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Level Up Your Teaching with 6 Unique Instructional Strategies
Teaching in the modern age is EXHAUSTING. It seems like students’ attention spans are getting shorter by the year, and there’s overwhelming pressure to keep up with the latest and greatest instructional strategies. How are you supposed to plan your lessons, grade papers, teach kids, AND brush up on the latest research while still managing to go to bed on time?!
Well, here’s one idea: let my pals and I do the research for you. In fact, you don’t even have to say anything–we’ve already taken that liberty! In an effort to keep your upper elementary classroom running smoothly and save you lots of time, myself and a few teacher-author friends have come together to share our favorite research-backed instructional strategies that you can apply to your classroom TODAY.
Let’s not waste any time: keep reading to check out these six unique instructional strategies below the break. Oh, and just so you know… I think there’s a freebie to pick up along the way, too! 😉
The Six Instructional Strategies
✏️ Marissa from Creative Classroom Core likes to use text mapping to help students understand complex text. Through this hands-on approach, students learn to mark up text while practicing key reading strategies like questioning and visualizing.
Instead of relying on conventional textbooks, Text Mapping takes a unique approach by using large paper scrolls. In this method, students receive their assigned reading materials and carefully piece together the pages using tape, resulting in an impressive scroll that spans across the classroom floor. This innovative approach offers students a comprehensive perspective of the text, in contrast to flipping through individual pages. The panoramic presentation of the complete text encourages students to make connections throughout the entire lesson.
With the entire text laid out before them, instead of just a pair of open book pages, students can grasp the information as a unified whole, enabling them to focus on the bigger picture rather than isolated fragments. For more information on this unique instructional approach or for more instructional strategies, check out the Creative Classroom Core blog!
✏️ Carla from Comprehension Connection‘s background is in upper elementary and reading intervention. For many of her students, explicit teaching of comprehension skills starts with using mentor texts, anchor charts, and graphic organizers to model with the think aloud process. In this post about ways to create deep thinkers, she highlights using Think Aloud, Question-Answer Relationships, Reciprocal Teaching, and Close Reading. She also goes through the process of close reading here. In the post, she includes this FREE HANDOUT for her readers. It explains the close reading process for students.
Finally, one key teaching strategy that is a must is questioning. This post includes a variety of questioning techniques that you can use with any skill or subject including QAR, Question Stems, the 5W’s, thick and thin questions, and SQ3R. For other comprehension building strategies, check out Carla’s site Comprehension Connection for links to other comprehension posts and instructional strategies.
✏️ Amber from TGIF, an experienced teacher with 21 years in the profession, observes that upper elementary classrooms often face the challenge of making math engaging without resorting to dull worksheets. Drawing from her experience, she advocates for the incorporation of math crafts as a creative and enjoyable alternative. Amber believes that integrating these hands-on activities not only brings an element of fun to the learning process but also makes math lessons more meaningful for students. By encouraging hands-on learning, fostering creativity, and promoting collaboration, math crafts can play a pivotal role in helping students cultivate a more profound understanding of mathematical concepts and refining their problem-solving skills.
✏️ As an upper elementary teacher, Vanessa from Longwing Learning shares her go-to strategies to level up your teaching with these unique instructional strategies for teaching poetry. Many students like reading poetry because it’s short, yet they often find it challenging to understand due to the use of figurative language and other poetic elements. Vanessa’s seven practical tips provide ideas on how to help students delve deeper into poetry in this blog post.
She emphasizes the importance of practice and engaging students in hands-on activities. From group analysis to independent practice, the strategies aim to develop students’ skills in understanding and appreciating the intricate layers of poetry. These teaching tips not only help students understand the author’s message but also foster a deeper appreciation for poetry.
✏️ Chrissy from Buzzing with Ms. B loves to use fun, hands-on activities for teaching everything, including vocabulary! Helping kids use academic vocabulary and build their expressive vocabularies is so important and it’s a huge indicator of success. Vocabulary Roll-a-Word is an engaging way to help kids practice vocabulary and it’s so easy to prepare! You just need dice, a Roll-a-Word key chart, and a list of vocabulary words. This is the key Chrissy uses for the game:
- Provide the Definition
- Connect it to the Real World
- Provide an Antonym
- Provide a Synonym
- Make a Quick Sketch
- Act it Out
Students can do this activity in pairs or groups. Have students start with the first word on the list. Roll the dice. Whichever side is facing up tells students what the need to do with the word. Students take turns, rolling the dice and following the directions on the list. They can record their responses on paper on the handout in this resource! Learn about three more fun vocabulary games and activities here, and grab the complete resource here to use these 10 different vocabulary activities for any word list with your students!
✏️ As for me here at The Owl Teacher, well… We are all familiar with the need for differentiation, and I’m sure you’ve heard of every differentiation strategy out there. In addition, through research, we’ve also seen that student choice is a HUGE motivator!
Certainly you’ve heard of and perhaps even implemented many instructional strategies and activities that allow for student choice, such as choice boards and menu activities. What I bring to you today, however, is a strategy! To reap the benefits of fully-optimized student choice in your classroom, plan ahead: decide on the end goal of your unit as well as the assignments and activities that will be required throughout. Then, communicate that end goal to your kiddos and allow them to complete these necessary tasks in the order THEY choose!
With this strategy, students learn content via reading material, videos, and so on. In addition, students are also allowed to move at their own pace, which in turn gives you time to meet in small groups and guide students to understanding. Making time for intervention is a LOT easier when your kiddos are engaging in student-led inquiry!
Whether you’re new to the wonderful world of teaching or you’re a seasoned veteran with decades of experience, there’s no denying that we can all benefit from time- and effort-saving instructional strategies in the classroom. From math to science to classic classroom management, my friends and I are here to help!
Which of these instructional strategies do you already use in your classroom? Which of them are you going to try next? Let us know below, and feel free to share any of your own ideas in the comments! And, while you’re here, don’t forget to sign up for my email list so you can be the first to know when we come up with new instructional strategies.
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