Effective Classroom Strategies to Create a StudentCentered Environment

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Effective Classroom Strategies to Create a
Student-Centered Environment

• Julie Neal
• Jessica Burch

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Overview

• Strategies to
• Improve test scores
• Improve homework grades
• Improve school environment
• Students will want to learn
• Less discipline will be needed
• Improve classroom effectiveness

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Constructivism

• Individuals make sense of new information by
  connecting it to prior knowledge
• Ideal way to personalize learning
• Effective method for reaching all students

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Constructivism

• Creating new knowledge requires at least 2 types
  of connections
• Cognitive
• Graphic organizers
• Looking ahead
• Recap of Major Ideas
• Personal
• Reflection
• Opinions

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Constructivist Strategies

• Knowledge inventory
• Find out what students know
• Develop lesson plans accordingly
• Draw connections to prior knowledge

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Setting Goals and Objectives

• Set high but reasonable goals
• Objectives in terms of student behavior
• Make objectives known to students

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4 Types of Learners

• Type 1 Innovative Learners
• Personal meaning
• Reasons for learning
• Type 2 Analytic Learners
• Acquire facts to deepen understanding
• Type 3 Common Sense Learners
• Hands-on to understand how things work
• Type 4 Dynamic Learners
• Self directed discovery

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4MAT System Model
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Understanding Students Problems

• Talker
• Troublemaker
• Defier
• Interrupter
• Class Clown
• Do Nothing

• Show Off
• Disrupter
• I Wont Do It
• I Dont Care
• Authority Pusher
• Hyperactive

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Actions to be Taken by Teachers

• Identify reasons of student behavior
• Identify students needs
• Methods to modify behavior

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Content Area Literacy/Learning Teaching Strategies

• Introduce a lesson
• Actively engage students during the body of a
  lesson
• Provide closure or concluding activities for a
  lesson

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Introductory CAL/LTS

• Prediction/Anticipation Guide
• KWL (Know, Want to know, Learned)
• Semantic Map
• Structured Overview
• Writing to Learn

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CAL/LTS for Body of Lesson

• QAR (Question/Answer Relationships)
• TAGs (Textbook Activity Guides)
• Writing to Learn

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CAL/LTS to Conclude a Lesson

• KWL
• Prediction/Anticipation Guide (After Column)
• Feature Analysis Grid
• Writing to Learn (Exit Slip)

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Instructional Strategies

• Summarizing
• Note Taking
• Identifying similarities and differences
• Nonlinguistic representations

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General Methods

• Discussion
• Fishbowl
• Debate
• Case Studies
• Simulation/Role-Play
• Student Inquiry

• Games
• Demonstrations
• Cooperative Learning
• Lecture Effectively

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Assessment

• Homework
• Emphasize practice
• Tests
• Blooms Taxonomy
• Understand missed questions

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Reinforcement and Recognition

• Reinforcing Effort
• Students do not understand importance of effort
• Students beliefs on effort can be changed
• Rewards
• Can have positive effect on motivation
• Praise
• Make personal
• More effective than tangible rewards
• Recognition

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Implementing Recommendations

• Teachers need to be life long learners
• Teachers meet with discipline areas school wide
• Import new constructivist methods into each
  lesson plan

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References

• Henson, K. (2004). Constructivist Teaching
  Strategies for Diverse Middle-Level Classrooms.
  Boston Pearson Education Inc.
• Marzano, R., Pickering, D., Pollock, J. (2001).
  Classroom Instruction That Works. Alexandria, VA
  Association for Supervision and Curriculum
  Development.
• National Middle School Association. (2001). This
  we believeand now we must act. Westerville, OH
  Author.
• National Association of Secondary School
  Principals. (1996). Breaking Ranks Changing an
  American Institution. Reston, VA Author.
• CIMT 301/302 Blackboard