Instructional Strategies - The following information is summaries from book studies and trainings done by staff members of Lovell High School. These instructional strategies are considered best practice and are what we as a staff strive to achieve.

 

Classroom Instruction that Works (2012) by Marzano 

Good teachers 

• Create an environment for learning 

• Set objectives 
• Provide feedback 

• Reinforce effort 
• Provide recognition 
• Use cooperative learning 

• Help students develop understanding 

• Use cues, questions and advanced organizers 

• Use nonlinguistic representations 
• Help students with summarizing and note taking 
• Carefully assign homework and provide practice 

• Help students extend and apply knowledge 

• Help students identify similarities and differences 

• Use Venn diagrams 
• Create metaphors 
• Create analogies 

• Generate and test hypotheses 

• Use systems analysis 

• Employ problem solving 
• Employ experimental inquiry 
• Encourage investigation 

• Plan instruction using the nine categories of strategies 

 

 

 

The Core Six: Essential Strategies for Achieving Excellence with the Common Core (2012) by Silver, Dewing & Perini 

Good teachers 

• Capture students’ interest 

• Explain the strategy’s purpose and students’ roles in the strategy 
• Teach the thinking embedded in the strategy 
• Use discussion and questioning techniques to extend student thinking 
• Ask students to synthesize and transfer their learning 
• Leave time for reflection 

• Use strategies (in the content area) such as 

• Reading for Meaning (p. 7) 
• Compare and Contrast (p. 16) 
• Inductive Learning (p. 27) 
• Circle of Knowledge (p. 37) 

• Write to Learn (p. 50) 
• Vocabulary’s CODE (Connect, Organized, Deep Process, Exercise) (p. 65) 

 

 

Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?: Content Comprehension, Grades 6-12 (2004) Tovani 

Good teachers 

• Show students the thinking strategies that proficient readers and writers use when reading 

• Show fix-up strategies 
• Use double-entry diaries  
• “So What?” thinking strategies and diaries 

• Use mental modeling to give students insight to thinking processes 

• Show how to read textbooks (especially math) 
• Model how to stay with a text 

• Connect students with accessible texts 

• Use alternative texts 

• Do not sacrifice rigor 

• Define purposes of reading/teaching 
• Help students to hold thinking 

• Show students how to mark text 
• Provide students with tips to get “unstuck” 

• Use comprehension constructors 

• Double-strategy, double-entry diary 
• Quad-entry diary 
• Notes, Connector, Group Notes 

• Use small groups to discuss reading 

• Highlight and revisit 

• Use assessment to drive instruction 

 

Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Assessing and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom (2006) by Wormeli 

Good teachers 

• Begin with the end in mind 
• Differentiate instruction 
• Differentiate assessments 

• Tier assessments 

• Create good test questions 

• Grade carefully and thoughtfully 
• Are reflective about their own practices 
• Mentor, model and learn from other good teachers 

 

 

Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning (2011) by Schmoker 

Good teachers 

• Use essential “power” standards, so that there is more depth, and less breadth; 

• Standards are clarified, simplified and prioritized 
• Attention is given to 21st Century skills 

• Use “structurally sound lessons” consistently; 

• Teach/Model/Demonstrate 
• Use guided practice 
• Have checks for understanding/formative assessment 

• Circulate as students underline, annotate, or take notes 

• Have students pair up and share 
• Call on random students to share their thoughts 
• Asks students to quick-write while teacher circulates 

• Use authentic literacy  

• This is purposeful and usually argumentative reading, writing and talking 

• Teach vocabulary 
• Establish a purpose for reading 
• Model higher-order reading 
• Use whole-class discussions and debate 

 

 

Quantum Learning 

Good teachers 

• Practice brain-based teaching and learning 
• Remind students of the 8 Keys of Excellence:  

• Integrity 
• Failure Leads to Success 
• Speak with Purpose 
• This Is It 
• Commitment 

• Ownership 
• Flexibility 
• Balance 

• Use effective classroom management: 

• Call-backs 

• Environmental control (music, lighting, classroom arrangements, organics, smells, temperature, sound) 
• Techniques to set the stage for learning through FADE (Foundation, Atmosphere, Design, Environment) 
• Five tenets of teaching: 

• Everything speaks 
• Everything is on purpose 

• Experience before label 
• Acknowledge every effort 
• If it’s worth learning, it’s worth celebrating 

• Use opening traditions (greet students out in the hall, use music, etc.)  
• Understand how the brain works to maximize learning and memory, 

• Paying attention to three educational channels that are 

• Visual 
• Kinesthetic 
• Audial 

• 3 Big Brain Ideas 

• We make meaning by connecting to existing schema. 
• Neurons that fire together wire together. 
• There is no comprehension without picturing. 

