8. Instructional Strategies
“The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.”
Standard Components
Relevancy
Making cool connections with modern life that helps students see the importance of the content.
Creativity
Engaging learners in fun and novel activities
Community
Leading students through the process of creating relationships with the people around them, through shared responsibility, property and creative space.
meeting the standard
When it comes to the strategies I use to deliver content to my students and get them to engage with it, the foundation of everything I do is based on the nervous system. I know that in order to learn, my students must have a sense of safety. I also know that as mammals, one of the strongest cues of safety I can give to help my students’ be receptive to my instruction is - play.
The power of play is a well-documented phenomenon and one I have witnessed in my home and classroom. When learning is fun, not only is school just more enjoyable for everyone, but more learning takes place. I bring play into the classroom in three key ways, making activities social, making them tangible and capitializing on student interests and culture.
Playful learning is not all fun and games though. A huge component of successful play in the classroom is strong classroom management. Inviting students to engage in high energy activities or use specific materials goes hand in hand with providing clear expectations and holding strong boundaries around acceptable behavior. In the case of my large, somewhat rowdy sophomore class, I chose to withhold the most popular activity amongst my juniors because I worried the fun would override the learning.
Gamifying content and incorporating play into our everyday learning makes teaching fun, rewarding and I believe is a huge reason why my students faces light up when I wander over to the high school and say hello.
