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

KWL
'Know, Want to know, Learn' Students identify what they know about a topic, what they want to know,and after reading or instruction, identify what they learned or would still like to learn.

Labeling
A form of classification that includes categorizing and then naming a concept, object, action, or event.

Laboratory
Classroom activities performed in an environment that fosters inquiry through experimentation and exploration. Laboratories typically have specialized equipment to permit students to perform experiments in biology, chemistry, physics, meteorology, geology, and occasionally psychology.

Laddering
Changing a discussion to consider categories that are either more inclusive or less inclusive than the level of the current topic. For example, in a science class, the group might 'ladder up' if they switch from discussing primates to a discussion of all mammals. The group would be 'laddering down' if the switched from discussing primates in genera...

Lateral Thinking
Edward de Bono's approach to problem-solving and creativity. Lateral thinking consists of changing your perspective to solve a problem (for example, if baby endangers Christmas tree, instead of putting baby in playpen, put tree in playpen). Don't limit yourself by only considering 'intended uses.'

Learning Centers
Individual stations where individual or paired students explore resources. Designed to extend knowledge introduced in whole group instruction.

Learning Contract
A form of individualized, active learning, in which the student proposes a course of study to satisfy an academic requirement and a teacher checks and approves the contract. The student typically works independently until assistance is needed from the teacher, at which point it is the responsibility of the student to ask for help. This form of inst...

Learning Labs
A learning lab is an environment that provides tools and educational support to enable learners to explore content at their own pace. There are many varieties of learning labs. Computer learning labs typically consist of rooms full of networked computers or work stations along with at least one human assistant. Math learning labs may be nothing but...

Learning Log
Students write responses to teacher questions as summary of what they have learned or what they do not understand. Used for reflection and to inform teacher of progress.

Learning Modules
Like a portable learning center. Many are designed to be used as the primary instruction on a subject and aren't preceded by whole class instruction.

Learning Packets
Designed by a teacher to help student make up missed work due to absence.

Learning Stations
Individual stations where individual or paired students explore resources. Designed to extend knowledge introduced in whole group instruction.

Learning Style Inventory
Assessments taken by students to learn about their learning styles and preferences.

Learning Styles
While each of us learns differently, we can categorize an individual's strength and weaknesses for a number of different factors which affect the way we learn. It is possible to refer to someone as a 'visual learner' or a person who prefers 'step-by-step' directions. By assessing, and then planning for each student's individual learning style, a te...

Learning Together
Learning Together, developed by David and Roger Johnson, is a set of step-by-step instructions to assist teachers in managing a cooperative classroom. Superseded by 'Circles of Learning.'

Learning Together and Alone
Cooperative learning approach, as outlined by David W. Johnson and Roger T. Johnson. Unlike other cooperative learning strategies which tend to be periodic activities, 'Learning Together and Alone' provides guidelines for the creation of a generalized cooperative classroom.

Lecture
A direct instructional method. The teacher talks with the purpose of transmitting information. Lectures may, but often don't, include visual aids or notes to accompany the talking.

Letter Activities
Activities designed to help young children make connections between the appearance of letters and their sounds. Usually includes a tactile or kinesthetic component (making a snake out of clay and forming it into the letter 'S' for example).

Letter and Sound Relationships
Letter activities that concentrate on pairing letters and letter combinations that result in the same sound.

Letter Games
Letter activities to which an element of competition or fun has been added.

Letter Writing
A writing activity that encourages students to think about a specific audience.

Letters From Last Year's Class
At the end of the school year, have students write letters for your future students. These letters can include tips, activities to look forward to, or a description of some of the new concepts they can look forward to learning in the coming year. At the beginning of the next school year, put these letters on the desks of your new students.

Leveled Books
Sets of books of varying difficulty. Typically students will be matched with books in the set based on each student's ongoing assessments and previous achievements with other books that are 'leveled.'

Library Assistant
Acting as an assistant in the library not only provides students with an opportunity for Service Learning, but also teaches academic skills related to reading, categorization, use of computers, and social skills as student volunteers interact with library users.

Library Research
Many projects require research in the library to enable students to supplement the information they can find in their textbooks and on the Internet. To further encourage library research, teachers can provide guidelines for projects and writing assignments to encourage students to become familiar with using resources in the library.

Line-Up
Student teams are given concepts that can be put in order. Each team member holds one concept and the members line up to represent the correct order.

Link System of Memorization
Link one item to another to form a mental link. Uses visualization.

List - Group - Label
An activity to help students activate prior knowledge before beginning a new topic. Student teams divide list of key words into groups, then label each group.

Listen-Think-Pair-Share
Students listen to questions, individually think about a response, discuss their ideas with a partner, then share their ideas with the class.

Listening Center
Audio center where students can listen individually to books on tape, music, news, language lessons, taped stories, or other audio resources.

