Teacher's Toolbox - Page Two
When planning daily lessons, we all sometimes draw a blank when trying to think of an original way to teach a concept. Consider this page your toolbox. When you need that little burst of inspiration, dig through your toolbox. You might find something handy.
Analyzing Material
(Return to Introducing Material - Skip to Reviewing Material )
- Graphic organizers are always a good way to help students make relationships between new concepts and existing knowledge. You can draw your own using software like Inspiration, or print existing worksheets. Printable organizers are available many places online, including here, here, and here. You can also have students work in groups to create their own organizers on group whiteboards and then explain why they've made the connections they have.
- This website has strategies primarily useful in English classes, although many of the reading strategies can be modified to use in a variety of courses.
- Students like to exercise their creative sides by creating children's books . Take a blank sheet of copy paper and cut it in half vertically. The students are given the two pieces and instructed to fold them in half and staple them at the fold to create a small booklet. They are asked to write and illustrate a children's book explaining the difficult concept in terms that children could understand. They are reminded to use small words and clear pictures to help get the ideas across. This activity not only allows them to exercise their creativity, but forces them to clearly explain a confusing topic in their own words.
- A similar idea is to have students create informational pamphlets on a topic. Show several real pamphlets, and we discuss what they have in common: they are folded in thirds, have a flashy title on the front, eye catching images and bulleted information in the first fold, and then in the full fold out, detailed information about what this is, why it is a problem, and what can be done about it. The backside always has the logos for the company that produced the flier (i.e., their name), and also where to go for further information (their references). This document has further details.
- Complicated procedures can be analyzed and broken down, either by having the students draw flip books , or else by creating a series of images that show the steps, and then have students analyze them, cut them out, and place them in the correct order. Once they believe them assembled correctly, they ask for their work to be checked. If it is correct, then the students staple the booklet together, and write text on each page to explain what is happening.
- Using levels of questioning helps
students to better understand reading material in textbooks. They are
asked to read the material and then develop a certain number of
knowledge-level questions (the answer can be found in the text), and a certain
number of application-level questions (the answer is not specifically given in
the text, but it can be figured out by applying what you have learned).
As they finish their questions, they give them to you to review. Collect
them and redistribute them to other students to answer as they finish.
Require all answers to be in complete sentences. This is nice because it
allows students to work at their own pace. If you have slower students,
you can require them to write questions, but not answer other those of other
students, or they can work on other comprehension aids as they read
instead. As students get good at this, you can ask them to include
synthesis-level questions (they are required to take the information and
create something new with it by relating it to other concepts).
Introduce these questions by naming them Level One, Level Two, and Level Three questions, and comparing them back to the story of Cinderella. For example, a Level One question could be "How did the prince find Cinderella again?". A Level Two question might be "Why didn't Cinderella's stepmother treat her nicely?" A Level Three question might be "Why do you think different versions of this story has appeared in so many different cultures?". You can also point out that section review questions in textbooks usually have four or five Level One questions, and one "critical thinking", or Level Two question. If your textbook has these, verify that the students are creating their own questions rather than using these ready-made questions. - Making posterboards, models, or Powerpoints to examine a topic in greater depth always gets students involved and taking an active role in learning. You can either assign all students variations on the same topic, or give them entirely different topics and require some kind of presentation or interaction with other students' work. For example, you can have students build models, and then develop a questioning worksheet where they must find the answers on another student's model.
- Inquiry papers are a good way to get students to analyze and think about reading material. This attachment contains the basic information. Download it and save it to your computer. Feel free to modify it as necessary.
- Take a Stand is a fun debate activity. Hang signs in four areas of the room that say "Strongly Agree", "Agree", "Disagree", and "Strongly Disagree". Make statements about the topics, and have the students move to the area of the room that reflects their opinions. Question them about their reasoning, and give them the ability to change their opinion at any time. This is good for starting debates about hot topics. Download this sheet for additional details.