• Invite students to take responsibility by “living above the line.” 
• Use the lesson design frame of E-E-L-D-R-C 

• Enroll 
• Experience 
• Learn and Label 
• Demonstrate 
• Review 

• Celebrate 

• Use mnemonics and power pegs  
• Encourage students to use the principle of 10-24-7 (Review after 10 minutes, 24 hours, 7 days) 
• Teach students about visible communication and effective apologies 
• Teach to different learning styles 

• Understand Delta – Theta – Alpha – Beta Brainwaves 
• Attend to the 8 multiple intelligences 
• Encourage students to use SLANT (Sit up/Lean and look/Ask questions/Nod/Talk to adults) 
• Teach students about valuing relationships (Big Me Little You) (Big Me Big You) 

 

 

 

TESA (Teacher Expectation Student Achievement) 

Good teachers  

• Are aware of their perceptions and expectations for students, especially for 

• Response opportunity 

• Equitable distribution 
• Individual helping 
• Latency 
• Delving 

• Higher-order thinking 

• Feedback 

• Praise 
• Reason for praise 
• Affirm/Correct 

• Listening 
• Accepting feelings 

• Personal Regard 

• Proximity 
• Courtesy 

• Personal interest and compliments 
• Touching 
• Desisting 

 

Tools for Teaching Content Literacy (2004) by Allen 

Good teachers 

• Assess and build content knowledge 

• K-W-L, K-W-L Plus, B-K-W-L-Q 
• Skimming and Scanning 
• List-Group-Label 

• Book Pass 
• Text Structures and Supports 
• Developing Questions for Reading: Concept Ladder 
• Word Study: Developing Content Vocabulary 
• Book in a Day 

• Word Study: How to Learn Content Vocabulary through Context 
• Admit Slip: Establishing a Purpose for Reading 
• Anticipating Content: Here and Now, Predict-O-Gram, Story Impressions 
• Anticipation Guide 

• Support and monitor comprehension 

• Reciprocal Teaching 
• DR-TA (Directed Reading-Thinking Activity) 
• REAP (Read, Encode, Annotate, Ponder) 
• Compare/Contrast: Discovering Patterns 
• Questions Game 

• TAG (Textbook Activity Guide) 
• ReQuest 
• Cornell Note-Taking 
• QAR (Question-Answer Relationship) 
• Academic Notebooks: Writing to Learn 

• Evaluate, extend, and transfer content knowledge 

• RAFT Writing (Role, Audience, Format, Topic) 
• Text Highlighting 
• SPAWN (Special Powers, Problem Solving, Alternative Viewpoints, What-if, Next) 
• Test-Taking Strategies 

• PORPE (Predict, Organize, Rehearse, Practice, Evaluate) 
• Inquiry and Research: I-Charts 
• GIST (Generating Interactions between Schemata and Texts) 
• Homework 
• Exclusion Brainstorming 

• Exit Slips 

 

 

What Great Teachers Do Differently: 17 Things that Matter Most (2013) by Whitaker 

Good teachers 

• Establish clear expectations at the beginning of the year and then follow them consistently. 
• Have high expectations for all students, as well as themselves. 
• Focus on students first. 
• Create a positive atmosphere and respect every person. 
• Have a plan and purpose for everything. 

• Have empathy for students and care for them. 

 

 

What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action (2003) by Marzano 

Good schools 

• Make sure students have every opportunity to learn through a guaranteed and viable curriculum. 
• Set challenging goals and give effective feedback 
• Involve the community and parents 
• Ensure a safe and orderly environment 
• Maintain collegiality and professionalism 

Good teachers 

• Use instructional strategies that work 
• Use effective classroom management 
• Use effective curriculum design 
• Understand that students’ home environment, learned intelligence, background knowledge and motivation are all factors in learning and teaching 

 

 

The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher (2009) by Wong and Wong 

Good teachers 

• Have good classroom management 

• Are not “pals” with their students 
• Have positive expectations for student success (p. 10) 
• Know how to design lessons for student mastery 
• Work cooperatively and learn from colleagues (p. 21) 
• Know that a positive classroom environment is very important 

• Know that positive, professional dress is very important  
• Invite students to learn 
• Increase positive student behavior 

• Name 
• Please 

• Thank you 
• Smile 
• Love 

• Have well-managed classrooms that have (p. 86) 

• A high level of student involvement 

• Clear student expectations 
• Very little wasted time, confusion or disruption 
• Work-oriented but relaxed and pleasant climate 

• Have a discipline plan and use it 
• Establish classroom procedures/Are consistent 

• Know the objectives the students are to learn before the lesson begins 
• Use Bloom’s Taxonomy when writing objectives 
• Use curriculum maps 
• Grade and remediate for mastery