Interactive+Strategies+-+December+7th+Follow-up

=Add your responses to the follow-up question below from our December 7th New Teacher Workshop.= Click on the edit tab above and add an example with a short description. Please include your name as well.

Share examples of interactive strategies you used to keep students cognitively engaged and challenged.
Cl assroom Example: I have students get up and move across the room to partner share. This gets them up and moving and helps them talk about my prompt with new energy. Karen Thorpe

PL Example: I used a structured response sheet for the lesson demo we had in our new teacher session. The form helps new teachers engage in the demo and focus on the key parts of the lesson that we would like to highlight. It also gives participants a chance to record their notes in similar ways to enhance discussion. Karen Thorpe

One interactive strategy I have used in class that the students seem to enjoy is blogging. I use this as a CFU and it allows them to get engaged into a debate with other students in the class regarding the topic at hand. This format also leads to quieter students becoming more involved in class discussion. Dan DeVore

I like to use Think/Pair/Share in my classroom. It allows students to have time to reflect individually, and get up and share ideas with a partner. I also like to use the Give-One-to-Get-One strategy. This strategy also allows students to get up and moving while sharing answers. Sonya Davis, 8th Grade Special Education Level I, Point

An interactive strategy I used to review atomic bonding was the "Ion Dating Game." Using chemical and physical traits of elements and their families, I prepared "profiles" on note cards for the students. Four students were given descriptions of different elements. Then they read them to the class. Using key words and word associations from their notes, the students had to predict which students would make the best pair and state why. The students become very engaged because, no longer were they learning science, but playing match maker for their classmates. My CFU was an exit slip with the students' answers. Ryan Rydstrom, 9th Grade Science, Point

I "borrowed" an activity called "Spy Homework" which involves students getting into groups, which I selected. Then, they choose a recorder, a spy, a mediator, and a board writer. The mediator keeps the team on topic, the recorder writes down the team's homework problem, the spy visits all other students to get their answers on the homework problem and the board writer will write the "compiled" answer on the board for all student to check. This worked really well on an assignment that was VERY important for students to understand. Each group gets a different problem to work/solve and then they can all check their assignment. Brooke Silbernagel, HS

To keep students in my Anatomy class engaged, from time to time I bring in body parts related to the area that we are studying for the students to examine. Students then get the opportunity to label the real life body parts.

Thanks to those of you who have contributed examples of interactive strategies you are using in your classroom. It is important to remember that these strategies are often very simple to manage and plan and need not be too complex. They are designed to **__focus attention and energy__** and help students __**engage in learning activities**__. Wendy Anderson showed us many examples of interactive strategies in her lesson demo. She used __**pair/share**__ for __social interaction__, a __**recording sheet**__ for each student, she used __**video with guiding questions**__, she used __**humor and relevant content**__ to name a few. Let's hear some more from you! Karen

One interactive strategy I use in my classroom is station rotation. Students rotate in small groups to various stations that relate to various concepts we are studying. One station may require students to connect to previous learning while another requires students to make connections with the real world. Each station keep students actively learning and engaged. Katie Anderson, Business teacher, Point

Like Karen said, the interactive strategies can be __very simple,__ but they are __planned in advance__ to promote student cognitive engagement. It usually takes very little or no additional preparation, but it is __intentionally planted throughout your lesson.__ In my teaching, if I ask learners read something, I might include interactive strategies such as highlight or put special coding on the margin of a page, Pair/share/Square, find a partner and do a one minute uninterrupted sharing etc. If I have learners listen to another person or watch a video, I often prepare a simple response sheet or give a note taking direction (ex. double entry note-taking) followed by a table talk. I often structure the table talk, meaning using a protocol to define who should start, how to rotate, how long each person should talk, what listeners should do etc, to make sure all voices are heard. Ying

One interactive strategy that I have used with 5th grade for a dictionary review lesson, is what I call " 3 person share". Using an organizer sheet, each group had three words to look-up using guide words. They had to rephrase the definition, use the word in a sentence, and illustrate a picture of their word. Each person had a 'job' they were responsible for: 1=reader, 2=recorder, 3=illustrator. BHaskin, Creek IMC