Xenia Community SchoolsFocused on Child-Centered Excellence

Direct Instruction

What is Direct Instruction?

The Direct instruction strategy is highly teacher-directed and is among the most commonly used. This strategy is effective for providing information or developing step-by-step skills. It also works well for introducing other teaching methods, or actively involving students in knowledge construction.

Possible Methods of Direct Instruction

• Structured Overview
• Lecture
• Explicit Teaching
• Teach To's
• Drill & Practice
• Compare & Contrast
• Didactic Questions
• Demonstrations
• Guided & Shared - reading, listening, viewing, thinking

---

Indirect Instruction

What is Indirect Instruction?

In contrast to the direct instruction strategy, indirect instruction is mainly student-centered, although the two strategies can complement each other.

Indirect instruction seeks a high level of student involvement in observing, investigating, drawing inferences from data, or forming hypotheses. It takes advantage of students' interest and curiosity, often encouraging them to generate alternatives or solve problems.

In indirect instruction, the role of the teacher shifts from lecturer/director to that of facilitator, supporter, and resource person. The teacher arranges the learning environment, provides opportunity for student involvement, and, when appropriate, provides feedback to students while they conduct the inquiry (Martin, 1983).

Possible Methods of Indirect Instruction

• Problem Solving
• Case Studies
• Reading for Meaning
• Inquiry
• Reflective Discussion
• Writing to Inform
• Concept Formation
• Concept Mapping
• Concept Attainment
• Cloze Procedure?

---

Experiential Learning

What is Experiential Learning?

Experiential learning is inductive, learner centered, and activity oriented. Personalized reflection about an experience and the formulation of plans to apply learning to other contexts are critical factors in effective experiential learning. The emphasis in experiential learning is on the process of learning and not on the product. 

Experiential learning can be viewed as a cycle consisting of five phases, all of which are necessary:

• experiencing (an activity occurs);
• sharing or publishing (reactions and observations are shared);
• analyzing or processing (patterns and dynamics are determined);
• inferring or generalizing (principles are derived); and,
• applying (plans are made to use learning in new situations).

Possible Methods of Experiential Learning

• Field Trips
• Narratives
• Conducting Experiments
• Simulations
• Games

• "Focusing on any single set of categories exclusively is a serious mistake. In each book [of mine], the message is the same: The entire constellation of strategies is necessary for a complete view of effective teaching. Unfortunately, in some schools and districts, this message was lost. This happens quite frequently with the strategies listed in Classroom Instruction That Works." -Robert Marzano Setting the Record Straight on "High-Yield" Strategies

  Storytelling
• Focused Imaging
• Field Observations
• Role-playing
• Model Building
• Surveys

---

Independent Study

What is Independent Study?

Independent study refers to the range of instructional methods which are purposefully provided to foster the development of individual student initiative, self-reliance, and self-improvement. While independent study may be initiated by student or teacher, the focus here will be on planned independent study by students under the guidance or supervision of a classroom teacher. In addition, independent study can include learning in partnership with another individual or as part of a small group.

Possible Methods of Independent Study

• Essays
• Computer Assisted Instruction
• Journals
• Learning Logs (view Student Sample)
• Reports
• Learning Activity Packages
• Correspondence Lessons
• Learning Contracts
• Homework
• Research Projects
• Assigned Questions
• Learning Centers

---

Interactive Instruction

What is Interactive Instruction?

Interactive instruction relies heavily on discussion and sharing among participants. Students can learn from peers and teachers to develop social skills and abilities, to organize their thoughts, and to develop rational arguments.

The interactive instruction strategy allows for a range of groupings and interactive methods. It is important for the teacher to outline the topic, the amount of discussion time, the composition and size of the groups, and reporting or sharing techniques. Interactive instruction requires the refinement of observation, listening, interpersonal, and intervention skills and abilities by both teacher and students.

The success of the interactive instruction strategy and its many methods is heavily dependent upon the expertise of the teacher in structuring and developing the dynamics of the group.

