Spectrum Teaching Strategy

Are you looking for a fun strategy to get your students out of their seats? This activity is especially great for kinesthetic learners.  It will also help both the teacher and the students to "see" the opinions of others. This is a strategy to be used when asking for student opinions on a topic or question. 

Below are the steps to implement the "Spectrum" activity in your classroom;

Step 1: Place a line across the whiteboard or a piece of masking tape on the floor, from wall to wall in front of the room.

STEP 2: Label one end "Strongly Agree" and the other end "Strongly Disagree".

STEP 3: Students line up according to an opinion on a topic.

* other label ideas could be "Most Important/Least Important". "Greatest Effect/Least Effect"

STEP 4: Call on specific students or volunteers to explain the reason they are standing where they are on the spectrum. 

Below are some of my teaching resources you can use this strategy with:

Political Ideologies Spectrum

8th Amendment Punishment Debate

Big Five Personality Comparison

Prayer in School Debate

Constitution Influence on Political Systems

Democrats v Republican - What are the Differences?

Causes of the American Revolution EKG Timeline

Freedom of Religion - 1st Amendent Freedom

Happy Teaching!

Social Studies Super Bundles

Are you constantly spending time searching for updated social studies materials? Or, are you always trying to find ways for students to have FUN while learning social studies content? Is there an anxious feeling while trying to differentiate for each student? Don’t worry, you are not alone! It can be so hard to find engaging content that will work for all students. Thankfully, there are Social Studies Super Bundles ready for purchase. However, these bundles are so amazing that they won’t be available forever. The Social Studies Super Bundles are only available from June 13th-June 20th. The bundles are so amazing that you are going to want to set your calendar reminder now!

Benefits of Available Bundles

Sometimes, people are hesitant to purchase bundles due to the higher upfront cost. There is often concern over the quality of all of the resources and if this justifies the cost. Thankfully, the Social Studies Super Bundles are filled with 100+ high-quality printable and digital resources. All of the activities are fun, engaging, worthwhile lessons! Even better, the bundles are only $20 during this exclusive sale! 

After purchasing, huge stress will be lifted due to spending less time planning. HOURS of your time will be saved with these ready-to-go resources! Even better, all of the resources bring in updated and innovative teaching strategies. For example, students will be playing digital games, moving to stations, using Boom Cards, and completing web searches. Therefore, you will be able to read the book on your list, catch up on TV, play with your kids, or take a much-needed nap. After purchasing these bundles, say goodbye to stressing over lesson planning! 

Video URL(embed it)- https://youtu.be/G6J5u1u0wYc  

American History Bundle

The incredible resources here will cover a variety of topics. Therefore, one $20 bundle will be spread across the entire year! Hence, teachers will never have to worry about not having an engaging lesson ready to go. More importantly, each lesson includes a component on anti-racism education, which is so important in the world today! Therefore, students are learning about history while working to create a better future. Some of the topics include The Cuban Missile Crisis, Hamilton’s Financial Plan, and The American Revolution. Each lesson includes innovative teaching strategies in order to encourage and inspire all students. Over 48 products included in this package! 

Ancient Civilization and World History Bundle

Sometimes, students have trouble understanding why the past is so important to learn about. Therefore, this $20 bundle will bring in creative ways to show students how current societies learn from ancient civilizations. To do this, students will learn about many topics, such as the Fall of Rome and different religions. As above, there is also an anti-racism focus in order to help foster supportive communities. The 34 activities all bring in creative teaching strategies to offer full engagement. 

Government Bundle

Due to the different branches and legal components, Government can be a really hard topic to understand. There is just so much to learn! Hence, this $20 bundle has 40+ activities that will break down complex topics in addition to an anti-racism focus. For instance, students will learn about presidents, the Constitution, and Supreme Court cases. Just like the above, all of the activities are high-quality and filled with current teaching methods. Over 31 products included in this package. 

When buying these bundles for only $20 each, tremendous stress will be lifted from your plate! Since multiple sellers came together to create these incredible bundles, they won’t be around for long. You can save hundreds of dollars and hours of time, but this is only offered from June 13th through June 20th at 11:59 PM. This is a one-time opportunity, so be sure not to miss out!

