The Strategy Toolbox

1. The Strategy Toolbox By Velda Schneider

2. Multiple Strategies • Research-Based & New Strategies • Best Practices • Original Strategies

3. Research-Based & New Strategies • Concept Poster Chat • Semantic Webbing/Mapping • Jigsaw Summary • Character Report Card • Cause and Effect Timeline • Thieves • Think-Pair-Share. • Matrices • Frayer Model

4. Concept/Poster Chat(Stone, 1983) • What is it? A teacher presentation using a large poster to explain concepts being learned from the text. • Why use it? It’s a powerful way to build background knowledge and vocabulary. • How does it work? Decide the key concepts in a lesson and draw those key concepts onto posters. (Examples: timelines, diagrams, cause and effect charts, maps and scenes.) back

5. Semantic Webbing/Mapping • What is it? It is an organizer that has a key concept or central/main idea with other supporting ideas/concepts linked or drawn off of it. • Why use it? To help students organize information in a hierarchy format. • How does it work? Start with a main concept such as “Grammar”, and form concepts off of that: adjectives, nouns, pronouns and off of pronouns: demonstrative pronouns, relative pronouns, etc. back

6. Jigsaw Summary(Aronson, 1978) • What is it? Students in one group become experts on the text that they are studying and the experts then teach that text to a different group. • Why use it? Jigsaw groups help students find ways to build summarizing habits while teaching them to communicate meaningful messages to other students. • How does it work? The text gets divided up into three to five sections. The students are given a study guide that they must use to summarize their portion of the text. Each student has a number or letter assigned and those “experts” must share with other groups and then report back to each other to piece together all that they have learned. • back

7. Character Report Card • What is it? This is an activity in which the students get to grade the characters in a book or chapter on certain traits or qualities. • Why use it? It develops a good evaluation of thinking skills and helps them find evidence for their choices. • How does it work? Choose a story and decide which characters to evaluate. Brainstorm a list of traits. Write down the characters and the lists. Generate a grading system and have students grade each character based on the traits and how they feel about that character. Students can agree/disagree in pairs or groups as they come to a consensus on each character. back

8. Cause and Effect Timeline • What is it? It is a graphic organizer timeline that asks students to not only determine the sequence of events in a story or historical account but also to establish or infer the causes of those events. • Why use it? This helps students to organize information and infer and predict why it happened during a certain time period and what made it happen. • How does it work? Make one long timeline and on divide the area in half and put What happened? or events on top and why or causes on the bottom of the organizer. Each cause needs to be supported with evidence. back

9. Thieves(Manz, 2002) • What is it? It’s an acronym that helps students go through all the necessary prereading steps before beginning a textbook chapter. They first look at titles, headings, introductions, etc. • Why use it? It helps students understand difficult texts better and it’s a way to get students to build extensive knowledge of the text even before they read the first words of a chapter. • How does it work? Tell the students about “Thieves” and how we want to steal as much information as possible before reading a chapter. Model how to go through each of the prereading strategies, have the students try it with a partner and then go through the chapter as a group. back

10. Think-Pair-Share • What is it? It is a quick verbal interaction between two to three students that allows them to quickly process the academic language and content being learned. • Why use it? TPS can be a background knowledge activity, it also can be effective as a “break” during teacher lectures to help push students to organize thoughts well enough to communicate them. • How does it work? Create a question or prompt that will get students to use their background knowledge and experience to answer it. Students need to think in silence and write thoughts down and then students need to work in pairs staying on topic and discussing it. Then students need to share with the class what their partner said. back

11. Matrices(adaptation of semantic feature analysis by Johnson & Pearson, 1984) • What is it? It is a chart that lets students organize various categories of information according to different variables that are placed in columns and rows. • Why use it? It’s an effective way to get students to analyze ideas, reduce information to the minimum, and then rebuild it in their own words. • How does it work? Exam text and decide on categories in the left-hand column and variables/adjectives across the top row. Model some examples that could be filled in the chart. Find evidence to support it. Have students finish up the matrix on their own or with a partner. Share all ideas and an overall conclusion at the end of class. • back

