a student created revolving around a main character in the independent novel they were currently reading. The student created a character wheel graphic organizer that helped them record their ideas about the overall characterization of the main character they selected. Then, students we asked to create a PuppetEDU by finding pictures that demonstrated an inner quality of the character and how a character action or dialogue with another character impacted the story. Students appreciated this activity because it allowed them to demonstrate their knowledge in a novel way. Having a conversation with a student about using PuppetEDU as an instructional strategy helped me understand that outside of the classroom students are experienced with sharing their ideas through technology. So, providing them with the opportunity to create a mini-podcast felt like a familiar concept. Using this learning tool as a resource made the learning activity more relevant to students.
This is the character wheel that the student filled out before completing the mini-podcast. This graphic organizer helped the student analyze their selected character and formulate their response prior to verbalizing it.
Here is an example of a student created PuppetEDU. As you can see, the student was thoughtful in their consideration of the pictures they selected. This video helped the student demonstrate their knowledge about how the character was influencing the plot development of the story.
Facilitating Discussion through Mentimeter
Here you will see how students were able to respond to open-ended questions using an online tool, Mentimeter. Mentimeter is an interactive tool that enables students to fully participate in classroom discussion. This tool allows me to ask students questions in real-time while also having students see their peer's responses. Based off of student responses, I am able to ask follow up questions. This technology tool enables me to stimulate discussion between students about relevant topics. Using Mentimeter as an instructional strategy enables discourse in the classroom and allows students to drive the discussion.
Here is an example of a question that I asked after the class read an article about the pay discrepancy between males and females. After students were finished understanding the content of the article and applying the skill of determining main idea, I wanted to give students the opportunity to discuss the article with their peers. In this picture you see the first question that was asked. Many students noted the idea that women are making progress, but they are still getting paid less when compared to men. However, during this discussion, I wanted to highlight the ideas noted in the purple box. Which led me to my next question, “How do you think the workplace would be different if more perspectives were represented?”
Here is the follow-up question based off of students’ responses to the previous question. From these responses, students were able to see that there were a lot of different perspectives in the room. This allowed students to have discourse around the idea of having different perspectives represented in power. When having this conversations, students were able to use textual evidence from the article that we read. This allowed students to apply their content knowledge in an additional, meaningful way.
Assessing Knowledge using Kahoot
Kahoot serves as an interactive, fun way for students to respond to high level questions about content standards. I typically utilize Kahoots as a way to review for unit or benchmark exams. Students will start the review by reading a short text over the questions. Then, they will answer the questions on the Kahoot. Using this tool as a review allows me to quickly respond to what content students specifically need to review. For example, if the majority of students responded well to a question about characterization, but did not respond well to a question about theme, I would spend longer reviewing the latter.
Here is an example of a question that students responded to during a review Kahoot. Students use their technology in order to respond to the question in real-time.
Here are the results of the question. As you can see, the majority of students in the class got this question correct. Therefore, we did not spend an ample amount of time reviewing this concept.
Here is an example of a question that students responded to during a review Kahoot. Students use their technology in order to respond to the question in real-time.
Personalized Learning
I want my students to be at the center of their learning, so it is important to me that they have the opportunity to drive their learning experience. Additionally, I appreciate the fact that all students are not in the same spot in the curriculum. Because of this, students’ learning needs to be personalized to where they are at. Just like my students are on their learning journey, I am on a professional journey designing a personalized learning environment for my students. Designing this type of environment requires me to be flexible and adaptive with my instructional strategies. An effective personalized learning environment requires components that will help students be successful in managing their time, understanding their personal learning style, setting goals, monitoring their progress, and conferring with the teacher about their progress. Each of these components work together to create a learning experience that is mapped out by students.
Below you will find evidence of how I collaborate with learners in order to design a classroom environment that is responsive to their needs. You will see how I am not only the “teacher” in the classroom, but I also serve as the facilitator. Students need the space to grapple with content independently and cooperatively with peers. This helps them develop higher order questioning and thinking skills. In addition to evidence of collaboration between learners and their peers and learners and myself, you will also see evidence of how I integrate technology into the process of personalized learning. I use technology to deliver content, monitor progress, and incorporate student interest.
