These tips will help establish your classroom presence as a expert teacher.

1. CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR TEACHERS
Effective Instruction Using
Strategies

2. Preparations
1. Focus on What's Most Important
2. Provide Clear Expectations
3. Grade Objectively
4. Effective Student Self-Evaluation
5. Track Progress
 A teaching method used to meet the diverse needs
of learners.
 Provides instruction for individuals or groups of
students who find academic concepts difficult

3. Consider Diverse Learners
• IEP
• IDEA
• BBSST
• Accommodations
• Modifications
• Supplementary aids and Services
• DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy
Skills)

4. Elements of Instruction
Decide: What skills, concepts or facts do you want
student to understand at the end of the assignment?
Let the students know exactly what they are expected
to learn and/or do
Give them a target to aim toward
Modify instruction when needed
Students can use the rubric to assess their own work,
resulting in a better understanding of what they have
accomplished and what they can work on for next
time
Peer tutoring

5. Instruction, remediation, and Enrichment
Plan, match, teach
Devise a plan of instruction and specify supporting
learning activities
Adjust the plan to offer differing levels of difficulty
and match students to it
“I do”, “We do”, “You do”
Teach, Reteach, Assessment
Before, During, and After

6. Methods of Instruction
Building background knowledge strengthens
students’ comprehension skills
Struggling learners need guided, step-by-step
scaffolding and instruction
Promoting student self-advocacy is empowering,
replicable, and transferable

7. Readiness/Ability
Adjusting Questions
Compact Curriculum
Acceleration/Decelerat
ion
Flexible Grouping
Peer Teaching
Student Interest
Reading Buddies
Independent Study
Projects
Learning Contracts
Learning Centers
Instructional Strategies

8. Anchor Activities Curriculum Compacting
 Beneficial for classroom
management as well as
instruction
 Designed for students to work
on either immediately at the
beginning of class time or after
their class work has been
completed, so that their
instructional time is maximized
 Intended to extend or deepen
understanding of a concept or
skill, not just to be busy work
 Used for individual or small
groups of students with
advanced knowledge of the
concepts or skills to be studied
 Identify the skills or aspects of
the concepts with which the
students are already proficient.
Spend less time on those parts
of the curriculum, allowing the
students to focus on what the
really need to learn and
understand.
Instructional Strategies

9. KWL Charts Learning Contracts
 Columns: "What I Know,"
"What I Want to Know," and
"What I Learned"
 Can be used at the beginning of
a unit to assess students'
background knowledge and
interest in the topic, or it can be
used at various points
throughout the unit to assess
student progress
 Works well with individual
students
 Detailed list of directions and
assignments for the student to
complete within a set period of
time. Teacher and student
work together to establish
contract requirements and due
dates. Can be effectively used
to develop goal-setting.
Instructional Strategies

10. Menus (or Agendas) Question Choices
 List of assignments, activities,
or projects a student will work
on during a set amount of time
(i.e. one class period, one week,
one unit). Students may choose
the order which they complete
the work.
 During whole group
discussions, include questions
that everyone in the class is
able to answer, as well as more
complex questions that only a
few students may be able to
answer. Adjust the difficulty of
the questions depending on
which student will be called on
to respond.
Instructional Strategies

11. Reading Buddies Reflection and Response
 Pair each student with another
of a different reading level (low
with medium, medium with
high) for partner reading and
discussion
 Also, pairing upper grade
students with lower grade
students, such as having a
fourth grade class buddy up
with a first grade class,
provides reading practice for all
students and can be motivating
for both groups.
Provide opportunity
for students to respond
and reflect on day’s
learning. Helps you to
know where they stand
for planning next
lessons.
Instructional Strategies

12. Scaffolding Think-Tac-Toe
 Works well with individuals
and small groups when working
on instruction of specific skills
 Identify specific levels of
complexity within the
development of a particular
skill. Match students, by
ability, with the appropriate
level of skill. The goal is to
have each student move up at
least one level.
 Nine commands or questions,
arranged like a tic-tac-toe
board. Students choose three
to complete, creating a row
vertically, horizontally, or
diagonally.
 Student choice allows for
differentiation by interest
and/or learning style. Think-
tac-toe boards for different
levels of readiness can also be
created and given to different
groups of students.
Instructional Strategies