12. Frayer Model(Frayer, Frederick, & Klausmeier, 1969) • What is it? It is a word category activity that shows relationships between words to help students understand words. • Why use it? Students will learn how to analyze a word’s essential and nonessential attributes and help them refine their understanding by choosing examples and non-examples of the word or concept. (It’s like 4 square) • How does it work? Teacher will assign a concept or word being studied. Explain the Frayer Model. Use a word/concept and have students work in pairs completing the model and share them with the class. BackNext to Best Practices

13. Best Practices • Quickwrites • KWL • Story Map • Venn Diagram • Graphic Organizers • SQ3R • Think-Alouds • Pairs Read • Sensory Imagery • Structured Note-Taking

14. Quickwrites • What is it? It’s a style of writing that requires students to reach inside his/her mind and pull out something related to a prompt in order to put it on paperl. They are informal styles of writing. • Why use it? This is a quick way to jump-start students into brainstorming ideas when they might not want to share with everyone else. • How does it work? Give students a quick prompt/question. Have students write down what comes to mind. They need to recall prior knowledge to start forming ideas. Might have to modify prompts to get all students involved. They could be a journal entry. back

15. KWL(Ogle, 1986) • What is it? It is a three column organizer that we can write down information on what we KNOW, WANT to know, and what we have LEARNED from text. • Why use it? To teaches students to connect background knowledge, and helps develop habits of summarizing, questioning, predicting, inferring, and figuring out word meanings. • How does it work? Create 3 columns on the board or a worksheet. Ask students “What they know”, and have them fill in the first column. Next ask them what they want to know and have them fill this in the 2nd column and then have students read the text. Lastly, have students write what they learned in the final column. back

16. Story Map(Buehl, 2001; Johns & Berglund, 2001) • What is it? It is a story map that shows the important elements of a narrative text. • Why use it? It helps students organize information into an outline of important events, with supporting events leading up to the climax. • How does it work? Model how to fill in a story map. Next fill in the characters’ names, and put the key word elements around this. Then the setting, conflicts, important/sequenced events, climax and resolution. Next discuss ending events, changes, and the message or lesson and then students can do this with additional texts on their own or in groups. back

17. Venn Diagram • What is it? It is a diagram that requires the learner to compare and contrast two items being studied. • Why use it? It is used to teach students how to compare and contrast brainstorming ideas to write compare/contrast papers and to understand differences and similarities in topics that they might be studying or writing about. • How does it work? Draw 2 interconnecting circles. Above each circle right the topic. Explain the compare and contrast and now have students read the story. Fill in the diagram and discuss it. back

18. Graphic Organizers • What is it? A graphic organizer is a visual representation of facts and concepts and the relationships that link them together. • Why use it? They help students to represent abstract ideas in more concrete forms, show relationships between among facts and concepts, organize ideas, and store and recall information. • How does it work? Explain the graphic organizer and introduce a specific one. Explain and model an organizer and then let students organize familiar material in the organizer. back

19. SQ3R(Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review-Robinson, 1961) • What is it? It is a study strategy because it engages students during each phase of the reading process. • Why use it? This helps students generate questions, while reading which helps them to remember text so that they can share information and review what they read. • How does it work? Students preview material and survey what they are reading, generate questions, read actively, recite answers and what they have learned and review their information. back

20. Think-alouds(Davey, 1983) • What is it? The teacher models her thinking process by verbalizing her thoughts as she reads, processes information, or performs certain tasks while reading text and trying to understand it. • Why use it? It helps students understand the kind of thinking that needs to be done for a specific task. • How does it work? Teacher explains that reading is a complex process. Selects a passage and reads aloud explaining things and words. Develops questions along the way. back

21. Pairs Read • What is it? A strategy that requires collaborative learning as students read and digest text. • Why use it? This helps students increase their knowledge and understanding of the text by reading the text aloud to each other. • How does it work? Select a passage for the students to read. Pair up students. Students read aloud to one another. The listener is the coach and summarizes what they hear. Then the roles are reversed and this is done through the entire passage. back

