During the summer, I am sharing thematic posts bringing together responses on similar topics from the past 10 years. You can see all those collections from the first nine years here.
Here are the ones I鈥檝e published so far:
The 11 Most Popular Classroom Q&A Posts of the Year
School Closures & the Coronavirus Crisis
Best Ways to Begin the School Year
Best Ways to End the School Year
Student Motivation & Social-Emotional Learning
Challenging Normative Gender Culture in Education
Cooperative & Collaborative Learning
Teaching English-Language Learners
Entering the Teaching Profession
Today鈥檚 theme is on instructional strategies. You can see the list of posts following this excerpt from one of them:
*Four Favorite Physical Education Instructional Strategies鈥擱ecommended by Teachers!
Differentiated instruction is among the favorite strategies three educators employ in teaching physical education.
* The What, Why, and How Of 鈥業nterleaving鈥�
Four educators explain the strategy of 鈥渋nterleaving鈥� and how it applies to classroom practice.
* Ten Ways I鈥檒l Be Teaching Differently Next Year
I share 10 instructional practices I鈥檝e developed during the pandemic that I will be continuing into the next school year.
* Students鈥� Questions Can 鈥楧rive Their Learning鈥�
Four educators provide advice on how teachers can equip students with tools to support their asking open-ended & relevant questions.
* 鈥楽tudents Will Ask Great Questions If We Give Them the Chance鈥�
Four educators share ideas for encouraging students to develop questions, including through project-based learning.
* 鈥楥ultivating Student Questioning Is Not a Onetime Thing鈥�
Five educators and authors discuss ways to cultivate students asking questions, including through 鈥渜uestion-storming.鈥�
* 10 Strategies for Encouraging Students to Ask Questions
Four educators share ways to encourage students to ask questions, including the 鈥淣otice & Wonder鈥� routine.
* 鈥楾he Essence of Critical Thinking Is Testing Claims With Evidence鈥�
Three educators discuss how to cultivate critical thinking among students, including by using 鈥渄esign鈥� and 鈥渃omputational鈥� thinking.
* Integrating Critical Thinking Into the Classroom
Four educators offer suggestions on helping students develop critical-thinking skills, including through the use of 鈥渆valuative praise.鈥�
* Eight Instructional Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking
Four educators share tips for supporting the development of critical thinking in the classroom.
* Ten Ways to Use Retrieval Practice in the Classroom
Five educators explain why and how they use retrieval practice in their classroom.
* Improving Instruction With Student Data
Three educators offer ideas on how they use student data to improve their instruction.
* Using Data to Support Students
Three educators write about how they use data to improve their instruction.
Three educators highlight the role of memory in learning, such as the importance of guarding against remembering 鈥渨ithout understanding鈥� and being strategic about when to emphasize memorization鈥檚 importance with students.
Four teachers offer different perspectives on memorization in teaching and learning, including one suggesting it is the 鈥渇oundation鈥� of the creativity process and another saying she is 鈥渢ormented鈥� by the issue.
Using drama and gallery walks are among the ways to incorporate movement in teaching, say four educators who share their strategies.
Four educators share ideas on how to use movement with students, including for learning vocabulary through the use of the Total Physical Response.
Five educators share ways to use music in lessons across the curriculum, including for textual analysis and to help create a positive classroom culture.
Five educators share multiple ways to use music in nonmusic classes, including having students create their own songs to help remember content and interpreting the music of different eras in social studies classes.
Four educators share ideas on how to leverage student background knowledge, including through using The Question Formulation Technique, word splashes, and sticky notes.
Seven educators explain the importance of tapping students鈥� background knowledge in order to learn new content, and they describe ways to do just that, including through the use of surveys and anticipation guides.
Bobson Wong, Adeyemi Stembridge, Jennifer Davis Bowman, Starr Sackstein, Kathy Dyer, and Rachelle Dene Poth share ideas on how students can teach their classmates.
This second post in the series on students teaching their classmates includes commentaries by Rita Platt, Paul Solarz, Laurie Buffington, Laura Greenstein, and Anne Taffin d鈥橦eursel Baldisseri.
