8. Instructional Strategies
“The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.”
Standard Components
Methods
Teachers need a wide variety of skills in facilitation and an arsenal of diverse means of delivering instruction to effectively guide student learning. My methodology involves trying lots of new evidence-supported activities, and then investing further into the ones that move the needle the most.
Relevancy
When making decisions about where in the content to dive deeper, I look for connections that are relevant to my students and their lives. My first priority is always student buy-in because when students are genuinely curious to know and understand, teaching is the easiest job in the world. Making the content matter to my students is step one everytime I introduce something new.
Real World
My utmost goal as an educator is to contribute expert problem-solvers to society; the creative thinkers that will help us mitigate climate change and navigate global conflicts. At the core of any standards-based content I am teaching, are skill-building lessons that allow students to think about and tackle real problems.
meeting the standard
When it comes to the strategies I use to deliver content to my students and get them to engage with it, the foundation of everything I do is based on the nervous system. I know that in order to learn, my students must have a sense of safety. I also know that as mammals, one of the strongest cues of safety I can give to help my students’ be receptive to my instruction is - play.
The power of play is a well-documented phenomenon and one I have witnessed in my home and classroom. When learning is fun, not only is school just more enjoyable for everyone, but more learning takes place. I bring play into the classroom in three key ways, making activities social, making them tangible and capitializing on student interests and culture.
Playful learning is not all fun and games though. A huge component of successful play in the classroom is strong classroom management. Inviting students to engage in high energy activities or use specific materials goes hand in hand with providing clear expectations and holding strong boundaries around acceptable behavior. In the case of my large, somewhat rowdy sophomore class, I chose to withhold the most popular activity amongst my juniors because I worried the fun would override the learning.
Gamifying content and incorporating play into our everyday learning makes teaching fun, rewarding and I believe is a huge reason why my students' faces light up when I wander over to the high school and say hello.