Designing a Personalized Learning Environment
​
In order to help students understand how they best learn, I had students complete a learning inventory at the beginning of the year. This allowed students to understand how they can personally meet their learning needs and learn content with the resources in the classroom. For example, if a student is a tactile learner, they would understand that they need to work in an environment that allows them to construct their own knowledge in a meaningful way. If a student is a visual learner, they would understand that a strategy that will help them achieve success is note taking.
When completing the learning inventories, I first had students identify what subject areas and extra-curricular activities they feel the strongest in. Then, students learned about the different learning styles and took a inventory that helped them determine their specific learning style. This is an example of a student who is a visual and auditory learning.
Here is an example of an additional learning inventory. This student is a visual learner. I have seen success with this particular student when they are able to utilize this learning style by learning content through watching videos and other forms of media, such as pictures.
When completing the learning inventories, I first had students identify what subject areas and extra-curricular activities they feel the strongest in. Then, students learned about the different learning styles and took a inventory that helped them determine their specific learning style. This is an example of a student who is a visual and auditory learning.
Two times during the week, students create a “mini-schedule” that helps them plan out their time and set goals for their time in class. Because they are not operating in a tradition classroom environment, creating a schedule for their time in class allows students to focus their efforts in a defined direction. Once their schedules are made, students are given time the following day to review and revise their schedules. This allows them to self-reflect and adjust based off of their previous work and feedback.
Here is an example of a completed mini-schedule. In order to help students better manage their time, I give them a recommended time for each activity. This still allows students the flexibility to select when they are working on what activity, it just provides an additional support.
Here is an additional example of a completed mini-schedule. As you can see, students keep track of their progress and make notes of what they still need to finish.
Here is an example of a completed mini-schedule. In order to help students better manage their time, I give them a recommended time for each activity. This still allows students the flexibility to select when they are working on what activity, it just provides an additional support.
From these student responses, it is evident that students appreciate the flexibility they have within the classroom. The mini-schedules serve the purpose of helping students manage their time in a strategic way. This allows them to most effectively meet their learning goals.
Here you will see how students sign-up to receive a guided lesson revolving around the objective of the day. This lets me know what students need to be participating in each lesson. Because the range of student abilities in any give class period ranges from special education to gifted and talented, students strategically pick when they would like to learn the content knowledge. If they would like to have help before they start an activity for the day, they would sign-up for one of the first lessons. However, if students are comfortable getting started with the work, and then reviewing and revising their work during a guided lesson, they would sign-up for a later lesson. In addition, there are also remediation lessons that are occurring with the special education co-teacher. This is due to the fact that not all students are in the same place in the curriculum. Select students need to learn the prerequisite skills that will help them successfully achieve the on-level learning goals.
This is a picture that demonstrates how a guided lesson operates. Students bring the work they have been working on and see modeling of the thinking process required to master the objective. In addition, students have the opportunity to review and revise work they have previously done. This instructional strategy is utilized in order to aid students in developing metacognitive processes.
Students sign-up for their guided lesson during the first five minutes of class. This serves as a visual representation for both the students and myself.
Here you will see an example of how I use media and technology to develop content skills. In order to find a video that was accurately articulating the context, I reviewed multiple videos on EdPuzzle. EdPuzzle is a tool that allows teachers to create lesson videos that incorporate various formative assessments (via questions) to track student progress. During this activity, students were working to understand what a controlling idea was and how to create a controlling idea. Then, students read small excerpts in order to find the controlling idea. The personalized learning came in when students began reading the small excerpts because the excerpts were leveled based off of reading levels.
Here is an example of one of the videos students watched to complete the activity. While working through this learning activity, students were independently working at their own pace. These videos allowed students to utilize media to learn in a visual way.
Here is an on grade level student work example. This student was able to complete the handout and determine the controlling idea of three short texts. An example of one of the texts can be found here.
Here is an example of a student who is below grade level. This student watched the same videos, but read a different text. The short text this student read can be found here.