Possible Methods of Interactive Instruction

• Debates
• Role Playing
• Panels
• Brainstorming
• Peer Partner Learning
• Discussion
• Laboratory Groups
• Think, Pair, Share
• Cooperative Learning
• Jigsaw
• Problem Solving
• Structured Controversy
• Tutorial Groups
• Interviewing
• Conferencing

---

Instructional Skills

What are Instructional Skills?

Instructional skills are the most specific category of teaching behaviors. They are necessary for procedural purposes and for structuring appropriate learning experiences for students. A variety of instructional skills and processes exist.

• Explaining
• Demonstrating
• Questioning
• Questioning Techniques
• Levels of Questions
• Wait Time

PROTOCOLS (sorted alphabetically)

• Admit & Exit Tickets Protocol
   
• Aligning Learning Targets with Share & Debrief Questions (a fillable Word doc)
   
• Anchor Charts
   
• Annotating Text
   
• Back-to-Back and Face-to-Face
   
• Building Background Knowledge
   
• Building Background Knowledge
  (Mystery Piece Method)
   
• Carousel Brainstorm Protocol
   
• Catch & Release
   
• Chalk Talk Protocol
   
• Checking for Understanding Techniques
   
• Cold Call - Name a question before identifying students to answer it, and call on students regardless of whether they have hands raised. Call on students by pulling equity sticks or name cards, or by using a tracking chart to ensure all students contribute. Scaffold questions from simple to increasingly complex, probing for deeper explanations. Connect thinking threads by returning to previous comments and connecting them to current ones; model this for students and teach them to do it too. In this way, listening to peers is valued, and even after a student has been called on, s/he is part of the continued conversation and class thinking.
   
• Concentric Circles (Inner Circle/Outer Circle)
   
• Determining Importance Strategies
   
• Discussion Appointments
   
• Equity Sticks - Wooden sticks (e.g. tongue depressors or popsicle sticks) with each student’s name on one stick. Equity sticks are often used for cold call or forming random groups.
   
• Final Word Discussion Protocol
   
• Fishbowl Protocol
   
• Fist-to-Five Protocol - To show degree of agreement, readiness for tasks, or comfort with a learning target/concept, students can quickly show their thinking by holding up (or placing a hand near the opposite shoulder) a fist for 0/Disagree or 1-5 fingers for higher levels of confidence or agreement.
   
• Four Corners (Milling to Music) - Students form four groups (vary the number based on purpose) based on commonalities in their responses to a question posed. Once students physically move to a “corner” or the room based on their answer, they discuss their thinking, and one student from each group shares the group’s ideas with the whole class. Students in other groups/corners may move to that corner if they change their thinking based on what they hear.
   
• Gallery Walk/Hosted Gallery Walk
   
• Getting the Gist Protocol
   
• Give One, Get One, Move On (GoGoMo)
   
• Give One, Get One, Move On (GoGoMo) - Written Version
   
• Glass, Bugs, Mud - After students try a task or review a learning target or assignment, they identify their understanding or readiness for application using the windshield metaphor for clear vision. Glass: totally clear; bugs: a little fuzzy; mud: I can barely see.
   
• Guided Practice - Often occurring in a lesson after students grapple, teachers provide guided practice before releasing students to independent application. During guided practice, students quickly try the task at hand in pairs or in a low-stakes environment. The teacher strategically circulates, monitoring students’ readiness for the task and noting students who may need re-teaching or would benefit from an extension or more challenging independent application. Teachers use an appropriate quick-check strategy to determine needs for differentiation during independent application time.
   
• Helping Students Read Closely
   
• Hosted Gallery Walk Protocol
   
• Hot Seat - The teacher places key reflection or probing questions on random seats throughout the room. When prompted, students check their seats and answer the questions. Students who do not have a hot seat question are asked to agree or disagree with the response and explain their thinking.
   
