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Plasmalink - Glossary of Instructional Strategies Category: Management > Instructional Strategies Date & country: 14/10/2008, USA Words: 676

Gardens
Students plan, plant, and tend a garden. As a side activity, students also will need to plan what to do with the products of the garden and how (if necessary) to return the land to its original state.

GATHER Model
An inquiry-based model used in the teaching of history. The steps include: Get an overview, Ask questions, Triangulate the data, Hypothesize, Explore and interpret data, and Record and support conclusions.

General Inquiry
A teaching strategy in which students learn to identify and explore problems, then use the discovered facts to form a generalized response to the problem.

General-to-Specific Sequencing
An instructional approach in which objectives are presented to learners beginning with general principles and proceeding to specific concepts. Compare to: Chronological, Known-to-Unknown, Part-to-Part-to-Part, Part-to-Whole, Part-to-Whole-to Part, Spiral, Step-by-Step, Topical, Unknown-to-Known, Whole-to-Part

Generalizing
To restate information to show basic principles.

Generative Learning Model
A four phase method (preliminary, focus, challenge, and application) that encourages students to 'do something' with information. This constructivist approach allows students to construct (or generate) meaning through their active use of information.

Generative Vocabulary Strategies
Examples include: Possible Sentences, Keyword Strategy, Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy. (VSS)

Genetic Epistemology
Jean Piaget proposed that children pass through different stages of cognitive development. For example: during very early stages, children are not aware of the permanence of objects, so hiding an object causes the child to lose interest. Once the child has acquired the ability to think of the object as still existing even when out of sight, the chi...

Gestalt Theory
Max Wertheimer's theory that deals with the nature of whole problems or concepts. Gestalt theory stresses the importance of the relationship between objects in a group and the relatedness of concepts. Gestalt is about 'the big picture' and originated as a response to the traditional scientific approach of breaking things down into their component p...

Gowin's Vee Diagram
A form of graphic organizer developed by Bob Gowin to help students develop hierarchies from their reading and prior knowledge and use that knowledge to make sense of their central question or research interest.

Grab Bag
Near the conclusion of a lesson, have a student draw an object from a bag. The student must explain or illustrate how the object is related to what they have learned.

Grant Writing
Grant writing is most often assigned in college or professional courses, but could be done at higher secondary levels. A grant is a financial award, either from government or industry, and intended to fund a project with wide applications. Grant writing, as a process, involves finding and investigating problems, writing persuasive text, researching...

Graphic Organizer
Graphic organizers are visual frameworks to help the learner make connections between concepts. Some forms of graphic organizers are used before learning and help remind the learner of what they already know about a subject. Other graphic organizers are designed to be used during learning to act as cues to what to look for in the structure of the r...

Graphing
A diagram that represents numerical data.

Greeting Cards
Students design and create greeting cards to share with friends and relatives.

Greetings
Greeting each student at the door allows teachers to establish an individual, positive contact with each student that is not possible once the entire class is assembled.

Group Investigation
The class is divided into teams. Teams select topics to investigate, gather information, prepare a report, then assemble to present their findings to the entire class.

Group Work
Any method involving two or more students.

Group Writing
Students work in teams of two or three to brainstorm, write, and edit a single document.

Guess and Check
One approach to solving math problems is to Guess at an answer, then Check to see if it is the correct solution.

Guess Box
An object is hidden in a container and students ask questions about the content of the box in order to identify it and its characteristics.

Guest Speakers
Guest speakers come into the classroom to share specialized knowledge about their profession or their hobbies. Guest speakers help to form connections between knowledge acquired in the classroom and real-world applications.

Guest Teachers
Guest Teacher has two meanings. The first meaning is when a teacher teaches a class on a topic in which he or she specializes and the normal teacher for the class is present to learn from the presentation. An example of this kind of Guest Teaching might occur if a math teacher also happened to be an expert on the American Civil War and had artifact...

Guided Discovery
Teaching model where students learn through explorations, but with directions from teacher.

Guided Discussion
Similar to recitations, but the purpose is to help students make interpretations.

Guided Imagery
Students are helped to visualize through daydreams 'structured' by the teacher.

Guided Practice
Guided Practice is a form of scaffolding. It allows learners to attempt things they would not be capable of without assistance. In the classroom, guided practice usually looks like a combination of individual work, close observation by the teacher, and short segments of individual or whole class instruction. In computer based or Internet based lear...

Guided Questioning
A form of scaffolding for reading in which the teacher's questions start out with many clues about what is happening in the reading, and then as comprehension improves, the questions become less supportive.

Guided Reading
Structured reading where short passages are read, then student interpretations are immediately recorded, discussed, and revised.

Guided Writing
Guided writing can take many forms. It can consist of a teacher making suggestions to an individual student, or it may be whole class brainstorming followed by a question and answer session to clarify specifically what will be written. In all forms of guided writing, the teacher's role is to encourage student responses.

Habits of Mind
Habits of Mind centers on the idea that students can learn more effectively if they regulate their own thought processes.

Hands-On
Hands-On means any instructional activity that is emphasizes students working with objects relevant to the content being studied. Variations include: Hands-On Science, Hands-On Math, and so on.

