Creating Your Teaching Plan
A Guide for Effective Teaching
by
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In the typical question-answer interchange, the teacher asks a question, a student answers, and the teacher praises or corrects. You can modify the Q&A technique in a few simple ways (Kagan, 1999):
Think-Pair-Share
In Think-Pair-Share, the teacher poses a question, directs students to “think” about their answer, and then pair with another student to share their ideas. After a short time, the teacher randomly asks pairs to share with the whole class.
Partners Compare
After a 10-15 minute learning segment, the teacher asks a question. Student pairs are formed. One student contributes his/her ideas to their partner, and the partner paraphrases or restates the idea before contributing his own ideas. They reverse roles with subsequent questions. .
Heads Together
In Heads Together, students are in small groups. The teacher poses the question, provides think time, and the group members put their heads “together” to arrive at an answer. The teacher calls on the groups for their answers.
For a variation on this technique, the groups might write their answer on a small white eraser board or slate. Instead of calling on individual groups for an oral response, the groups hold up their board on the teacher’s signal.
Think-Write-Pair-Share
A Think-Write-Share is a variation of Think-Pair-Share where students write down their thoughts following the teacher’s query and then pair and share with another student.
Team Quiz (Thiagarajan, 2005)
Following a lecture, reading, film or other learning experience, divide the class into teams of 3-4 students. Ask the teams to review notes, etc. and develop 3 questions for which there is a definite correct answer. Give students 3-5 minutes to develop their questions. At the end of the time period, select one team at random and ask its spokesperson to read one of their questions. The questioning team selects an individual from any other team to answer. If correct, his/her team gets 2 points (or any value you select). If incorrect, the team loses one point. Then select another team to ask a question.
Say Something (Short, et. al., 1996)
Either at predetermined intervals or at the end of the learning experience, provide students an opportunity to say something about the content. Provide students with a prompt and have them work in pairs.
Possible prompts: Why did… I don’t get…
What does this mean? I think that…
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About the Book
Creating Your Teaching Plan: A Guide for Effective Teaching was written to provide you with numerous practical, research-based ideas which you can use in your particular classroom setting. It contains tried and tested strategies to help you be successful, whether you’re a new teacher, one returning after an absence, or an experienced teacher looking for new methods.
This worktext is organized around five critical areas necessary for successful teaching:
• Starting the Year
• Planning
• Monitoring and Assessing Learning
• Managing the Classroom
• Enhancing Reading/Literacy Skills
After you have completed the activities in this worktext, you will have a written plan for starting your year. This is not a guarantee that the year will be easy or successful, but you will have developed the foundation necessary to enhance student learning.
About the Author
Arleen Mariotti retired from public school service in 2007 after 37 years in education. She received her B.A. and M.Ed. from the University of Florida and her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida. Her areas of expertise include reading assessment and diagnosis, effective teaching, and content area reading. She has served as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, program evaluator, staff development specialist, and college professor. She has created and delivered numerous teacher training programs in reading, writing, cooperative learning, and alternative assessment. She has presented papers at regional and national conferences, served on the Manuscript Review Board for the International Reading Association. Co-author of the text,Linking Reading Assessment to Instruction, she currently serves as an adjunct instructor at the University of South Florida.