Praxis Teaching strategies

Anticipation guide

Pre-reading strategy used to see student’s prior knowledge as they read and respond to statements on key concepts and agree or disagree in discussions.

Concept Map

Visual organizer to help introduce a new concept. Helps to organize new information and make connection among ideas.

Exit Slip

A way for students to reflect on their learning of a lesson or reading assignment and helps gauge their understanding of it.

Jigsaw

Combining kinesthetic learning (movement) with small group discussions

K-W-L Chart

“What I know, What I want to learn, What I learned” Collaborative whole-class activity to help prepare for new topics, gives purpose when reading, and records learning after finishing. Best with informational texts.

Reciprocal teaching

Student-led small group discussion by summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. Students take turns in leading said discussion.

SQ3R

“Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review” An approach used to read an article or textbook chapter. First, they skim, then generate questions, then read, then answer their own questions and identity the main points, before reviewing it all as a whole in their own words.

Summarizing

Teaches how to identify the most important ideas in text and remember what has been read.

Think-Alouds

This is the teacher sharing their thoughts through a reading of part of a text. It includes observations and how they aid in their comprehension of the text to model for students.

Think-Pair-Share

Sometimes includes a Write step as the second part. Cooperative activity that has students responding to a prompt or addressing a topic alone then in pairs. Helps in many areas and can even improve whole-class discussions.

Pragmatic Approach

This approach encourages the use of practical, hands-on activities for students, emphasizing grammar, spelling, mechanics, and “correctness” in writing. The focus is on acquiring writing skills through exercises and writing prompts, vocabulary development, and mastery or formal, academic language. There is little recognition of the importance of the learner’s background or the context of writing. “Writing is a cognitive and procedural skill developed through imitation and repetition.”

Rhetorical Approach

This approach suggests that writing is a means to an end in terms of purpose, intending to achieve effective communication. Focused on the choices of an author, and writing is taught by successful examination of published works, specifically how the author manipulates diction and syntax, organizes the text, and controls the message to align their writing with their purpose. Emphasis on Audience, Exigence, and Purpose—especially as it informs argumentation. “Writing is a social practice embedded in rhetorical situations.”

Expressive Approach

Writing is seen as a tool of self-expression for the writer, a way to nurture the imagination and turn experience into wisdom. Creativity is emphasized under this approach, and teachers will often use visual materials such as paintings, photographs, journal writings, and or brainstorming to inspire students to write. There is less emphasis on argumentation and informational writing, and few writing exercises or worksheets. Meaning is valued over “correctness,” and student backgrounds become integral to the writing. “Writing is an expressive resource, especially for personal growth.”

Critical Literacy Approach

Also known as Social Justice Approach, it is practical in that it presumes that writing, or literacy in general, is a way to gain political power in a system stablished to oppress and limit one’s advancement in society. This approach links reading and writing, emphasizing political empowerment and social justice through writing. External texts are employed to be examined for their political meanings. Class discussion is highly valued and so is the backgrounds of students. ”Writing is a political activity.”

Cornell Notes

A kind of note taking with 2 collums, one of general notes, the other with questions and key concepts, and the bottom with a summary of the lecture.

CRAFT Writing

Context-Role-Audience-Format-Topic. A write-to-learn strategy for integrating writing into a classroom. Encourages students to filter their understanding and reformulate it from a different perspective.

SPAWN Writing

Special powers, Problem solving, Alternate viewpoints, What IF?, and Next. These are the five categories of prompts teachers can use in the classroom to promote writing. Typically short and informal.

Split-Page notetaking

This strategy provides a structure for students to create logically organized notes that can be easily referenced in the future. It also promotes active reading and listening. After creating a header at the top, students draw a vertical line down the page, left is sub-topics of lesson, right is information about the sub topics.

Echo reading

A teacher expressively reads a portion of a text to students who then reread the same portion while mimicking the teacher’s intonation and fluency.

Choral Reading

A teacher and their students read expressively together (watching for intonation and fluency).

Fishbowl Discussion

A small group discussion within a large group, gives a way for students to process a text or address a topic orally. Within a whole class, a small group of students (usually four) sits in the center of the room and responds to prompts by the teacher. The outside students take notes on the important parts brought up in the discussion. A modification can allow outside students to jump into the center to make comments. This discussion helps students process information cooperatively.

Popcorn Review

This approach is useful for sharing important facts and details about a topic or text. Students stand and recite a fact from the text then sit back down while another student stands up and provides another detail or challenges the veracity of the previous student. This way they hold one another accountable for their learning and the activity combines kinesthetic and cooperative learning in a whole-group context.

Peer Review

A useful tool to encourage cooperative learning in the classroom and promote critical thinking. Best done with complex assignments like formal writing or presentations. Make sure to limit the scope of the student’s review with guidelines to help positively provide results and revisions for one another.

Presentations

A common way students can be evaluated orally. Make sure to communicate the criteria for success and give advice on talking to an audience. Also works well with peer feedback and self-evalutation.

Holistic Rubric

A set of interdependent criteria that must be met to achieve a certain level of success. This is a weakest link approach in which if any criterion is lacking then the whole product suffers and the grade is lowered. Often on a broad spectrum of grading like A, or smaller number scale rather than 100 points. Though while this is easy to use and are reliable, they don’t provide a lot of feedback to students.

Analytic Rubric

Breaks down the criteria for success into categories, identifying a number of points to describe the student’s level of success. Final grade is often on a 100-point scale: the sum of the points earned in each category. Provides a more precise grade and break down to achievement into specific categories to help students. However, the grades are less reliable and takes longer, plus too many categories can confuse students.

Hybrid Rubric

A mixture of analytic and holistic. This breaks down success into broad categories, but within each category success is graded as a whole and all criteria must be bet to achieve the next level of success.

Socratic Seminar

A formal, student-led discussion that attempts to explore a subject deeply and critically. This can address a topic, text, or an Essential Question that drives a unit of instruction. They can be ungraded and used to provide feedback in the middle of a unity OR summative and used to provide a final grade at the end of a unit. Students can be evaluated based on the quality and/or quantity of their comments as well as their demonstrated level of preparedness.

Writing Portfolio

A way for students to demonstrate their success over time. Students select writing samples from their own work over time and comment on their own growth as writers. Promotes critical thinking and self-reflection. Often done in combination with writing goals that are established and gives guidelines for students to reflect upon in their critical commentary.