13. Tiered Activities
Instructions for Tiered
Activities
 3-4 different activities of
different levels of complexity
and difficulty, but with a
common goal or end result.
For example, different groups
of students may be working on
science experiments of different
levels of difficulty, but all with
the intention of learning about
electric circuits.
 1st - Begin by planning the
mid-level activity, what you
might normally plan for your
whole class.
 2nd - Then add a level of
difficulty or complexity to make
the same lesson more
challenging for higher-level
students.
 3rd - Simplify or add resources
to the original activity to better
meet the needs and fill in any
learning gaps for lower-level
Instructional Strategies

14. Tiered Rubrics Varied Organizers
2-3 rubrics are developed
for one project, and given
to students based on
readiness. This provides
all students with
appropriate skills to focus
on and a chance to be
successful.
 Provide 2-3 organizers of differing
complexity.
 For example, students needing
more guidance may be given an
organizer with blanks for them to
fill in. Students ready for more
independence may be given an
incomplete organizer that requires
them to fill in blanks as well as
adding detail. More advanced
students may be given only a basic
framework for the organizer which
they complete on their own.
Instructional Strategies

15. Think Aloud 3-2-1
The teacher would read
a few sentences in the
text or word problem,
 “Think” out loud,
Show the students
what they are thinking
as they read or work
out the problem
Can be used after
reading, at the end of
class, or toward the
end
3 facts the students
learned from a reading
2 questions they had as
they read
1 thing that they found
interesting
Instructional Strategies

16. Graphic Organizers
GRASP
(Guided Reading and
Summarizing Procedure)
Easy way to have
students reflect on
what they read and
synthesize their
thinking
Students read the text
and try to remember as
many important facts
as possible
Students categorize, or
organize the list
Students write a
summary using their
personal notes
Instructional Strategies

17. “How – To” Poem Chunking
Instead of listing
directions, have
students write a “how
to” poem
“How to be a Tornado”
“How to Clean Your
Instrument”
“How to write change a
tire”
A strategy used to improve
memory performance by
splitting concepts into small
pieces or "chunks" of to
make reading and
understanding faster and
easier.
Instructional Strategies

18. Instructional Components
 Pre-instructional activities
 Motivating/gaining attention
 Informing learner of objectives/purposes
 Telling them what they already need to know
 Content Presentation
 Presenting the content
 Guiding the learning
 Learner Participation
 Giving the learner opportunities to practice
 Giving feedback
 Assessment
 Follow-through activities

19. Some Good Design Advice
 Know your audience
 What they know
 What motivates them
 Identify your learning objective
and use it constantly to steer
your design.
 Be clear and honest (first to
yourself and then your
audience) as to the learning
outcome of your learning
objective?

20. Learning Components
of Instructional Strategies
Gagne’s nine events
1. Gaining attention
2. Informing learner of the objective
3. Stimulating recall of prerequisite learning
4. Presenting the stimulus material
5. Providing learning guidance
6. Eliciting the performance
7. Providing feedback about performance correctness
8. Assessing the performance
9. Enhancing retention and transfer

21. Components
 Selection of Delivery System
 Instructional Strategies
 Selection of Media

22. Selection of Delivery System
1. Consider the goal, learner characteristics, the learning and
performance contexts, objectives and assessment requirements.
2. Review the instructional analysis and identify logical groupings of
objectives that will be taught in appropriate sequences.
3. Plan the learning components that will be used in the instruction.
4. Choose the most effective student grouping.
5. Specify effective media and materials that are within the range of
cost, convenience, and practicality for the learning context.
6. Select or develop a delivery system that best accommodates the
considerations in step 1 and the decisions made in steps 2-5.

23. Instructional Strategies
Instructional strategies are used generally to
cover the various aspects of sequencing and
organizing the content, specifying learning
activities, and deciding how to deliver the content
and activities.

