Instructional Strategies

The following are some widely used instructional strategies/activities that can be adapted for use in a number of subject areas. (Remember that the word “text” refers anything students may read, view or listen to, e.g. books, articles, photographs, videos, podcasts, lectures, music, art, etc.)  There are many other strategies available to teachers outlined in books such as Power Tools for Adolescent Literacy and Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6 to 12: A Toolkit of Classroom Activities and How to Teach Reading When You're Not a Reading Teacher. The strategies listed below have been used successfully with students at FRC. Adlit.org is a wonderful site with hundreds of strategies.

Vocabulary Instruction
A wide vocabulary is an important aspect of a student’s ability to understand text and is necessary for success in all subject areas. The following are some ideas to help teachers understand which words need to be taught explicitly and include samples of handouts students can use to record and 'hold on to' new words.

My Literacy Coaching Dictionary (Smith, 2011) 
        (This can be modified for use with students, when learning new vocabulary).
3 Tier Guidelines, available at the Anchorage School Division website.
Explicitly Teaching Vocabulary, available at the Anchorage School Division website.
KIM Worksheet, available at the Anchorage School Division website.
PDF:  New Vocabulary Frayer Model
Strategies to help students
make meaning and hold their thinking:

Double Entry Diaries [Journals] (Tovani, 2007, p.115)
and Cornell Notes (Faber, 2006, p. 81)
These are essentially two column charts. In the left students note important quotations, details from the text. In the right hand column they record their connections, questions, conclusions, etc. Double-entry journals work best with literary texts when longer responses are common. Cornell note work best with expository texts.

PDF:  Double Entry Journal
PDF:  Cornell Notes 
Reflective Science Reading Logs, available from the US Dept of Education.
Using Metacognitive Logs in Science, available from the US Dept of Education.

Inner Voice Sheets (Tovani 2010)
These are handouts designed to help students record their thoughts as they read. They can be organized by section of text to allow students to reflect on the metacognitive process of reading. They can also be organized, similar to the reciprocal teaching activity below, by comprehension strategy to allow students to focus on particular strategies.

PDF:  Inner Voice Sheet  (Tovani, 2010)

Survival Guides  (Hume 2011)
A survival guide is a tool for students to gather evidence of their thinking throughout a unit of study. A large sheet of chart paper is folded into a “book” with 16 pages. Throughout the unit, students record their connections, questions, conclusions, etc. on individual pages. The final product is a summary of key aspects of the unit, which can serve as a study guide or an assessment on its own.

Marking the text
Students should be encouraged to mark the text to hold their thinking. The may use symbols to indicate the nature of their thinking for example question marks for places where they have questions, and exclamation points for key ideas. (US Dept of Education)

Mark it Up!  Questioning and Making Connections, available from the US Dept of Education.
Mark it Up!  Scaffolding Text Discussion, available from the US Dept of Education.

Synthesis journals and Questions into Paragraphs (Moje, 2010)
Both of these charts provide students with a framework to summarize and synthesize ideas.

PDF:  Synthesis Journal  (Moje 2010)
Questions into Paragraphs, available from the US Dept of Education.

Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers have long been used to help students to organize their thoughts. Templates are available for students and teachers in many computer programs and websites and in the FRC library. Students can be taught to choose graphic organizers for various purposes, such as Venn diagrams to compare and contrast and flow charts to show a process.
Strategies to help students
make meaning in a collaborative setting:

Reciprocal Teaching
Reciprocal teaching allows students to practice one particular strategy while reading or viewing a text. They then share and discuss their ideas with the other members of the group. Roles can be rotated so each student has an opportunity to try different strategies. Reciprocal teaching usually focuses on summarizing, asking questions, clarifying and predicting, though the template can be adapted to reflect the strategies required of the text at hand.

PDF:  Reciprocal Teaching

Save the Last Word for Me (Beers 2002)
This strategy gives students time to collect their thoughts before discussing them with a group. Students are each is given a cue card. On one side of the card they write a quotation/detail from the text and on the reverse, their thoughts on its importance. Once everyone is done, the group goes through each cue card. Each student offers his/her thoughts on the quotation, saving the last word for the person who wrote the card.  Following the group discussion the group’s ideas on one or more thoughts can be shared with the whole class, creating a further synthesis of ideas.

Say Something (Beers 2002)
Designed for students who are reticent to discuss, Say Something provides a framework. Students choose a partner to read with. At preset points in the reading students are to take turns starting a conversation about that part of the text. This works best after students have been exposed to the teacher thinking aloud texts which are read as a class.

Pair-Share, Small and Large-Group Discussion
Moving from pairs to small- and whole-class discussions allows for the "gradual release of responsibility from teacher to student, with the end-goal of student-driven discussions."  (US Dept of Education)

Social Studies Pair-Sharing and Discussion Guidelines, available from the US Dept of Education.
Student-Driven Discussions in Social Studies, available from the US Dept of Education.