Classroom Activities & Teaching Strategies
Anchor Charts will be used daily. We will create them as we go. They will serve as visual reminders for key concepts and ideas that we discuss and are important for our unit. Students will refer to them frequently and often. As we dig deeper into our unit, students will use their dialectical journal each day in response to the chapters that we read. They will have to quote directly from the text and respond to the quote they selected. They will have to remain within whatever chapter we are working on but they have freedom to choose what they want to respond to. In responding to the text students have to make a connection from the text to self, text to text or text to world. I will provide relevant feedback to each student based on their response.
Students will also engage in using a variety of protocols throughout the unit. One protocol that we will use is the stop light protocol. After reading the directions for an activity or closely reading, students will use their stoplight protocol to let me know if they understand the directions or what they just read from the text.
Another protocol that we will use is something that I call Robinson’s Carousel. Students really enjoy this! They have the opportunity to walk around and answer questions that are posted on adhesive chart paper around the classroom. They can also respond to each other on the chart paper. This activity works very well with students who need frequent movement breaks. This allows them to move but with purpose.
Students will also engage in the Think-Pair-Share protocol. This protocol allows students to think on their own, pair up with a partner and share out to the entire group. Think-Pair-Share is one of my favorite protocols to use because students must begin thinking independently before they can partner up with a classmate.
Another strategy that is super important for my students is close reading. Students will read closely to determine the meaning of words and understand what the text is saying. Close reading allows the students to analyze the text in a chunked format. The smaller chunks allow time for them to dissect the information presented to them.
One of my favorite personal strategies that I will implement is something that I call, “Fix It Up Fridays.” Students are able to bring any work or their daily dialectical Journals if they want to correct it to our small group when it is their turn on Fridays. They have the opportunity to “fix up” any assignments from the week to earn a higher grade. This has a tremendous impact on their confidence and work ethic.
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