Infectious Respiratory Disease

Teaching Strategies

Vertical non-permanent surfaces (VNPSs)

Many of the activities in this unit have students working on the tasks while standing up on a vertical non-permanent surface (often a whiteboard).  This strategy is completely optional as all activities can be done at desks or tables.  Having students working while standing has been a way to increase motivation and time on task, especially tasks that require a lot of thinking and problem solving on a student’s end.  Activities, in this unit, will support the idea of prompts being displayed on vertical spaces in the classroom where students will brainstorm their responses directly onto the vertical space to then share during full classroom discussion. This is a strategy used from the Building Thinking Classrooms²⁴.  

Anticipate-Monitor-Select-Sequence-Connect

This strategy is from the 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematical Discussions.  During activities teachers monitor student’s work, looking for responses that will aid them in the sharing of student work in a logical way that leads to more enriched classroom discussions.²⁵

Math Talk

Math Talk is a strategy where students are first given time to think quietly and then lets the teacher know when they have an answer or a strategy (usually through a non-verbal signal). The teacher then chooses students to share the different strategies.  One good question that encourages multiple student’s input is to ask, “Who thought about it a different way?”  Record ideas so that all students can see.  The purpose of this task is to strengthen mathematical fluency²⁶.

Notice and Wonder

Notice and Wonder strategy will often be used at the beginning of a lesson and to introduce an activity.  Students are shown a visual, and students are asked the prompt, “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”  Students should have a few minutes to think of ideas for each prompt and then share them with a partner.  After which the teacher asks for students to share responses to then display for the class.  The purpose is to make a mathematical task more approachable to all students which will then help ignite their curiosity for the upcoming task²⁷.

Think-Pair-Share

Think-Pair-Share is a strategy where students are given quiet time to first think about a problem or task, work on it, and then share their ideas with a partner.  After partners have shared their ideas then they will share ideas with the class. The purpose is by giving students think time first they will have better access to the prompt when sharing their ideas with someone else²⁸.