Listening Comprehension
Activities to promote active and critical listening. Activities often include reading passages aloud, then assessing student understanding through written or oral feedback.

Listing
Making lists of words, objects or ideas. Can be used to organize thoughts before a writing activity, or as an assessments to demonstrate the ability to recall.

Literature Search
As a part of inquiry or research, students often need to search existing literature to find what is currently known about a topic. Libraries have specialized search tools students can use for a variety of topics. Internet searches typically use a combination of keyword searches on the Internet along with following a trail of references from known a...

Live Plants and Animals
Providing live plants and animals in the classroom gives students the opportunity to learn respect for living things. Caring for living things enables students to learn responsibility. Careful observation and handling of living things in the classroom enhances the learning of many concepts.

Locating
Locating is to show or find the position of something. Students can find the location of places on a map, or demonstrate the location of a concept relative to other concepts in a hierarchy.

Long-term Projects
These projects are usually centered either on a theme, or to research and propose answers to open-ended questions.

Looping
Looping describes an approach to writing and also describes the practice having a teacher teach the same class for more than one year. As an approach to writing looping encourages writers to write quickly (stream of consciousness), followed by reviewing what has been written and selecting key points from the writing to serve as the basis for anothe...

Lotus Blossom Technique
From central idea, propose eight new ideas. For each of eight ideas, propose and evaluate necessary details to implement ideas.

Luck of the Draw
All student's names are put into a container. At the end of class, a student's name is drawn at random from the container. At the beginning of the next class the student whose name was drawn is required to present a 3-5 minute review of the previous day's lesson.

Lunch with the Teacher
A good way for the teacher to get to know each student in a casual environment. Individual students or pairs of students eat lunch and socialize with the teacher. For young children, this experience is often enhanced if the teacher brings some small treat (a few cookies) to to share

Magazines
Used as a real world source of information.

Managing
Having students manage an activity or group to give students experience with management and planning skills.

Manipulatives
Manipulatives are objects used in the classroom to allow students to make connections to concepts through touch. Examples might include a bag of beans for counting, or a microscope for scientific inquiry.

Map Making
Student map making can be tied to many objectives related to mathematics, social studies, art, reading, and problem solving.

Map Reading
As a classroom activity, older students can be given maps and asked to find places or resources. Younger students can be given maps to local places and taught to orient themselves using the maps (orienteering).

Mascot
Creation or selection of a class mascot to promote a group identity.

Mastery Learning
Objectives for learning are established and communicated to students. Students progress at own speed and continue to work until their performance indicates they have mastered each set of objectives. (see criterion-referenced assessment)

Match Mine
Pair activity in which one student draws, while the other waits, then the second student tries to copy the drawing of the first using only descriptions supplied by the first student.

Matching
Making matches can be done in many contexts. For younger students, cards can be matched if they have identical pictures or symbols. As they advance, cards with symbols or pictures can be matched with the real objects they represent. More mature students can match words with their definitions or mathematical expressions with their solutions.

Meal Planning
Lessons in which students plan meals can be used to teach skills in math, science, social studies, reading, and writing.

Meaningful Sentences
Given vocabulary terms, students can be shown sentences in which the terms are used in a context that helps them to understand the meaning of the terms, or as an assessment, students can be asked to write meaningful sentences containing key words.

Meaningful Use Tasks
A category of tasks described by Robert J. Marzano, et.al. Typically they are long-term, allow students to make choices, and require students to apply what they have learned.

Measuring
Activities to determine the size, extent, or dimensions of objects or values.

Medium Size Circle
First, 5-10 volunteers share something important they learned. Second, volunteers remember (restate) what one first people shared. Continue until each of the original speakers have been 'remembered.'

Memorization
Actively organizing and working with concepts or terminology to improve incorporating those concepts into memory.

Mental Arithmetic Techniques
Techniques to allow students to approximate answers to math problems. Mental math or mental arithmetic is important to allow students to be able to recognize when the answers they obtain using calculators are accurate.

Mental Models
Students enter learning situations with existing knowledge. This knowledge is organized into patterns or models that help them explain phenomena. Learning involves adding to or altering the learner's existing mental models.

Mentors
Teachers and individuals from the community can act as mentors.

Message Board
A place where teachers and students can post information or work that may be of interest to others in the classroom.

Metacognition
Metacognition is 'thinking about thinking.' Learners monitor their own thought processes to decide if they are learning effectively. Taking a learning styles inventory, then altering study habits to fit what was learned about preferences would be an example of a metacognitive activity.

Metaphors
Metaphors can be used as examples by teachers, or students can form metaphors.

Microteaching
A form of practice teaching in which the student prepares a short (6-15 minute) lesson and presents the lesson to peers for constructive evaluation.

Mind Map
A graphic way of organizing information to show the interrelationships between concepts.

Minimalism
John M. Carroll's approach to instructional design that stresses the importance of providing learners with meaningful tasks early in instruction and allowing them to make and then correct errors. Rather than guiding users step-by-step through a new learning situation, learner's are given tasks to try and then supported as they make mistakes. This a...