Happy teaching,

Exit-Slips/Ticket-Out-The-Door TEACHING STRATEGY

At the end of each lesson, do you often ask yourself if your students understood the lesson?  What ways and how often do you check for understanding? One of the most popular strategies for many teachers is Exit Slips or Tickets-Out-The-Door. This strategy is used to help students process the information and reflect on what they learned. They also incorporate writing and make quick formative assessments. 

Exit slip questions may fall into these specific categories:

1. Prompts that demonstrate knowledge of a topic. 

    *Ex. Write three things you learned from today's lesson. 

    *Ex. Explain one idea that you found the most interesting. 

2. Prompts that make students critically think about the lesson.

    *Ex. One idea I need clarified is...

    *Ex. One question I have about the topic is...

Other questions you may ask:

*What made learning easy for you today?

*What made learning difficult for you today?

*What do you still need to know before we move on?

*What did you learn today?

*What should our next step be?

How to use this strategy:

1. At the end of the lesson or a few minutes before class ends, ask students to respond to a prompt you created beforehand. 

2. Distribute small pieces of scratch paper or sticky notes, or have students complete a digital version if your classroom is paperless. Be sure they include their name. 

3. To exit the class or to be excused, students must turn in their Exit Slip. I usually stand by the door and quickly review each slip. I then place the papers in two piles; "they got it" or "they need more clarification."  If I see that many students did not understand the topic or have more questions, I spend a few minutes the next day to reteach. If students use a digital version, I give students a point from 1-5. One means they did not understand the lesson, Five means they understood the major concepts, and reteaching is unnecessary. 

If you are looking for some fun formative assessments, click HERE. 

I hope you found this post useful. Click HERE to grab over 70 teaching strategies for FREE! 

Happy Teaching, 

DISTANCE LEARNING Teaching Strategies

Distance learning is no joke! I feel like I'm spending so much more time teaching online than I did in the classroom. Anyone else feel the same?

In this post, I wanted to share some of the distance learning strategies I currently use that might make your teacher-life a little easier.

1. Think of yourself more like a coach than a teacher. I'm sure we can all agree, online learning is much different than classroom learning. You are essentially having your student fly a plane while you are in the tower. It's up to you to help them land the plane.

2. Don't feel obligated to use Zoom or some other video conferencing app. with your students. In fact, it's much better to use video conferencing to help answer questions or clarify directions than it is to teach.

3. Consider screencast and record yourself giving direct instruction. You don't need to be live. I have also found many great videos on YouTube to replace my direct instruction. Students will also have the option to pause and rewind if necessary.

4. Have your students participate in online, class discussions. Here are a few ideas:

• In Google Classroom you can assign a "question" and select the option, "students can reply to each other"
• Create a Google "sheet". Be sure to change the share settings to "anyone can edit". Type a section for students to write their names and answer a question. This allows students to see responses from all the students in the class. 
• Use Zoom "Break-Out" rooms 
• Have students share the same Google Doc. 

5. If you use Google Classroom, instead of spending the time to open each student's assignment individually open all students' assignments at once. Simply open the assignment folder in your drive and you'll see all the assignments at once. Save a ton of time!

6. For your struggling students, you can differentiate instruction in several ways. 

• Insert sentence frames directly into only those students who need a little extra help. 
• Use Newsela.com to differentiate reading passages.
• To give a differentiated assignment to only a few students follow these directions: 
•  When creating an assignment in Google Classroom instead of selecting all students, select only those students you wish to give the assignment to. 

7. Use Google Calander to make appointments with individual students to help clarify instruction and answer specific questions.

8. Use GoFormative.com to insert questions into text. This will help assess student learning as they read instead of after they finish reading the entire passage. 

9. Use a lot of white space in online reading passages. Students learn 25%  slower than using a paper copy. Short paragraphs with a lot of white space will make it much easier for students to learn.

10. Be patient. Although most students are very familiar with technology, they may need a little extra time and patience to get used to learning from a distance!

