home


 * = ==Strategy == ||= ==Description == ||= ==Purpose == ||= ==Grade ==

Level
||= ==Effectiveness == ||= ==Key Features == || ||
 * < === Frayer Model === ||<  Concept map variant. Subject occupies center of an area divided into four quadrants, labeled: Essential Characteristics; Nonessential Characteristics; Examples; Nonexamples. //Download// model. ||< Cognitive strategy. To visually organize and extend knowledge about one subject. ||< 4+ ||<   Frequently used in support of language learning, but highly effective at promoting conceptual understanding of any subject. Supports both vertical and lateral exploration of governing principles.  ||< <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Graphic organizer focuses thinking on core principles and relationships. Highly versatile. Great for brainstorming, checking prior knowledge, building knowledge depth, assessing progress.
 * ===<span style="color: #8d8d01; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ===

|| <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> (Also: Think Time.) The time a teacher provides for students to respond to questions. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Engagement strategy aims to promote a greater degree of student involvement with material during class meetings and to encourage more frequent responses from more students. ||= <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> K+ || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Extending wait time can increase: the length of student responses, the number of unsolicited responses, the frequency of student questions, the number of responses from students who are less inclined to respond, and interaction among students. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> If students know they have time to gather their thoughts as they answer questions, they'll feel safer being with peers and working in the classroom. Judicious use of wait time also shifts the "center of learning gravity" from teacher to student in the way that students are //first// urged to dig deeply and play around with their knowledge for themselves. ||
 * ===<span style="color: #8d8d01; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ===

<span style="color: #8d8d01; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Process Log
|| <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> A student journal for the purpose of writing about individual methods employed in their reading, writing and problem-solving activities. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Metacognitive strategy aims to focus attention on and expand awareness of learning processes in order to develop metacognitive skills. ||= <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> 6+ || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Supporting student reflection of their own learning practices increases their sense of command of their own "learning vessel" and invites a deeper appreciation of the responsibility that each student has for shaping their own knowledge. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Metacognitive skill development is not commonly incorporated into curricula, but self-awareness of learning strategies is a common feature among effective thinkers and experts. Sharing process logs helps everyone by enabling consideration and appraisal of alternative methods of work. ||
 * ===<span style="color: #8d8d01; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ===

|| <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Group exploration of a real-world scenario that presents a problem-solving opportunity. All information relevant to a solution is embedded in the story. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Situated learningaims to engage a group of learners in //collective// analysis and problem-solving processes within a //realistic// context. ||= <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> K+ || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Realistic stories invite greater participation from concrete thinkers, but present to every learner an experience similar to that of a novice encountering the types of dilemmas that professionals face in real-life. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Stories are often presented in multi-media formats making it an ideal differentiated strategy. The story's dilemma is given to a group to explore and solve together, allowing for multiple strategies of group work and promoting debate, discussion and conversation. ||
 * ===<span style="color: #8d8d01; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ===

<span style="color: #8d8d01; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Tic-Tac-Toe Menu
|| <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> A 3x3 grid with activities numbered 1-9. Students choose at least three activities to do in a tic-tac-toe design. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Differentiated activity offers students choices about what kinds of work they can do to meet requirements and also invites them to work beyond those requirements. ||= <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> 4-8 || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Playful design is very user friendly. Students are more willing to engage activities that they choose themselves according to their own tastes or just their inclinations that day. Being able to pick some and reject others promotes a sense of control over learning experiences. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Activities should be designed to appeal to multiple intelligences and different learning stylesso that the choices being offered constitute a set of real options for diverse learners. Seems like a great way to introduce a project since having different opportunities for entry may invite interest and spark enthusiasm from different students all at once. ||
 * ===<span style="color: #8d8d01; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ===

<span style="color: #8d8d01; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Jigsaw
|| <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Each student in a "home" group independently researches a particular area of a topic, then returns home to share new knowledge about that area with the group. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Cooperative learning strategy designed to have students work both independently and collectively in order to gather and share information about complex subjects. ||= <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> 4+ || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Positions learners at the center of their own learning thus encouraging a greater sense of student responsibility for that learning. Partitioning of subject creates opportunities to learn in greater depth about subjects that would otherwise be too complex for meaningful individual inquiry. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Every student becomes an essential component (a jigsaw piece) of a larger picture. Students learn to trust and pay close attention to the work of colleagues. Also, in a true jigsaw, each student collaborates with like "experts" from every other group in order to share and refine their same-subject research before returning with a knowledge report to their home group. ||
 * ===<span style="color: #8d8d01; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ===

