Month: December 2022

While not a comprehensive list, below are some main components of an oral presentation that students can work to improve as they gain experience presenting their work in front of a group of people. By requiring students to be mindful of some specific features of an oral presentation, they can work to gain confidence in conveying messages using the spoken word.

Accuracy: Does the student speak with few to no mistakes? Accuracy in recitation means that the student can repeat the text verbatim.

Pronunciation: Can the student correctly sound out the spoken words? Pronunciation means that the student pronounces all words correctly when speaking, focusing on how to emphasize parts of the word and how certain letters and phonemes sound when spoken aloud.

Enunciation: Can the students speak clearly? Enunciation means that the students can properly blend words, speak at an appropriate pace so that each word spoken can be

The Marble Jar Reward System

This article will demonstrate the Marble Jar Reward system as a method of extrinsic motivation in your primary to elementary students. While you can use this reward system for every age group, by middle to high school, students should be more intrinsically motivated and may deem behavior reinforcers such as a reward system too juvenile.

The Marble Jar Reward System is a common classroom management tool to help reinforce desired behaviors. This positive reinforcement strategy is typically utilized as a whole class reward system but can also be modified for individual students. The most common use of the Marble Jar System is for the teacher to set up a glass jar in an easily viewable location, like the top of a shelf or her desk. Choose a jar size that is not too large; or, if you choose a large jar, add a tired system

Cooperative Writing

During Cooperative Writing, one specific strategy involves the teacher assigning writing tasks to two students, and they take turns completing a writing task. The teacher may often provide some specific instructions like

“Discuss in pairs _____ and then take turns responding to the prompt___.”

Students then take turns to record their writing, building on each other’s sentences or paragraphs. They can also use this time to check each other’s work.

Pairing students during cooperative writing can serve many purposes:

• Struggling students paired with higher performing students can provide an avenue for the struggling student to learn proper grammar and vocabulary usage. In contrast, the higher performing student can practice reviewing writing rules with his or her peer.
• Two higher performing students can challenge each other to include additional details, more complex vocabulary, or a more refined sentence structure.
• Two lower performing students, with the help of the teacher,

If your goal is to help students learn about one another and connect with students they may not usually talk to, then the New Friends Bingo icebreaker may be a good choice for you!

New Friends Bingo allows students to interact with one another while playing a modified version of Bingo. Using a Bingo table, details about potential student characteristics are recorded in each square. You might choose to record simple information about students like “has brown hair” or “owns a cat”; or you might have some fun and create more unique details that might help make some meaningful connections like “loves comics” or “speaks a language other than English or Spanish .”Students are then asked to roam around the classroom, introduce themselves to each other, and then attempt to find a detail that matches the person they are speaking to. If a student finds a friend with a detail

Without utilizing a technique like Action Research, you may not be certain about a solution’s effectiveness and might not be maximizing your student’s potential. Action Research is a process for teachers to reflect and evaluate their teaching practices, identify best practices in current research, and work to improve instructional and student performance in a data-focused way. How often have you seen a new strategy or idea and thought, “Yes! That would be a great way to help my students,” and then sought to try it out? Or, has your district or school ever identified some areas for improvement in the student population and recommended a specific instructional method or strategy to help solve those problems? Every teacher experiences these scenarios, but the only way for a teacher to know whether or not an approach in the classroom is valid and works is to deeply reflect on and evaluate his or

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This article first appeared in the Teaching Professor on December 17, 2018. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. 

First snowflakes of the season today. Winter is settling in out here in the Pennsylvania countryside. It’s quiet, no birdsongs in the morning, few leaves left on the trees to rustle, and frost muting the crunch of those on the ground. In the woods where I walk, the silence brings everything else into sharper focus.

We don’t always think about silence positively. Visitors sometimes tell us it’s too quiet out here. They feel anxious. Silence can be awkward—we’ve all had those moments of not knowing what to say. It can also feel like an affront. Ask a question in class, hear the silence, and feel a small surge of anger. It’s a confrontation. It’s students’ way of saying that they don’t want to sit at this learning table we’ve so carefully set.

The challenges for faculty working with students in the 21st century are rising. How can faculty meet the many challenges facing higher education? In the past, faculty could stand objectively in front of the class and provide didactic information to students via lecture. Students came to the classroom expecting information from a book and verbal lecture covering the content. Over time, student expectations and readiness have changed. Students in the 21st century enter the classroom armed with a vast array of knowledge just a swipe away on various digital devices. In addition, they have access to instant entertainment and innovative instruction on various websites, social media, and podcasts. Unfortunately, nationwide scores in math and reading are on the decline—these students often lack the skills to succeed in higher education. The challenge of identifying the best approach to educating these digital natives is on the mind of educators across the country.

This article first appeared in the Teaching Professor on May 17, 2017. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. 

I continue to worry that we devalue the affective dimensions of teaching—the emotional energy it takes to keep delivering high-quality instruction.

Most faculty are on solid ground in terms of expertise. We know and, in most cases, love our content. We don’t get tired of it—oh, maybe we do a bit in those foundation courses, but the content isn’t what wears us down; it’s the daily grind, having to be there every class session, not just physically present but mentally and emotionally engaged as well. Good teaching requires more energy than we think it does.

I’m posting this because it is the end of the academic year, and many us are feeling tired and used up. That makes it a good time for a gentle reminder: take time to refresh. Whatever time

Here, a relatively simple approach to teaching and checking for student criticality is explained, where conceptual, alongside applied learning, is pervasive. It revolves around a two-directional spotlight approach of scrutinizing practice in the light of theory and scrutinizing theory in the light of experience.

The ability to critically analyze and evaluate is essential for student progression through degree courses. It is a key element in the higher levels of cognitive taxonomy and is reflected as such for sector quality (e,g. in the UK’s Framework for Higher Education Qualifications, QAA, 2014) and for specific course design (e.g. in the language of learning outcomes for the later stage modules of programs). It is also depicted as a crucial graduate attribute both in terms of being effective citizens in democracy and being effective employees and leaders in modern organizations (Garcia, 2009), especially in the context of corporate social responsibility. Having said this, there