Above you will find two student reflections on the effectiveness of this strategy. As you can see, students appreciate the independence that watching videos allows for. In addition, students are able to learn in a way that is effective for them.
Here is an example of a handout that was given to students. This handout corresponded with a guided lesson that students received during the same class period. Due to the nature of the classroom, student handouts need to be very explicit with directions because they may not be receiving a lesson with the teacher until they complete their activity. Therefore, in order for students to successfully complete the activity they need to be provided with guiding questions and examples. The personalization of content in this activity can again be seen in the reading level of the article assigned to students. Students were expected to complete the same thinking process using the same questioning skills, however the level of text difficulty varied. This allowed all students access to gaining the content information.
Although my role various in a personalized learning environment, it is still crucially important that I monitor the progress of my students and make any instructional adjustments. I monitor student progress towards learning goals through exit tickets and analyzing student work. For more information about how I monitor student progress, please see my Assessment section.
In addition to my understanding of student progress, it is also crucially important that students assess their own progress towards meeting their learning goals. In order for students to assess their progress, I create rubrics and checklists for students to review and complete. The rubrics and checklists help students understand what they still need to work on in order to demonstrate their knowledge. In addition, it allows students to adjust their mini-schedule plans, if needed. Below are two examples of a rubric and checklist from a performance assessment students completed during a unit on author's purpose and main idea in nonfiction texts. Students were asked to select a nonfiction article and create a Google Slide performance assessment the demonstrates their content knowledge, original ideas, and extension of knowledge. Students used IPads to access the articles through their NewsELA account. Once students selected the article from a teacher generated list, they determined the main idea, supporting details, and author's purpose. Finally, students created a presentation to illustrate their findings. The assessment was intended to help students use technology to evaluate information and demonstrate their mastery of content knowledge.
Writing Instructional Strategies
In order to engage students in the writing process, I implement a variety of strategies that help students at each stage of the process. At the center of my writing instruction is my desire to help students become strong and effective communicators. Because of this, the strategies that I implement support the domains of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. While working on their writing, students are continuously working to better articulate their ideas. The learning experiences that the students work through challenge them to develop their ideas both independently and cooperatively with their peers. Students find themselves refining their ideas by using strategies that help them make their thinking clear and concise.
I believe that in order to effectively teach the process of writing, I need to model the writing process for students. Modeling the writing process helps students understand my thinking process and inner-dialogue that occurs as I am writing. This helps students become more fluent writers. In addition to modeling the writing process for my students, I provide them with an ample amount of resources that support their thinking as they are working through the writing process.
Prewriting Process
The first stages of writing that I model for students is the prewriting process. When teaching the prewriting process, I strive to give students a sufficient amount of time to think through and develop their ideas. One way I do this is by giving students time to journal about specific ideas or words. While students are journaling, I am also journaling. My journal entry is then used to explicitly model the skill I am teaching. After I model, I have students reenter their journal entries and think about what point is driving their writing. This helps students refine their thinking and serves as an initial idea for a controlling idea.
Here is an example of the journal entry I modeled to students. When looking at this journal entry, I had students think about what idea was driving or guiding my thinking. I wanted students to focus on this in order to understand the idea of controlling idea. After I had students identify what idea was at the center of my entry, we discussed the evidence I used to support my controlling idea. After we looked at my entry, I had students reenter their writing and look for their controlling idea and evidence.
Student Work Sample: Journal Writing
​
Here is an example of a student’s journal entry. To begin this journal entry, I had students think about the word that stood out to them most from the article, “Marley Dias: The 13 Year Old Author and Activist”. This particular student selected to write about the word “system”. They were told to write about whatever comes to their mind. To support students in this process, I provided sentence stems to guide their thinking, if needed. An example sentence stem I provided was, "This word made me think of...". An additional sentence stem I provided was, "An experience I have with this word is...". These sentences stems served the purpose of helping students generate initial thoughts they could work from.
Based on student reflections, I understand this strategy to be effective because it helped them generate their ideas and get their thoughts out before writing. Once students completed their prewriting, they moved onto reviewing their prewriting with a peer.
Here is an example of a prewriting activity completed by a student. The purpose of this activity was to help students generate ideas about what they could write about.
