Strategic Instructional Success

Strategic Instructional Success

The following descriptions outline the implementation of successful strategies

in relation to fostering learning and motivation.
These strategies were used in the instructional environment of my classroom,
but could be modified to work for training for adults as well.

1. The Inspiration Assignment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9FSZJu448

The final weeks of the summer have arrived when teachers begin to feel that pressure to prepare their classrooms to perfection, make copies of everything for the first days, and plan as much as possible for the impending school year. I began the school year in my English class differently last August. I wanted to focus on a simple activity that would engage my students, let me know a little about who they are, get to know their classmates, and tell them a little about me, representing a strategy to build relationships among my students and foster a safe, collaborative environment. From experience, I know that my students are motivated when the emphasis of a lesson is self-expression.

At the heart of this lesson is reinforcing a personal source of inspiration. There’s not a whole lot to it; it’s a simple assignment that actually requires a variety of skills from the students. The image (and link) displays the PowerPoint used to introduce the students to the assignment and gives an example.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1EdS6U7FOQR3oW35cePyUEXcjCrNwNV-dU3peSPy8OaM/edit?usp=sharing

We just took a couple pieces of the class period to construct the presentation, and got accustomed to using Google slides all the while. The students were able to complete the task and gain familiarity with their peers, as well as comfort in the environment.

The strategy explicates a social activity with an active process. The students are learning about themselves and others, collaborating in a manner given credence by the statement “[l]earners who use representations socially will start to converge on a shared understanding that has not only formal meaning, but also social meaning” (Roschelle, 1992). One of the strengths of this technique is that it is, at its core, student-centered. Students are also aware of their potential for success and motivated towards engagement.  Many of the multiple intelligences were engaged throughout the process; kinesthetic, visual, auditory, inter- and intra-personal. It contains the learning factors of being meaningful and authentic, as Reiser and Dempsey (2017) describe. There are changes that I will make to the assignment this year, but it certainly serves as a good skeleton; the classroom was filled with motivation and the students were proud to present this aspect of their identity.

2. The Gallery Walk

https://media.giphy.com/media/FxIFLUg6RUcVO/giphy.gif

I have been a participant in the gallery walk strategy, as well as used it as a teacher. Using a gallery walk engages a student’s visual literacy and self-directed learning. Participants view and write about and/or discuss images suspended throughout the area. Depending on the steps chosen for this technique, there is an opportunity for individual and collaborative learning. A gallery walk is a social activity in which students respond to higher-order thinking questioning. Motivation is driven by the problem-solving aspect of the strategy.

One of the gallery walks that I have employed in my English classroom was focused on images from the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. This technique was successful with a difficult to engage group of eleventh grade students who, as was not always the case, fully participated. The multiple intelligences of kinesthetic, auditory, visual, inter- and intra-personal were each addressed in the lesson. When I have been a participant in a gallery walk during a session of professional development, getting out of our seats and moving around was a welcome change. We were instructed to respond to higher order questions on Post-It notes which would then initiate response to our peers. Even without verbal communication, there is a collaborative element to this technique, inspiring thoughtful expression. As Reiser and Dempsey state, motivation is related to “[f]ocus on relevant, authentic tasks” (p. 73), propelling learning and urging change.

To learn more about gallery walks click on the link below:

https://www.mudandinkteaching.org/new-blog/

References

Best Practices. (2016, August 18). Retrieved July 20, 2017, from https://www.mudandinkteaching.org/new-blog/

[Diamond Dallas Page]. (2012, April 30). Never, ever give up. Arthur's inspirational transformation! [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9FSZJu448

Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2017). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology. Boston: Pearson Education.

Roschelle, J. (1992). Learning by collaborating: Convergent conceptual change. Journal of Learning Sciences, 2(3), 235-276.