Helper
Assigning responsibilities to students encourages responsibility and serves as a form of recognition and pride for many students. Being 'in charge' of the student lunch count or clean-up of the play area helps students to learn leadership skills.

Heuristic
Making an educated guess to reduce the amount of time needed to solve some types of problems.

Hidden Word Game
Writing sentences in which a word is hidden. For example: The school mouse ate a cherry for her morning snack. has the hidden word TEACHER (The school mouse aTE A CHERry for her morning snack.)

Hierarchy
A form of classification in which involves ranking a group of objects or concepts.

Highlighting
Marking key concepts with a different color to emphasize importance.

Holistic Instruction
Involves the use of problems or activities which are multi-dimensional or multidisciplinary. Usually involves long- term and authentic activities.

Holistic Learning
Involves the use of problems or activities which are multi-dimensional or multidisciplinary. Usually involves long- term and authentic activities.

Homeschooling
In this approach, parents take full responsibility for the education of their children by preparing and presenting lessons at home.

Homework
Homework is work done outside the classroom. Homework tends to fall into one of two categories. The commonest kind of homework is work assigned by the teacher that the student could theoretically have completed in class (given time). This kind of homework is intended to give students extra practice with skills or concepts that have already been pre...

Homework Checking
Homework can be checked by students, parents, teachers, or by peers of the student. There are benefits and liabilities to each of these approaches. From the standpoint of liabilities: if the only person checking the homework is the student, inexperience with the material may result in errors, even if a key is used. If homework is checked at home by...

Human Treasure Hunt
Often used as an introductory activity. Good for introducing and relaxing students during the first week of class.

Humor
Humor can be helpful in motivating students and in creating a community spirit.

Hypotheses
A tentative explanation for patterns or observations.

Ice Breakers
Activities designed to help people get acquainted in new situations or environments.

Idea Recording
Mechanisms to capture ideas whenever they occur.

Idea Spinner
Teacher creates a spinner marked into four quadrants and labeled 'Predict, Explain, Summarize, Evaluate.' After new material is presented, the teacher spins the spinner and asks students to answer a question based on the location of the spinner. For example, if the spinner lands in the 'Summarize' quadrant, the teacher might say, 'List the key conc...

Ideatoons
Problem-solving and creativity technique where students draw ideas on index cards, then rearrange the cards to search for new, possibly useful patterns.

Identifying
To identify an object or concept involves the student being able to recognize an object or concept to which the student was previously exposed.

Illustrated Talks
A form of lecture in which the speaker tells how to do something, or shares information with the audience, but does not 'show' the audience how to do anything. The talk is supported by visual aids like charts, diagrams, and photographs.

Illustrating
Using pictures or diagrams to explain or decorate.

Imagineering
Fusion of imagination and engineering. Visualize solutions to problems using existing scientific knowledge.

Imitation
Copy painting, style of writing, etc.

Immersion
In language immersion, all learning is carried out in a language that is not the student's native language.

Inclusion
Inclusion is the process of providing all students with the opportunity to participate in the school community regardless of their individual strengths or limitations.

Independent Practice
Practice done without intervention by the teacher. This approach includes many activities done with a computer.

Independent Reading Programs
Programs in which students proceed at their own pace through reading and take assessments when they feel prepared. Accelerated Reading is one example of an Independent Reading Program. In some programs, students may choose their books from a pre-selected pool of books. In other cases, the reading is ordered and students read the books in a particul...

Induction
Using information from specific facts or ideas to construct general principles. (compare to deduction)

Induction Matrix
A form of graphic organizer using a grid to compare concepts and categories. The matrix is filled in at the beginning of a lesson and as students learn more, they correct and update the matrix to reflect new knowledge.

Inductive Inquiry
Teaching that follows the cycle used in scientific inquiry. Steps usually include: searching the literature, making observations, generating hypotheses, designing and carrying out experiments, then analysis of results and restarting the cycle.

Inductive Thinking
Analyzing individual observations to come to general conclusions. Proceeding from facts to the 'big picture.' Inferential Strategy Like DR-TA but occurs only before and after reading.

Inferring
A thinking skill, demonstrated when a student can make conclusions based on reading or prior knowledge.

Information Processing Model
Information Processing theorists study learning in terms of how memories are acquired and then later accessed. Key theorists in this field include Robert M. Gagne and George A. Miller.

Innovating
Altering text or work in such a way that the original is still recognizable, but new concepts or contexts are introduced.

Inquiry
A system in which students solve problems or answer questions by forming tentative answers (hypotheses), then collecting and analyzing data to provide evidence for or against their hypotheses.

Inside-Outside Circle
Review technique. Inside and outside circles of students face each other. Within each pair of facing students, students quiz each other with questions they have written. Outside circle moves to create new pairs. Repeat.

Integrative Learning Model
A holistic approach that works to strengthen all aspects of a student's life (academic, physical, personal, and emotional).

Interactive Video
Any of several systems that allow a user to interact with a video by making choices between video segments. Delivery modes can include: CD-ROM, DVD, or a computer linked to a VHS tape system.