• Human Bar Graph - Identify a range of levels of understanding or mastery (e.g. beginning/developing/accomplished or Confused/I’m okay/I am rocking!) as labels for 3-4 adjacent lines. Students then form a human bar graph by standing in the line that best represents their current level of understanding.
   
• Infer the Topic
   
• Interactive Word Walls
   
• Jigsaw Protocol
   
• Learning Line-ups - Identify one end of the room with a descriptor such as “Novice” or “Beginning” and the other end as “Expert” or “Exemplary”. Students place themselves on this continuum based on where they are with a learning target, skill, or task. Invite them to explain their thinking to the whole class or the people near them.
   
• Learning Logs Protocol - Learning logs are journals in which students record their thoughts, observations, feelings, and questions that relate to what they are learning in the content area classroom or in reading material. (view Student Sample)
   
• Meeting Students’ Needs through Scaffolding
   
• Milling to Music (Four Corners) - Students share their thinking, class work, or homework in an interactive way with their peers. This activity is similar to Musical Chairs, except there are no chairs and no one gets ‘tagged-out.’ While the music is playing, students should dance around to move throughout the room; when the music stops, each student will share his/her thinking or work with the student closest to her/him. Have students do this twice, so they have the opportunity to share with two peers.
   
• Mystery Quotes Protocol for Practicing Inference
   
• No Opt Out - Require all students to correctly answer posed to them (in cases when questions have a “correct” answer). Follow incorrect or partial answers until a correct answer is given by another student, either through cold call calling on a volunteer. Then, return to any student who gave an incorrect or partial answer and have them give a complete and correct response.
   
• Peer Critique Protocol
   
• Popcorn Read Protocol
   
• Praise-Question-Suggest Protocol
   
• Presentation Quizzes - When peers present, ensure that other students know they are responsible learning the information. Pair student presentations with short quizzes at the end of class.
   
• Questioning Strategies to Engage All Learners
   
• Quiz-Quiz-Trade
   
• Rank-Talk-Write
   
• Red Light, Green Light - Students have red, yellow and green objects accessible (e.g. popsicle sticks, poker chips, cards), and when prompted to reflect on a learning target or readiness for a task, they place the color on their desk that describes their comfort level or readiness (red: stuck or not ready; yellow: need support soon; green: ready to start). Teachers target their support for the reds first, then move to yellows and greens. Students change their colors as needed to describe their status.
   
• Release and Catch (Catch and Release) 7/12 - When students are working on their own, they often need clarification or pointers so that they do not struggle for too long of a period or lose focus. A useful ratio of work time to checks for understanding or clarifying information is 7 minutes of work time (release), followed by 2 minutes of teacher-directed clarifications or use of one a quick-check strategies (catch).
   
• Rubric Basics
   
• Say Something
   
• Science Talks
   
• Socratic Seminars (with guidelines)
   
• Sticky Bars - Create a chart that describes levels of understanding, progress or mastery. Have students write their names or use an identifying symbol on a sticky note and place their notes on the appropriate place on the chart.
   
• Table Tags - Place paper signs/table tents in three areas with colors, symbols or descriptors that indicate possible student levels of understanding or readiness for a task or target. Students sit in the area that best describes them, moving to a new area when relevant.
   
• Take a Stand Protocol
   
• Tea Party Protocol
   
• Teaching the Gist – Mini Lesson
   
• Think-Pair-Share (Ink-Pair-Share; Write-Pair-Share)
   
• Thumb-Ometer (and other -Ometers) - To show degree of agreement, readiness for tasks, or comfort with a learning target/concept, students can quickly show their thinking by putting their thumbs up, to the side, or down. Feel free to get creative with other versions of “-Ometers” that allow students to physically demonstrate where they are with a target or concept.
   
• Tracking Progress - Teachers post a chart on the wall and/or distribute individual charts displaying learning targets and levels of proficiency. Students indicate their self-assessed level of proficiency, usually multiple times. Students can use different colored dots, ink stamps, or markers and/or dates to indicate progress over time.
   
