Infectious Respiratory Disease

Teaching Strategies

The teaching strategies are from the Guided Language Acquisition Model (GLAD). Marcia Brechtel created visuals using color coding, repetitive input for English Language Learners, and Gifted students.

Comparative Input Chart

A comparative input chart is a poster of a teacher who created a pencil sketch of an illustration of two visuals. One side of the chart has a pencil sketch of a healthy lung, and the other side has a sick, tuberculosis-lung. The two visuals are introduced while the teacher uses color markers to color-code each section of the lung visuals, while inputting academic vocabulary with the pictures. The teacher orally explains each part of the lung for ten minutes. The teacher stops explaining and asks the student to view the visual information and share what they have learned with other students.

After sharing, students share their learning orally by stating one fact they have learned. When a handful of students share, the teacher continues and completes the visual chart. Using color markers helps students remember the information, because our brains remember colors. Visuals reinforce that reinforce key content and vocabulary and support comprehension. Visuals are an aid to help students write comparative paragraphs of text and narrative information.

Expert Groups

Expert groups are students divided into four groups using number heads, and each group is assigned a topic they research and learn about, then present their findings to their table groups. When students conduct their learning in their table groups, they learn to explain the information independently and become responsible for their learning. The numbered head student is the expert on their assigned topic. The topic of research is given to the number head students with color markers or pencils to record and mark their ideas and learn on paper. The number head students can sketch pictures, underline key words or concepts to assist them when they explain what they learned to their table team. The teacher guides what the number head students need to learn and say when they return to their table team. The topic for each number of head students is the four tribes with information about tuberculosis, location, research, history of diseases, history of the tribe, and its origins.

The teacher moves among the groups to monitor team discussions, clarify directions, check comprehension, provide scaffolding, and guide students while notetaking.

Process Grid

The process grid is a strategy used to assist students in summarizing and reporting out the focused information about multiple topics to complete each category. Students from their expert group assist their team in providing facts about the topic. For example, tribes affected by tuberculosis and specifics like location, tuberculosis history, medical research, and medical scientists present interesting facts. The grid is drawn on a chart paper with columns and rows. The first column lists the tribe names, and the other columns list the topics. The teacher called on the number heads (1,2,3, or 4) students and asked which part of the grid the student wanted to complete, then the teacher wrote in their answer. Number heads is a way to get different students to answer or respond to the given question or information. The teacher asks which part of the grid the team would like to complete, and then the students with the selected number respond to complete the grid.

This strategy has students work as a team to make sure every team member knows the answer to a chosen box in the grid. Number heads and using color markers ensure each team is accountable for their answers. The students explain to the teacher where the answer is found on the pictorial chart, expert group information, big book, cognitive dictionary, exploration report, or in the literature read. Below is an example of a process grid.

A completed grid shows students that the cluster and categories of a topic can be formatted into a paragraph. The Cooperative Strip Paragraph is the next strategy used to build from the process grid.

Cooperative Strip Paragraph

A cooperative strip paragraph has students within their teams write a sentence using a sentence strip using color markers. Students view the process grid to cluster the boxes to write a sentence about their chosen tribe. The team needs to make sure their sentence is written correctly for clarity, punctuation, and matches the topic sentence. As the teams complete their sentence, it is placed into the pocket chart. When all the teams input their sentences, they orally read all the sentences. The following day, the revision of sentences is demonstrated with the teacher and students, then using the editing checklist to mark and explain how the sentences connect, flow together, spelling and grammar corrections. The paragraph is revised by viewing other charts as resources to aid the editing process. Students have multiple opportunities to read and reread the paragraph orally while conducting the editing process. Students see how a paragraph is written. The final draft and be typed or handwritten by the students.