Minute Papers
An end-of-class reflection in which students write briefly to answer the questions: 'What did you learn today? and 'What questions do you still have?'

Mix and Match
Students make pairs or sets from randomly ordered objects or concepts on cards.

Mix/Freeze/Group
In this activity, the teacher poses questions to which the answer is a whole number and the students (as a group) answer the question by moving through the classroom to form groups of that size. For example, if the question were, 'How much is 24 divided by 8?' the students would cluster to form groups of 3.

Mnemonics
Any of several techniques or devices used to help remember or memorize names or concepts.

Mock Trials
Students learn about the legal system by assuming the roles of lawyers, witnesses, and judges to act out hypothetical legal cases.

Modeling
Teachers model behaviors or skills.

Models
Many forms of models are used in the classroom. In the concrete sense, teachers can provide three-dimensional objects (such as globes or models of molecules) for students to explore. Models can also be conceptual. The idea that the Earth revolves around the sun is part of a model of the the structure of the solar system.

Modifying
Useful in the classroom as a scaffolding tool. Provide students with models or information that are nearly correct or complete and allow students to modify the model or information to make it more complete.

Monitor
Student monitors as a mechanism to teach responsibility.

Morphological Analysis
Analysis of the meaning of words based on their sub-parts (morphemes).

Most Important Word
A during reading strategy in which the teacher reminds the students to think about the 'most important words' for a particular reading assignment. The teacher gives some examples of some important words, then students work in groups to identify others.

Muddiest Point
A question used to stimulate metacognitive thinking. Students are asked to name or describe the concept they understand the least (their muddiest point).

Multi-age Groupings
A classroom that includes children of many ages and ability levels.

Multicultural Education Programs
Programs that focus on teaching children about other cultures, or adapting teaching to fit the cultures of the children being taught.

Multimedia
Typically refers to the presentation of information using a computer and including text-based, audio, and visual components.

Multiple Intelligences Theory
Howard Gardner's theory proposing that each person has many intelligences (including linguistic, spatial, musical, etc.). These intelligences work together. Educators should design instruction to foster the growth of all intelligences.

Multiple Solutions
Require students to find all acceptable solutions, not just the best.

My Name
Ice breaker activity in which students stand and explain what they know about the origin of their name. It could be to explain why they were given their particular first or middle names, or it could be to describe a little about the history of their family name.

Names
Learning student names early is an effective way to minimize the potential for misbehavior and establish positive relationships with students.

Naming
A thinking skill requiring the learner to identify objects or concepts by name. One specific form of naming (Rapid Automatized Naming) is used as an assessment of learners' ability to acquire literacy skills.

Nature Walks
A form of field trip in which students explore and observe objects in their natural environment.

Negative Brainstorming
Like brainstorming, but participants propose things NOT to do or ideas that are NOT examples. Especially useful with young children in starting a list of student-generated rules. First have students generate actions not to do, then ask students to rephrase the ideas in a more positive way.

Newscast
Newscasts written and produced by students. Newscasts can either be about current happenings, or be used to explore historical events.

Newsletters
Ask students to make suggestions or write parts of the class newsletter to be sent home tom parents.

Newspapers
Newspapers as a real world source of content, or as a product produced by students.

Nominal Group Technique
A formal structure to facilitate group problem-solving in a way that encourages all members to participate.

Non-examples
A technique used in direct instruction to help students distinguish between similar concepts.

Nondirective Model
A student-centered teaching model.

Norm-referenced Assessments
Students are compared to each other. The students with the best performance (on tests, presentations, etc.) receive the highest marks. Grades will be distributed over a range (typically A through F) and not all students can receive the highest marks. (compare to criterion-referenced assessment)

Note-Taking
The process of recording information presented by a teacher for the purpose of improving recall or understanding by the student. Notes typically include a combination of direct quotes of what a teacher says, diagrams, and additions by the student to add emphasis or to indicate areas where outside study may be required.

Novelty
A motivational technique to engage student early in instruction. Share something unusual with students to arouse curiosity.

Numbered Heads Together
Each student is assigned a number. Members of group work together to agree on answer. Teacher randomly selects one number. Student with that number answers for group.

Nutshelling
A form of summary. It usually involves asking a student to examine synthesize a brief statement that captures the essence of all that has been written or stated to that point. Often used in writing classes to help students find the key points in their own writing.

Objectives
Share objectives with students to allow them to help plan learning activities to help them reach the objectives.

Observation
Observation of student by teacher. Observations may be used during performance assessments, or simply to gather informal information about an individual student's needs and achievements.

Observation Logs
An observation log is a form of journal kept by a student to assist in guiding observation. Students typically are asked to answer specific questions during the course of keeping an observation log. This technique is often employed in teacher education to guide students during their observation of classroom teachers.