Amber Chandler, Cheryl Mizerny, Andrew Miller, Karen Goeller, Michael D. Toth, Megan Bang, Laura M. Brady, Stephanie A. Fryberg, and Mary C. Murphy share their ideas on students as teachers.
This four-part series on peer teaching is wrapped up today with responses from Bryan Goodwin, Jenny Grant Rankin, Sarah Thomas, and Bradley Witzel.
Claudine Phillips, Kelly Wickham Hurst, Mary K. Tedrow, and Diane Mora wrap up this three-part series where educators shared their best classroom lessons.
Heather Stinson, Meredith Allen, David Hochheiser, Sonny Magana, and Brooke Ahrens contribute their 鈥渂est lesson鈥� experiences.
Tara Dale, Sarah Cooper, Alexis Wiggins, Debbie Silver, Stephaney Jones-Vo, and Cindi Rigsbee share their best lessons and what made them so great.
Abby Shink, Andrew Kozlowsky, Michael Young, Bradley Witzel, Heather Stinson, and Andrew Miller share their thoughts on learning games.
Susan Lafond, Michael Fisher, Eric Schildge, Jennifer Thomas, and Adam Powley discuss how games can be used effectively in the classroom.
Barbara Blackburn, Meghan Everette, Rachael George, Jody Passanisi, and readers share their advice with textbook publishers about how they can improve their products.
John Spencer, Kevin Parr, Jessica Torres, and Tammy Quist share their suggestions on how to handle the days and weeks leading up to school breaks.
In today鈥檚 final post in this series on collaborative learning, Paul Vermette, Cindy Kline, Jennifer Fredricks, Jenny Grant Rankin, Andrew Miller, and Tamara Fyke contribute their ideas.
Beate Planche, Lyn Sharratt, Debbie Zacarian, Meredith Allen, Nancy Sulla, Bret Gosselin, Emily Phillips Galloway, and Paola Uccelli share their suggestions on encouraging student collaboration.
Today鈥檚 post features contributions from Michael Thornton, Robin Brandehoff, Ivannia Soto, and Nell K. Duke. They share recommendations for how teachers can encourage student collaborative learning.
Matthew Homrich-Knieling, Nancy Sulla, Michele L. Haiken, Jim Peterson, Rachel Baker, and Louise Goldberg write about their suggestions for Do Now activities (also known as Warm-Ups).
This four-part series on underused teaching strategies wraps up with commentaries from Regie Routman, Gabriella Corales, Shawna Coppola, Donna Wilson, Marcus Conyers, Fred Ende, Tom Hoerr, Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, and Adam Fachler.
Ron Berger, Debbie Zacarian, Greg Walton, Christopher Panna, Kathy Dyer, Barb Pitchford, Paul Bloomberg, and Malke Rosenfield share their favorite underused teaching strategies.
Jo Boaler, Katie Brown, Rachael George, Laura Greenstein, Dan Rothstein, David Jacob, and Greg Brown name what they consider underutilized teaching and learning strategies.
Kathy Glass, Amber Chandler, Carol Salva, Jennifer Davis Bowman, and Janet Allen propose their 鈥渘ominees鈥� for underused鈥攁nd effective鈥攊nstructional strategies.
Shanna Peeples, Kathy T. Glass, Maria Walther, Sandi Novak, and Toby Karten wrap up a five-part series on using questions in the classroom.
Adeyemi Stembridge, Ph.D., Kara Pranikoff, Starr Sackstein, Jackie A. Walsh, Andrew Miller, and Brian D. Schultz take their turn at responding to the question of how to use questions effectively with students.
Tan Huynh, Laura Robb, Judy Reinhartz, Ph.D., and Erik M. Francis share their suggestions for using questions in the classroom.
Sean Kelly, Sidney D鈥橫ello, Shelly Lynn Counsell, Jennifer Davis Bowman, Rachael Williams, and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm contribute their advice on how teachers can use questions with students.
Jeri Asaro, Dan Rothstein, Diana Laufenberg, Rebecca Mieliwocki, Jenny Edwards, Scott Reed, Cara Jackson, and Ben Johnson share suggestions on how to use questions effectively in the classroom.