When asked to reflect on the effectiveness of the strategy, you can see that this student appreciated being able to get their thoughts out prior to starting to draft their writing.
Here is an example of a prewriting activity completed by a student. The purpose of this activity was to help students generate ideas about what they could write about.
Prewriting Peer Review
​
Here is an example of the peer review activity that students completed after looking at their peer’s prewriting. This strategy was intended to help students have cooperative discussions with their peers about their writing. In addition, it was intended to help students refine their ideas and think about what more they need to include in their writing in order to make it clear for the reader. Students appreciated that this strategy allowed them to work in a cooperative way. Based on student reflections, I understand that this strategy supported the development of their ideas about the topic because it allowed them to think through ideas with a partner.
Modeling Drafting: Turning my Prewriting into a Draft
When modeling how to turn prewriting into a draft, I again walk my students through the thought process that occurs while I am writing. For this specific writing assignment, I demonstrated to students how the ideas from my prewriting turned into the ideas for my first draft. To the right is an example of the model essay I used with students. The boxed in areas demonstrate what specific pieces I discussed with students.
Student Work Sample
​
Here is an example of a student’s finished draft of an essay. This student was effectively able to demonstrate their knowledge of turning prewriting into a first draft. Additionally, you will see the writing resources that I provided to students as an additional support during their writing process. For example, you can see that the student utilized the resources effectively because they selected to use “Summary Lead” to begin their essay. Finally, you will see the peer review that was completed. This strategy was intended to help students develop higher order questioning skills by reviewing their peer's work. This peer review was also intended to check for a clear controlling idea. From the specific peer review found to the right, you can see that the reviewer was unclear of the controlling idea. This is indicated by the “??” at the end of her sentence. This was a signal to the writer that they needed to go back and write a more specific, clear controlling idea.
Conclusion
​
Using a variety of instructional strategies ensures that students are effectively able to learn the content I teach and apply their learned knowledge. Because instructional strategies are at the foundation of every lesson, it is imperative that I select strategies that will continuously help students develop their critical thinking and questioning skills. Selecting appropriate instructional strategies that will meet the needs of all of my students is also imperative. By utilizing technology, working to create a personalized learning environment for my students, and implementing a variety of strategies that work to increase my students writing skills, I am able to design learning experiences that are relevant and meaningful to my students. Each instructional strategy serves the purpose of delivery high power instruction that will support my students in increasing their achievement levels.
Reflections on Creating a Personalized Learning Environment
​
As I have been working to create a personalized learning environment for my students, I have been reflective on how I can continuously improve the system to better meet the needs of my students. One major takeaway I have is the idea of helping students become increasingly self-reflective in order to take ownership of their growth. I want to continue to provide my students with the resources they need to increase their self-monitoring skills. Helping students become more reflective will help them more effectively manage their time and design goals that will lead them to the most achievement.
In addition to continuing to find ways to help students become increasingly self-reflective, I also want to continue to find ways to differentiate my instruction. Technology has been a good resource in implementing differentiated instruction. Therefore, one way I can continue to find new ways to differentiate my instruction with various instructional strategies is to continue to stay up-to-date on the technological developments.
Here is an example of a student friendly rubric that students were provided. Prior to starting the performance assessment, students reviewed the rubric and answered the above questions. From this sample, you can see that the student reflected on what they needed to do in order to receive a “4” on the assignment rubric. This is evident because they highlighted in blue specifically what they needed to include. This is an effective strategy because reviewing this rubric helped students better understand what knowledge they will need to demonstrate and how they will demonstrate it.
Here is an example of a student who completed the task using an on grade level text. By reviewing the directions, the student was able to successfully complete the learning activity by applying their content knowledge. For an example of the text, you can click here.
Here is an example of a student who complete the task using a text that was on their level. The student was still using the same thinking and questioning processes, however the text was more accessible to their reading ability. This student was successfully able to apply their knowledge while completing this activity. You can click here for an example of the text used.
Here is an example that illustrates the peer feedback that was provided for students. This strategy was provided to allow students to receive feedback from peers prior to starting their draft.