Interactive Writing
Collaboration between the teacher and the student, with both writing parts of the final composition.

Interdisciplinary Teaching
Traditional elementary and secondary classrooms divide instruction into categories (disciplines) such as 'reading,' 'math,' and 'social studies.' Interdisciplinary teaching involves any effort on the part of an instructor to design learning activities with products and activities to related to more than one discipline.

Interpolation of Data
Given a set of data, students are asked to calculate an expected value that occurs between two given data points.

Interviews
Interviews may be by the student or may be a form of assessment of the student.

Intra-Act
Students' valuing of reading is expressed by students responses to opinion questions and their predictions of classmates' opinions on a 'game sheet.'

Invented Spelling
Invented spelling is a natural product that occurs as children begin learning to write. Children attempt to use the sounds of the letters they know to write words whose spelling they do not know. How the teacher responds to the invented spelling differs in different types of classrooms. In more holistic approaches to literacy, students are encourag...

Invention
An open-ended problem-solving task. Is the process of creating something to fill a need.

Invention Teaching
A constructivist approach. Students begin learning with an activity (as in Discovery Teaching), but students may generate many possible solutions. Students acquire basic and advanced knowledge in random order.

Inventory Questioning
Inventory questions are designed to collect information about students' interests, to activate prior knowledge, or to help students become aware of their existing beliefs and background. Often used when dealing with controversial issues, or in the form of a 'personal inventory' to explore emotional problems or limitations.

Inverted Pyramid
A writing format in which the most important information is presented first, followed by the next most important information, and closing with the least important information. Most commonly used in news reporting, but useful in teaching students to learn to prioritize information. Also called the Journalism Model.

Investigation
Identifying what is known about a topic. Three basic types are: Definitional (What are...?), Historical (How...? or Why...?), and Projective (What if...?).

Jeopardy
Like the television game. Many variations (individual or team competitions). Board with 'answers' is prepared in advance (for overhead or on large cardboard sheet). Students respond with acceptable 'question.'

Jigsaw
Cooperative activity. The basic steps include: reading, meeting with expert groups, report back to main team, demonstrate knowledge through a test or report.

Jigsaw II
Cooperative activity. Basic steps: Read with group, discuss individual topic with expert groups, report back to team (to teach them what you learned in your expert group), test, team recognition.

Jobs
When working with high school students or adults, making connections between classroom learning and the students' out of class jobs helps students understand the value of what they are learning.

Jokes
Amusing story or description that can be told by the teacher to activate interest. Alternatively, students can create topic-related jokes to demonstrate understanding of concepts.

Journal
A form of writing. Typically done for a few minutes each day. The writing is done in a notebook and is often used to encourage reflection or exploration of ideas of interest to the students. Journal writing is typically not graded, and in some instances, is not read by anyone but the student. In other instances, the journal can be used to establish...

Journalism Model
A writing format in which the most important information is presented first, followed by the next most important information, and closing with the least important information. Most commonly used in news reporting, but useful in teaching students to learn to prioritize information. Also called the Inverted Pyramid.

Judging
A form of critical thinking that involves forming opinions about a topic.

Jumbled Summary
Teacher presents randomly ordered key words and phrases from a lesson to students. Students put the terms and phrases in a logical order to show understanding.

Justifying
To explain why one choice is better than another. Typically used as part of an assessment that asks students to 'justify' or explain the merits of their answers.

Key Word
Asking student to find keywords, or supplying keywords to students

Keyhole Strategy
A writing format in which the author begins with the main idea, narrows the idea until the end of the first paragraph, uses the 'body' of the writing consists of well-rounded paragraphs, then in the last paragraph, builds to a broad conclusion. Diagrammed, the format looks like an old-fashioned keyhole.

Keys
In classes where students are allowed to check their own homework, teachers can provide a notebook containing detailed answer keys demonstrating how to do complex problems or examples of desirable answers. Sometimes used in Independent Reading Programs or Mastery Learning to allow students to learn at their own pace. The 'Answer Key' books are usua...

Keyword Memory Method
In the keyword method, students generate keywords that are similar to the concepts to be memorized, then put the keywords into an arrangement that can be mentally 'pictured.' For example, given the task of memorizing 'St. Paul is the capital of Minnesota,' the student would first break up the phrase into five related words: saint paul cap mini soda...

Keyword Strategy
The use of keyword memory methods to build vocabulary

KJ Method
Creativity or problem-solving technique in which ideas are written on cards, then the cards are grouped, and finally the grouped ideas are classified.

Knowledge Grammy Awards
Near the completion of a unit, students nominate and vote on which knowledge was most useful to them.

Knowledge Rating
Before reading, students skim reading and select words from the reading, then rate their familiarity with the words. In some instances, teachers may give students preselected words to rate.

Known-to-Unknown
An instructional approach in which objectives are presented to learners beginning with known concepts and proceeding to unknown concepts.. Compare to: Chronological, General-to-Specific, Part-to-Part-to-Part, Part-to-Whole, Part-to-Whole-to Part, Spiral, Step-by-Step, Topical, Unknown-to-Known, Whole-to-Part

KWHL
'Know, Want to know, How to find out, Learn'