Experienced educators share short videos with effective strategies for anyone teaching or wishing to teach social studies.
Ashlee Lidyoff, an academic coach, shares the impactful strategy of “Building Rapport at the Door.” Greeting students by name as they enter your classroom fosters a positive and supportive learning environment. This technique, suitable for all grade levels, particularly benefits middle and high school students. It sets a tone of positivity, helps you connect with students, and allows for emotional check-ins, enhancing the overall classroom experience.
Join Emily Yamasaki, an instructional coach, in discovering “Possible Sentences,” an engaging pre-reading strategy suitable for grades 2 to 8. This no-prep approach helps students predict content and activate prior knowledge. Emily shares valuable tips to optimize this strategy, including word selection and post-reading activities, making it an efficient tool for your classroom.
Discover an exciting reading strategy with Judy Garey, an author and theater professor from Ventura College. Inspired by acting techniques, this approach delves into character evidence and biographies, bringing literature to life for middle and high school students. Enhance reading and writing skills while fostering a deeper connection with texts. Join Judy for creative teaching insights!
Explore “The Writing Roadmap” with Margit Boyesen, a second-grade teacher from Cardiff Elementary in Cardiff, California. This powerful tool guides students through the writing process, from drafts to revisions. Whether it’s a narrative or a research report, this roadmap ensures students stay on track.
Unleash the potential of “Think-Pair-Share” with Jan Ferrer, a seasoned teacher and consultant. This dynamic routine amps up class discussions, promoting active engagement, collaboration, and critical thinking. Jan’s approach adapts to any grade level, subject, or class size, making it a versatile tool for both traditional and virtual classrooms. Elevate your teaching game with this proven technique!
Join Carisa Barnes, a seasoned Literacy Instructional Coach, to unlock the secret to conquering challenging texts with her strategy, “Chunking a Text.” Perfect for teachers in grades six through twelve, this technique can elevate reading comprehension in various subjects. Learn how to set reading purposes, craft engaging questions, and make sentences more manageable.
Discover the “Four Corners” activity with teacher leader Jennifer Schafran. This versatile classroom technique encourages active engagement and builds trust and community. It can be a quick five-minute exercise or an extended lesson based on debatable statements. Watch your students discuss, listen, and even change their minds while making learning interactive and enjoyable.
Chris Lewis, an educator at Mountain View High School in El Monte, introduces the “See, Mean, Matter” strategy for analyzing political cartoons. This approach guides students through three steps: understanding the historical context, dissecting artistic techniques, and deciphering the cartoon’s message. This strategy enhances media literacy by helping students decode visual messages.
Kate Bowen, an experienced Elementary Consultant, shares an effective strategy called “Sentence Stretchers” to enhance students’ writing skills. Using four sentence strips labeled A, B, C, and D, students construct detailed sentences by adding descriptors and rearranging the strips for variety. This approach improves writing quality, engages students in creative sentence construction, and suits various grade levels.
Maria Montes Clemens, an elementary school Spanish teacher at Prospect Sierra, shares three classroom management strategies to help you create an orderly learning environment: the “Voice-O-Meter”, the “Give Me Five”, and the “Classroom Bell”.
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