• Turn and Talk - When prompted, students turn to a shoulder buddy or neighbor and, in a set amount of time, share their ideas about a prompt or question posed by the teacher or other students. Depending on the goals of the lesson and the nature of the Turn and Talk, students may share some key ideas from their paired discussions with the whole class.
   
• Vocabulary Strategies
   
• Whip-Around (Go-Around) - When a brief answer can show understanding, self-assessment, or readiness for a task, teachers ask students to respond to a standard prompt one at a time, in rapid succession around the room.
   
• White Boards - Students have small white boards at their desks or tables and write their ideas/thinking/ answers down and hold up their boards for teacher and/or peer scanning.
   
• Word Walls
   
• World Cafe
   
• Written Conversation Protocol

Pre-Reading Strategies:

• Relating prior knowledge and personal experience to new texts
• Freewriting about an important idea/theme/essential question in the work
• Webbing an important idea/theme/word (semantic mapping)
• Completing an anticipation guide
• Discussing a related work, theme, idea
• Completing and discussing questionnaires in cooperative groups
• Filling in the first two columns of a K-W-L chart
• Assessing what the student already knows about the topic
• Listing predictions
• Setting purposes for reading (perhaps with a mini-lesson introducing a new concept, term, or strategy)
• Analyzing the title and/or illustrations
• Reviewing the footnotes, headings, and/or other peripherals
• Creating story impressions

During-Reading Strategies:

• Maintaining reader response journals
• Using fix-up strategies (i.e. re-reading, reading ahead, using context clues)
• Creating and completing literature maps
• Summarizing at critical points
• Assessing predictions
• Visualizing and verbalizing what they are imagining
• Engaging in the think-aloud technique
• Creating questions
• Making inferences
• Recognizing cause and effect
• Distinguishing fact from opinion
• Using resources to address difficult and pertinent vocabulary
• Participating in a guided reading
• Constructing a plot line
• Sequencing the main events in the work
• Completing meaningful learning guides or interactive reading guides
• Answering text/teacher questions
• Determining a main idea and/or key literary elements

Post-Reading Strategies:

• Re-visiting one or more of the pre-reading and/or during-reading strategies
• Sharing, discussing, evaluating their reader response entries orally
• Participating in student-centered discussions
• Completing Venn diagrams to compare and contrast
• Filling in the last column of a K-W-L chart
• Completing a book chart comparing two or more works, themes, conflicts, symbols
• Summarizing and paraphrasing
• Outlining the main idea, supporting details, and/or key literary elements
• Rewriting the work from another point of view, in a different tone, or in another setting or genre
• Debating whether or not the author attained his or her purpose
• Imitating the author’s style in an original student-written work
• Writing a sequel or a new ending
• Sending a letter to the author
• Writing a book review
• Completing essay tests
• Setting a different purpose and re-reading the work
• Dramatizing a scene from the work
• Interviewing the main character
• Creating a related work of art, a musical composition, dance, or other project
• Engaging in further reading/research
• Presenting an interpretative reading of a portion of the work
• Rewriting the story for a younger audience
• Participating in a related mock trial

---

"Effective comprehension strategy instruction is explicit"

Research shows that explicit teaching techniques are particularly effective for comprehension strategy instruction. In explicit instruction, teachers tell readers why and when they should use strategies, what strategies to use, and how to apply them. The steps of explicit instruction typically include direct explanation, teacher modeling ("thinking aloud"), guided practice, and application.

• Direct explanation - The teacher explains to students why the strategy helps comprehension and when to apply the strategy.
• Modeling - The teacher models, or demonstrates, how to apply the strategy, usually by "thinking aloud" while reading the text that the students are using.
• Guided practice - The teacher guides and assists students as they learn how and when to apply the strategy.
• Application - The teacher helps students practice the strategy until they can apply it independently.

Effective comprehension strategy instruction can be accomplished through cooperative learning, which involves students working together as partners or in small groups on clearly defined tasks. Cooperative learning instruction has been used successfully to teach comprehension strategies. Students work together to understand texts, helping each other learn and apply comprehension strategies. Teachers help students learn to work in groups. Teachers also provide modeling of the comprehension strategies.