|| <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Asking probing, higher-level questions, i.e., those designed to engage students in <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">higher-order thinking <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> as opposed to recall-level recitation. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">As a formative assessment, questioning aims to reveal the presence and quality of conceptual understanding and also the means by which learners reach conclusions. As a cognitive strategy, questioning aims to foster critical thinking and a community of thoughtful inquirers. ||= <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> 6+ || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Focuses students on their role as active builders of their own knowledge. Carefully designed questions are highly effective as quick, spontaneous, measures of where students' thinking is located and how that thinking is able to move within a particular conceptual domain and among related domains. Highly versatile assessment because questioning is determined by material and conversations //happening now//. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Higher-level questioning stimulates more intellectual behavior (Bloom) besides simply recalling collected knowledge and so students are encouraged first, to //understand// what knowledge they actually have and second, to<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> //play// with it in creative, adventurous ways. ||
 * ===<span style="color: #8d8d01; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Peer Assessment ===

|| <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Students evaluate each others assessments before releasing the materials back to their teacher. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Formative assessment that aims to signal progress towards goals and verify correct learning of subject content while also encouraging consideration among students of each other as resources in support of that learning. ||= <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> 4+ || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Draws students in as active participants in their own education by focusing their attention on progress, methods, quality of work, and metacognitive aspects of learning. Works well especially when students are involved in other decisions of education processes, e.g., goal setting, demonstration options, and success criteria. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Divides the responsibility for keeping track of progress more evenly among students and teacher, fostering community among colleagues. Assessment becomes more of an integrated feature in each student's learning. ||
 * ===<span style="color: #8d8d01; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Demonstration ===

|| <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> A performance-based demonstration of a real-world activity. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Summative assessment that aims to demonstrate the learning that a student has acquired over the course of instruction via performance of some concrete activity. ||= <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> 4+ || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Very effective means for an individual to illustrate competence, knowledge and skill mastery in a more realistic setting, i.e., concrete and real-world, big picture true, especially given that the individual does not perform well on tasks that are intended to illustrate the same abilities but by more abstract means and under possibly more stressful circumstances. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> Demonstration is a form of authentic assessment that allows for the validation of skills and competencies in the very arena in which people employ those skills and competencies in accomplished activity. This is an important alternative for individuals whose intelligence cannot be readily shown under certain conditions. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">
 * ===<span style="color: #808000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Portfolio === || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">A cumulative, edited body of work intended to showcase a student's learning experience over time. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Summative assessment designed to be a record of a student's accomplishments over the course of instruction for the purpose of appraisal of that record. || <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;">K+ || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Provides teachers, parents and any interested evaluator with good evidence of involvement with material, comprehension, progress towards goals and quality of effort. Comprehensive nature effectively renders each individual's arc of development. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">A great opportunity for learners to reflect on their progress and take pride in their effort and achievement. Provides a big picture overview of the school experience and promotes a greater sense of students' central role in their own learning. ||
 * ===<span style="color: #808000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> WebQuest === || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">An inquiry-based lesson designed to be conducted entirely, or substantially, on the web. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Integrated technology strategy that aims to direct learners' attention to specific web-based resources in order to process information mined there and thereby work towards the solution of a given problem or mystery, i.e., do "the task." ||= <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> 4+ || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">WebQuests are motivating and fun! Excellent UDL strategy for students with learning disabilities as the web can provide information in various media formats. WebQuests are meticulously designed: students are directed to sources of information that they can analyze and use, i.e., they spend their time //using// information rather than //looking// for information. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">"Roles" are assigned to individuals in a WebQuest group, promoting collaborative methods of inquiry and problem solving. Process stimulates Bloom's intellectual behaviors: analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. ||
 * ===<span style="color: #808000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Computer Simulations === || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Computer-generated models of real-world objects or processes, e.g., a wind turbine or virus growth within a human population. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Integrated technology strategy that aims to engage students with real-world experiences in vivid ways not otherwise possible. ||= <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> 6+ || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Computer simulations make for a very effective means of promoting conceptual change, i.e., replacing misconceptions with well-established concepts, and skill development, especially math and science skills. || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Dramatic renderings of real-world features made from humanly impossible vantage points makes computer simulations a powerful, highly engaging learning tool. Their multi-media design provides differentiated instruction. ||