24. The first step in developing an instructional strategy
is identifying a teaching sequence and manageable
groupings of content.
What sequence should you follow in presenting
content to the learner?
It depends on your instructional analysis
Content Sequence

25. Clustering Instruction
The consideration of how to determine the amount of
information to be presented.
 The age level of your learners
 The complexity of material
 The type of learning taking place
 Whether the activity can be varied, thereby focusing
attention on the task
 The amount of time required to include all the
events

26. Learning components
for various learning outcomes
The basic learning components of an instructional
strategy are the same regardless of whether you are
designing instruction for an intellectual skill, verbal
information, a motor skill, or an attitude.
However, there are distinctions you should consider
for each type of learning outcome.

27. The strategy should provide ways in which the learner can
link new content to existing prerequisite knowledge in
memory.
Considerations:
 The congruence of practice to the conditions and behaviors
prescribed in the objectives and covered in the instruction.
 The link between prerequisite knowledge and new skills
and progressing from less difficult to more complex
problems.
Intellectual Skill

28. Verbal Information
 Elaboration: strategies that link new information to
knowledge currently stored in memory.
 Organization: strategies that present similar
information in subsets and provide direct instruction
on the relationship among items in the subsets and
among different subsets.
 Mnemonic: when information is entirely new and
unrelated to prior learning, then the strategy should
include a memory device.

29. Motor Skills
The requirement of some form of visual presentation
of the skill.
 The categories of content and examples in a strategy
usually take the form of a verbal description of the
skill followed by an illustration.
 Practice and feedback are the hallmarks of
psychomotor skills.

30. Attitudes
 Attitude consist of three components: feelings,
behaviors, and cognitive understandings.
 The content and example portion of the strategy should
be delivered by someone or by an imaginary character
who is respective and admired by the learners (human
model).
 The most important consideration in the instructional
strategy for teaching an attitude is the adequacy of the
components that will promote transfer.

31. Student Grouping
The type of student
grouping (individual, pairs,
small group, large group)
depends on specific social
interaction requirements
and is often mixed within
and among the learning
components in a lesson or
unit.

32. Dick, Carey, & Carey’s Advice on Developing an
Instructional Strategy
1. Indicate the sequence of objectives and how you will cluster them
for instruction.
2. Indicate what you will do with regard to preinstructional activities,
assessment, and follow-through.
3. Indicate the content to be presented and student participation
activities for each objective or cluster of objectives.
4. Review your sequence and clusters of objectives, preinstructional
activities, assessment, content presentation, student participation
strategies, and student groupings and media selections.
5. Review the entire strategy again to consolidate your media
selection.

33. Selection of Media and Delivery System
Clark’s (1983) review of
research established the basic
argument that it is the design
of instruction, rather than the
medium used to deliver
instruction, that determines
student learning.

34. Selection of Media and Delivery System
Gagne, Briggs & Wager (1992) provide a summary of selection criteria of media
based on the type of learning outcome.
Learning Outcome Exclusions Selections
Intellectual Skills Media that has no interactive feature
Printed discourse for nonreaders
Media providing feedback to learner
responses
Audio and visual features for nonreaders
Cognitive
Strategies
Exclusions same as for
intellectual skills
Media with same features as those for
intellectual skills.
Declarative
Knowledge
Exclude only real equipment or
simulator with no verbal
accompaniments. Exclude complex
prose for nonreaders.
Media able to present verbal messages
and elaborations. Also, select audio and
pictorial features for nonreaders.
Attitude Exclusions same as for verbal
information
Media able to present realistic pictures
of human model and the model’s
message
Psychomotor Media having no provision for learner
response and feedback.
Media making possible direct practice of
skill, with informative feedback.

35. Rubrics
http://www.foridahoteachers.org/rubrics.htm
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/
http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/
http://www.rubrics4teachers.com/
http://course1.winona.edu/shatfield/air/rubrics.htm

36. Antwuan Stinson
astinson@alasu.edu
(334) 229-7690 (office)
(334) 377-0537 (Google Voice)
Contact Information