Teacher's Toolbox
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.
Introducing New Material
(Skip to Analyzing Material - Skip to Reviewing Material )
-
KWL (Know-Want-Learn) sheets can be used to assess existing knowledge and review learned material. Students take a sheet of paper and fold it in thirds. Prior to the unit, they complete the "Know" and "Want" thirds. Following the unit, they review the material by completing the "Learn" column, and comparing that with their questions & assumptions. This can also be done as a group on a whiteboard or poster paper.
-
Webquests are an enjoyable and meaningful way to learn new material. Many websites include animations and interactive activities that are hard to bring to the students in any other way. If you are good at creating webpages, you can develop a page as a starting point and provide instructions and links from there. Alternatively, you can produce a handout listing the websites you would like the students to visit, and the questions and activities you would like them to complete while there. There is also a wealth of ready-made webquests available at webquest.org.
- Develop a Problem-Based Learning Unit . There is an online tutorial to get you started. There are also many ready-made problems online. If you like problem-based learning, I strongly recommend that you apply for access to the Problem-Based Learning Clearinghouse.
- One way to have students research new material is to break them up into groups, and have each group research a different small topic. They prepare whiteboards with pertinent text and images. Use a game spinner to randomly select one of the students as the presenter, and all students are graded based on this student's explanation of the material. This helps ensure that all students contribute equally to the work. Other students then take notes or answer questions based on the presentations of other groups. Melamine for inexpensive individual whiteboards can be purchased at places like Lowe's.
- Jigsaw is another method of cooperative learning. In this activity, students are divided into initial groups that each research a topic and become "experts". These groups then break up to form new groups that consist of one or two members from each of the "expert" groups. The "experts" then alternate teaching each other about their material. For example, thirty students can break into six groups of five, each of which studies a different portion of the material. After the research has been conducted, five new groups are formed, consisting of one member from each of the original six groups. Other methods of cooperative learning can be explored at this website .