Pre-Writing Strategies:

• Activating prior knowledge
• Analyzing the required task
• Brainstorming
• Freewriting
• Mulling over ideas
• Engaging in ideas with teachers or peers
• Generating a purpose
• Considering a form
• Identifying an audience and its traits
• Consulting resources
• Gathering information
• Outlining
• Webbing
• Clustering
• Using graphic organizers
• Rehearsing

Drafting Strategies:

• Writing thoughts as quickly as possible without concern for correctness until the final stages of the process
• Ignoring spelling, usage, or other proofreading or revision problems until the final stages of the process
• Watching the teacher monitor the process of the drafting via the chalkboard, a flipchart, or an overhead projector
• Engaging in guided writing in which the teacher leads the students through a directed writing activity
• Using pre-writing and other strategies when writer’s block occurs
• Realizing that pauses are a natural part of the drafting process
• Consulting the teacher when necessary
• Using the computer to write the first draft

Revision Strategies:

• Revising the piece using their own individual criteria
• Revising the piece according to curricular requirements
• Reading the piece silently aloud
• Re-seeing the piece from another perspective (i.e. a different audience, point of view, genre/form)
• Adding, deleting, changing words and phrases, sentences, ideas, and paragraphs
• Drawing lines, crossing out, inserting carets and arrows
• Cutting, pasting, stapling, using post-it notes
• Using computer commands to help revise the piece
• Engaging in peer and/or teacher conferences, after first revisiting the piece personally
• Checking rubrics to determine if the piece meets established criteria
• Utilizing ideas from mini-lessons
• Engaging in metacognitive think-alouds, which illustrate thinking during the revision process
• Anticipating and answering the readers’ questions

Proofreading Strategies:

• Focusing on one or two personal areas of proofreading goals
• Reading the paper silently and aloud
• Using commercial, teacher-generated, or student-generated checklists
• Ascertaining whether or not the relevant rubric includes specific required proofreading areas
• Consulting with editing partners, peer editing groups, and/or the teacher
• Ensuring that papers show command of the appropriate conventions of paragraph structure, sentence construction, grammar, usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling
• Using the computer to make changes/corrections

Publishing:

• Classmates/peers
• Parents and other relatives
• Other students and teachers
• Displays in classrooms, libraries, hallways, offices
• School and district publications
• Local newspapers
• Magazines
• Other professional publications
• Local and national contests
• Elementary school students
• Penpals
• Government officials

 

 

---

from "Dipsticks: Efficient Wayst to Check for Understanding"
by Todd Finley

53 Ways to Check for Understanding (PDF)

1. Summary Poem Activity

Step 1: List ten key words from an assigned text.

Step 2: Do a free verse poem with the words you highlighted.

Step 3: Write a summary of the reading based on these words.

2. Invent the Quiz - Write ten higher-order text questions related to the content. Pick two and answer one of them in half a page.

3. The 411 - Describe the author’s objective.

4. Opinion Chart - List opinions about the content in the left column of a T-chart, and support your opinions in the right column.

5. "So What?" Journal - Identify the main idea of the lesson. Why is it important?

6. Rate Understanding

7. Clickers (Response System)

8. Teacher Observation Checklist

9. Explaining - Explain the main idea using an analogy.

10. Evaluate - What is the author's main point? What are the arguments for and against this idea?

11. Describe - What are the important characteristics or features of the main concept or idea of the reading?

12. Define - Pick out an important word or phrase that the author of a text introduces. What does it mean?

13. Compare and Contrast - Identify the theory or idea the author is advancing. Then identify an opposite theory. What are the similarities and differences between these ideas?

14. Question Stems

• I believe that ________ because _______.
• I was most confused by _______.

15. Mind Map - Create a mind map that represents a concept using a diagram-making tool (like Gliffy). Provide your teacher/classmates with the link to your mind map.