The majority of my TpT resources are now digital. Go grab some freebies HERE to make distance learning even easier.

Happy Teaching!

LINES OF COMMUNICATION Teaching Strategy

Lines of Communication teaching strategy is one of my favorites! It gets the students out of their seats and most importantly communicating with their classmates. Follow the easy instructions below to implement this fun activity into your classroom.

1. Have students get into two lines. Each student faces another student. You may want to consider having the students go outside since you will need a lot of space.
2. Next, have students discuss important ideas, debate a topic, or review the main ideas from a lesson.
3. Once both partners have shared, have one line move in the same direction to the next student and repeat the process. Below are some ideas I use in my classroom.

I have my Civics students debate the death penalty after they read this informational text.

Death Penalty

In my World History class, I have my students learn about the Enlightenment Philosophers and discuss the question: Which Philosopher was the most significant in the development of democracy and why?

Enlightenment Philosophers

In my U.S. History class, my students have a blast debating the question, "Who started the Cold War?" before or after they write a DBQ.

Who Started the Cold War?

And, in my Psychology class, my students discuss the different theories of Personality after completing this graphic organizer:

Theories of Personality

Check out my TpT store HERE for more fun ideas!

Happy Teaching,
Chalk Dust Diva

TALKING CHIPS Teaching Strategy

In my secondary classroom, I implement discussion as much as possible. It's important for students to practice developing and communicating their opinion. However, sometimes when I request that groups talk with each other either no one speaks, or one person dominates the entire conversation. Talking-Chips is an excellent strategy to make sure all group members have a chance to talk...and be heard.

Directions for Talking Chips: 
STEP 1:  Place students in small groups. I use groups of four students.
STEP 2: Pose a question for students to discuss. I usually pose an opinion-type question about the current unit of study. For example, as a history teacher, I might ask,

"If you were President of the United States what would be your recommendations to combat the Great Depression?"
or
"What do you think is the most important right in the first amendment?"

STEP 3: Each member is given a "chip" ( a small piece of construction paper or a real "chip")
STEP 4: Each student takes turns "talking" by placing their "chip" into the center of the table.
STEP 5: The first person to talk may only talk at that time - and may not speak again until all group members have placed their "chip" in the middle.
Repeat process

Have you tried using this teaching strategy in your classroom? What questions did you ask your students?

I hope you found this teaching strategy helpful. To get a list of over 70 teaching strategies for FREE click HERE!

Happy Teaching!

FINAL WORD Teaching Strategy

This student-centered activity will get your students talking! The Final Word teaching strategy is a great way for your students to practice expressing their opinions as well as practice listening skills. It can be used for any subject, grade level, and topic. Check-out the steps below to implement this fun strategy in your classroom tomorrow!

STEP 1: Divide the class into groups of four.
STEP 2: Give each group a controversial statement or question.
STEP 3: Students prepare their arguments prior to the activity.
STEP 4: Students create a quad chart and label each square A, B, C, D and assign each student a letter.
STEP 5: Student A talks for one minute about their prepared arguments while students B, C, D take notes and creates questions.
STEP 6: Student B then has a minute to discuss, ask questions, and make comments about what student A said. Students C and D will do the same.
STEP 7: Student A then states their "final word" answering questions and restating their arguments.
STEP 8: Continue the process for students B, C, and D.

To get 70 engaging teaching strategies for FREE click HERE!

Happy Teaching!

Clock Partners Teaching Strategy

Are you looking for a fun and creative way to set up partners in your classroom? This is one of my favorite strategies: Clock Partners.

By setting up a conversation structure using clock times, this activity encourages a range of student interactions.

The teacher distributes a "clock face" handout to each student with spaces to write partner names at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00. Then have the students walk around the room and make "appointments" with other students that they will take with at a later time.

·          This strategy requires students to get up and move around the room to dialogue with students not directly near them.

·         Not all clock appointments need to be facilitated at once – maybe for one activity use 3:00, another 9:00.  Also, appointments can be standing for a period of time. 

Note: Avoid using this strategy when strategic student pairing is critical to the outcome of the activity.

