Instructional Strategies

An Instructional strategy is the different approaches or structures you use to teach/coach the knowledge and/or skills necessary for meeting your lesson objectives.

Instructional Strategies

Introduction

An instructional strategies is the different approaches or structures you use to teach/coach the knowledge and/or skills necessary for meeting your lesson objectives.

Storytelling

Interactive/relatable storytelling is a form of lecturing. The teacher doesn’t just talk at the class about the various topics they need to cover, but instead keeps students engaged and interested. The content becomes more relatable to the students in their own lives. This is best used in a history classroom.

Video Depiction/Resource

Lecture

The teacher talks about the topic with little interaction with the students for long periods of time. Not interactive and almost treats the students as data dumps.

Video Depiction/Resource

Differentiated Instruction

Activities are changed based on students’ learning needs or barriers. Each activity is modified in a way that helps students to be successful in a targeted or tailored way. Differentiation is done through changes to the content (what is taught), the process (how teaching is conducted), the product (the assessment, or what students produce to demonstrate learning), and/or the learning environment of the classroom or setting.

Powerpoint/Slideshow

Teacher puts together set instructions and lesson on powerpoint slides and
teaches class using the powerpoint as a reference.

Think/Pair/Share

Students will be posed a question which they will think about individually, then discuss with partner, then in an open discussion with the class.Think pair share is useful when students
begin to develop their own ideas. I think this is something the teacher instructs them to do, but then from there the students take over and learn from each other.

Why isn’t “Think/Pair/Share” a learning activity?

Most of the time, a teacher’s intent in using this strategy is to have students think about something that was just taught. This seems more like a “check for understanding” of knowledge/content than a practice opportunity; a practice opportunity would likely need to be more substantive.

Another way of thinking about this: when have you ever done a think/pair/share and felt ready to complete a lesson assessment, just based on this strategy?

Gallery Walk

There are different types of gallery walks, and different ways to use this in classes. One
way is to generate or find a number of items to look at–artwork, pictures, and usually other types of visual sources–and students can move between these on their own. Perhaps they will use their observations to take notes, describe what they see, critique, or identify patterns or themes or characteristics from whatever is depicted.

Video Depiction/Resource

Couldn’t a Gallery Walk Be a Learning Activity?

Yes, but it depends on the teacher’s intent. Is the intent to share knowledge/content using the gallery walk? If a teacher’s intent is to share knowledge/content, then I would see this as an instructional strategy.

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