16. Intrigue Journal - List the five most interesting, controversial, or resonant ideas you found in the readings. Include page numbers and a short rationale (100 words) for your selection.

17. Advertisement - Create an ad, with visuals and text, for the newly learned concept.

18. 5 Words - What five words would you use to describe ______? Explain and justify your choices.

19. Muddy Moment - What frustrates and confuses you about the text? Why?

20. Collage - Create a collage around the lesson's themes. Explain your choices in one paragraph.

21. Letter - Explain _______ in a letter to your best friend.

22. Talk Show Panel - Have a cast of experts debate the finer points of _______.

23. Study Guide - What are the main topics, supporting details, important person's contributions, terms, and definitions?

24. Illustration - Draw a picture that illustrates a relationship between terms in the text. Explain in one paragraph your visual representation.

25. KWL Chart - What do you know, what do you want to know, and what have you learned?

26. Sticky Notes Annotation - Use sticky notes to describe key passages that are notable or that you have questions about.

27. 3-2-1

Step 1: Three things you found out.

Steps 2: Two interesting things.

Step 3: One question you still have.

28. Outline - Represent the organization of _______ by outlining it.

29. Anticipation Guide - Establish a purpose for reading and create post-reading reflections and discussion.

30. Simile - What we learned today is like _______.

31. The Minute Paper - In one minute, describe the most meaningful thing you've learned.

32. Interview You - You’re the guest expert on 60 Minutes. Answer:

A) What are component parts of _______?

B) Why does this topic matter?

33. Double Entry Notebook - Create a two-column table. Use the left column to write down 5-8 important quotations. Use the right column to record reactions to the quotations.

34. Comic Book - Use a comic book creation tool like Bitstrips to represent understanding.

35. Tagxedo - What are key words that express the main ideas? Be ready to discuss and explain.

36. Classroom TED Talk

37. Podcast - Play the part of a content expert and discuss content-related issues on a podcast, using the free Easypodcast.

38. Create a Multimedia Poster with Glogster

39. Twitter Post - Define _______ in under 140 characters.

40. Explain Your Solution - Describe how you solved an academic problem, step by step.

41. Dramatic Interpretation - Dramatize a critical scene from a complex narrative.

42. Ballad - Summarize a narrative that employs a poem or song structure using short stanzas.

43. Pamphlet - Describe the key features of _______ in a visually and textually compelling pamphlet.

44. Study Guide - Create a study guide that outlines main ideas.

45. Bio Poem - To describe a character or person, write a poem that includes:

(Line 1) First name

(Line 2) 3-4 adjectives that describe the person

(Line 3) Important relationship

(Line 4) 2-3 things, people, or ideas the person loved

(Line 5) Three feelings the person experienced

(Line 6) Three fears the person experienced

(Line 7) Accomplishments

(Line 8) 2-3 things the person wanted to see happen or wanted to experience

(Line 9) His or her residence

(Line 10) Last name

46. Sketch - Visually represent new knowledge.

47. Top Ten List - What are the most important takeaways, written with humor?

48. Color Cards

Red = "Stop, I need help."

Green = "Keep going, I understand."

Yellow = "I'm a little confused."

49. Quickwrite - Without stopping, write what most confuses you.

50. Conference - A short, focused discussion between the teacher and student.

51. Debrief - Reflect immediately after an activity.

52. Exit Slip - Have students reflect on lessons learned during class.

53. Misconception Check - Given a common misconception about a topic, students explain why they agree or disagree with it.

 

Other Assessment Resources

In Edutopia's The Power of Comprehensive Assessment, Bob Lenz describes how to create a balanced assessment system.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) describes dozens of Formative Assessment Strategies.

The Assessment and Rubrics page of Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything website hosts many excellent assessment rubrics.

More Rubrics for Assessment are provided by the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Jon Mueller's Authentic Tasks and Rubrics is a must see-resource in his Authentic Assessment Toolbox website.