The Lions Den
Roaring with Beginning Teachers
Teaching Hook
Increasing Rigor Throughout the Day "Do Nows"
Do Now (five-to-ten minute individual exercise to start class)
Use Do Now as a re-teach tool: Write questions that students struggled to master on the last assessment.
Use mixed-format questions for a skill: multiple-choice, short answer, open-ended, and so on.
Add why and how questions (for example, Why did you choose this answer? How do you know your answer is correct?) for different levels of learners and to push thinking.
Spiral objectives, skills, and questions from everything previously learned to keep student learning sharp.
Develop "Do Now" tracking sheets for students that show student performance on the skills in each "Do Now".
Teacher Evaluation Tidbit
A part of the Teacher Evaluation addresses that the teacher facilitates learning. As educators we must provide a variety of instructional methods and techniques to meet individual needs.
The most important component of planning which instructional strategy, method or skill to use in a particular lesson is to incorporate structure within the instructional process. Those students who require adaptations generally require structure and organization in their lesson to be able to achieve success.
-Plan your instructional strategies with every student in mind so that every student in your classroom has an opportunity to learn.
-Whatever strategy is chosen to teach a concept, it can be adapted to suit the particular needs of a student.
-Vary your instructional approaches and methods throughout a course/class.
-Remember that people have different preferences for the way new information is presented.
-Try to incorporate practices which involve students in decisions regarding their own learning.
-Think about enrichment and remediation in a variety of ways whenever needed. Not just within your R and E groups.
Things to Ponder
How rigorous are your assignments? Do they p0ush students to think critically? Will it lead to mastery learning? Ponder these questions as you execute lessons. Thanks for all you do.
The brain ruthlessly determines what is worth holding on to and what is not, and it discards that which it deems not worth keeping.” David Conley