22. Sensory Imagery • What is it? Comprehension, recall, and retention can be enhanced through sensory imaging while reading. • Why use it? Creating sensory imaging skills can help stimulate interest in reading and learning for students. • How does it work? A text passage is selected that contains sensory details. Students need to imagine the scene and keep prompting students with images as a teacher reads aloud to them. Ask questions about images. Ask students what they have discovered by using their imagination while reading. back

23. Structured-Note Taking(Smith & Tompkins, 1988) • What is it? It’s a method that helps students take notes more effectively. • Why use it? This is suppose to help assist students in better recall and retention of information. • How does it work? Show students different organizational patterns that authors will use. Understanding patterns will help provide a structure in note-taking. Assign a passage. Provide each student with a graphic organizer. They can share their work with a partner. BackNext to Original Strategies

24. Original Strategies(Self-created by Velda Schneider) • Toss-the-Ball • Marker Share • Inspiration Concept Maps • Sticky Notes/Story Elements • Back in Time-Play Writing/Reading • Acting Out/Groups Share

25. Toss-the-Ball • What is it? It is a game of tossing a ball from one student to the next as they share key elements of short stories or other reading elements. • Why use it? It gets students actively engaged and opens them up to guessing and not being afraid to guess and participate. • How does it work? The teacher throws a ball to a student and the student shares something or an element about a story and then tosses it to another student. There is no right or wrong answer, everyone just needs to participate. It is a great ice-breaker and fun interactive activity. Students really enjoy it. back

26. Marker Share • What is it? It is a game where students gently toss a marker and share ideas about a story and right them on the board. • Why use it? It’s a creative way for students to pass a marker and share their thoughts on the board. It gets students to participate and they are very engaged. • How does it work? The instructor writes some notes or points about a story and passes the marker to a student and they share a point either verbally or up at the board. back

27. Inspiration Concept Maps • What is it? It is a map that students create in Inspiration starting with a key concept/idea and branching out from that. • Why use it? This helps students organize ideas/concepts and map out or categorize other information to fit under the first idea and they keep building on the original idea. It helps clarify and evaluate information. • How does it work? Students will use Inspiration or Kidspiration and create concept maps/graphic organizers based on one main concept/idea and this keeps building as other areas are mapped off of the original idea/concept. back

28. Sticky Notes/Story Elements • What is it? Students will use sticky notes to write down new vocabulary/elements/questions that they might have in their text as they read the story. • Why use it? It helps students understand context clues, text passages, and the stories that they are reading. It actively engages students. • How does it work? Students can write down anything that they have a question on in their text and put it on that page in their book. Then as a class we take a story one page at a time and go through the sticky notes and write things up on the board to clarify what the students did or did not know. back

29. Back in Time-Play Writing/Reading • What is it? My students take a historical event in a story and go back in time and change it’s outcome and then rewrite the story or play. • Why use it? Students get to make up their own creative endings and write stories which gives them ownership into their creativity. • How does it work? As a class we will read a story or play with a true historical event in it and we will rewrite the historical event (example: the assassination of Abraham Lincoln) and try to stop it and change it and then write how history would be changed because of the incident not happening or because it was changed. (If doing a play, my students will rewrite the event and changes after the event and then act it out up on stage and I will record it and students can edit the videos. back

30. Acting Out-Group Share • What is it? Students will read a story aloud and act out parts or scenes. • Why use it? It helps students identify with the characters and understand how the characters in the story think and feel about their role in the story. • How does it work? Students will read a story aloud in front of class and act out some of the scenes or situations. This can be done in small groups to make students feel more comfortable. BackNext to final slide

31. Summary of Strategies I will be able to use and explain all of these different strategies to my students as the year goes along by sharing these slides and hyperlinks with them. Some strategies are research-based, some I have tried before and are among my favorites, and some are my own creations or modified creations. I look forward to sharing the different strategies that I have learned with my students in the upcoming school year.