Click HERE to get a FREE Clock Template 

Looking for more creative teaching strategies? Click HERE!

Happy Teaching!

THINK-PAIR-SHARE Teaching Strategy

Research shows that the most effective teachers ask an average of 24 questions (at all levels) during a 50-minute period; the least effective asked an average of 8.6 questions.

Think-Pair-Share is a great strategy to incorporate questions into any lesson. Just follow the instructions below:

The teacher will ask a question to the entire class and give at least 3-5 seconds to have the students think about the answer. Then the students share their answers with a partner. The teacher will then randomly call on a few students to share their answers in front of the class. This can be done throughout a lesson to check for understanding. I usually make sure the my students answer in complete sentences using academic language. 

For every unit I post a "Word Wall" so my students have something to refer throughout the lesson. Get a FREE Word Wall HERE!

If you are looking for more engaging teaching strategies click on the HERE!

Happy Teaching!

Fun Games and Review Strategies for the Secondary Classroom

I don't know about you, but I love to play games! I love competition so much that I started a monthly game night in my neighborhood. My favorite day to teach is the day before the test - review day! Are you looking for some new and engaging review games for your secondary classroom? Here are some of my favorites!

1. Bingo: I put a twist on this old-time favorite. I don't  call out the term, but I define the term and the students will have to find the correct answer on their bingo sheet! On the back of the sheet is a list of definitions. Once the term is chosen, the students write the term next to the definition. They can then take the review sheet home to study.

2. The SNAKE Game: This is one of my favorite's! It's also a great way to find out who is prepared for the test and who is not. In a nutshell, the teacher asks a question and the students write their answer on a piece of paper. For those students who do not have the correct answer, they stay seated. If they do have the correct answer they move to the next available seat. The first to pass their seat is the winner! (You can see more detailed directions HERE)

3. Cold Potato: Just like "hot potato" but opposite! Students sit in a large circle. The teacher asks a question.  As the music plays the students rotate a potato, or a kleenex box, or a ball of tape (whatever works). When the teacher stops the music, the student who is holding the "potato" has a chance to answer the question. If they are correct, they get an extra credit point!

Check out more of my "Fun Games and Review Strategies" HERE!

 

Let the games begin!

Numbered Heads Teaching Strategy

Are you looking for a different way to check for understanding from your students? Numbered Heads is a fun and copperative stragegy that makes sure that all students participate. Here are the easy steps:

STEP 1: Have students number off in teams, one through four. If your students are already in teams, assign each student a different number in their team.
STEP 2: Then ask a series of questions, one at a time. It could be review questions, questions to check for prior knowledge, even questions to ask their opinion about something.
STEP 3: Have the students in each group discuss possible answers for about 30 -90 seconds.
STEP 4: Call a number (1-4), and the students with that number either raise their hand or stand up, ready to respond.
STEP 5:  Then randomly call on students with the specified number to answer the on behalf of their group.
STEP 6: Continue to ask questions until the review session is over.

CLICK HERE to see more review strategies.

Happy Teaching!

IDEA WAVE Teaching Strategy

Are you looking for a fun activity to check for understanding? Here is a great teaching strategy the entire class can participate in. Read below for the directions for an IDEA WAVE. 

After students learn about a specific topic each student shares ideas they learned about that topic.

·         A volunteer begins the “idea wave” by sharing one idea.

·         The students to the right of the volunteer shares one idea; the next student to the right shares one idea.

·         The teacher directs the flow of the “idea wave” until several different ideas have been shared. 

At the end of the formal "idea wave, " a few volunteers who were not included can contribute an idea.

To put a twist on the idea wave, ask all students to stand and share information they learned about the topic. Tell the students that they must speak in complete sentences using academic langauge. (I post word walls for every unit for students to refer to). I say to the class, "the person who goes first is the person who is speaking". They cannot repeat information that someone else has already said, so they need to listen carefully. The goal for the students is not to be the last person standing. 

This is a great way to assess your student's knowledge about any topic and then be able to reteach information if necessary. 

To see more teaching strategies click HERE!

Happy Teaching!

Chalk Dust Diva