This three-part series on organizing classroom discussions wraps up today with suggestions from Tan Huynh, Kathy T. Glass, Sandi Novak, and Brett McLean.
Kara Pranikoff, Laura Robb, Sky Sweet, Tricia Ebarvia, and Patty O鈥橤rady contribute their commentaries about facilitating classroom discussions.
Rita Platt, Adeyemi Stembridge, Ph.D., Jackie Walsh, Doug Lemov, and Valentina Gonzalez share their suggestions on how teachers can best organize classroom discussions.
Today鈥檚 guests鈥擳an Huynh, Sean Llewellyn, and Andrew Miller鈥攕hare their reflections on what makes a successful IB or AP program.
Rebecca Mieliwocki, Gallit Zvi, Denise Krebs, Yvette Jackson, Veronica McDermott, Amy Sandvold, Josh Patterson, and Maurice J. Elias share their responses on how to incorporate 鈥淕enius Hours鈥� into the classroom.
Cathy Beck, Heidi Pace, Anna Bartosik, Jenny Edwards, Josh Patterson, Ashley Roberts, and Andrew Miller contribute their suggestions on how to emphasize learning transfer in the classroom.
Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, Adeyemi Stembridge, Todd Finley, Kenneth Baum, and David Krulwich share their ideas on transfer of learning.
Tan Huynh, Russel Tarr, Laura Greenstein, Eric Jabal, Erik M. Francis, and Andrew Miller share their ideas on taxonomies and the classroom.
Meghan Everette, Rebecca Stobaugh, Sandra Love, Michael Fisher, Susan M. Brookhart, Howard Pitler, and Tony Frontier contribute their advice on using learning & questioning taxonomies in the classroom.
Daniel L. Schwartz, Jessica M. Tsang, Kristen P. Blair, Otis Kriegel, Stephanie Smith Budhai, Faye Brenner, and Effuah Sam offer their suggestions on handling field trips.
Ron Berger, Camille A. Farrington, Gail Desler, Abby Schneiderjohn, and Mike Janatovich contribute their thoughts on the best ways to plan and use field trips.
Jennifer Orr, Herb Broda, Anne Jenks, Russel Tarr, and Andrew Miller share their ideas on how to maximize the learning potential of field trips.
What data is, how can it be used effectively, and how can it be misused are questions we鈥檒l consider today with commentaries from Nancy Fichtman Dana, Jenni Donohoo, Myron Dueck, Pete Hall, Andrew Miller, Jessica A. Hockett, Kristina J. Doubet, and Kimberly Long.
This post features contributions from Roxanna Elden, Barnett Berry, and Pedro Noguera, along with comments from readers.
Diana Laufenberg, Jeff Charbonneau, Ted Appel, and special guest John Hattie share their thoughts.
Debbie Diller and Leslie Blauman share their thoughts, as do readers.
Three educators鈥擩ulia Thompson, Ariel Sacks, and Gini Cunningham鈥攃ontribute their responses.
This post features guest responses from three educators鈥擵irginia McEnerney, David Booth, and Heather Wolpert-Gawron.
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Educator/authors Cathy Vatterott and Bryan Harris contribute their thoughts here.
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This post features guest contributions from Jonah Lehrer, former staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Imagine: How Creativity Works, and Ashley Merryman, co-author of NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children.
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Middle school teacher Heather Wolpert-Gawron, author of 鈥楾ween Crayons and Curfews: Tips for Middle School Teachers, and I share our ideas.
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Three guests share their recommendations: Ron Ritchhart, author and researcher for Harvard鈥檚 Project Zero; educator Todd Stanley, co-author of Critical Thinking and Formative Assessments: Increasing the Rigor in Your Classroom; and Robert Swartz, director of the National Center for Teaching Thinking.
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Barbara R. Blackburn, author of Rigor is NOT a Four-Letter Word; Cris Tovani, author of So...What do They Really Know?; and 鈥淪enior Provocateur鈥� Ira Socol provide diverse guest responses, and I throw in an intriguing chart.
