Confessions from the Couch » 10 “Go To” Strategies

10 “Go To” Strategies

Yesterday, I made mention of that developing a list of 10 “go to” strategies can help you in the classroom. “Go To” means that you can pretty much do them without a lot of preparation-maybe 5-10 minutes worth to organize the activity. These are things I do pretty regularly outside of lecturing. I have listed them here according to how frequently they are used in my classroom.

Games. They are an excellent way to review materials. We play games about 3 times a week. The games that we play most are: Stand Up/Sit Down, Flyswat, Bingo, Uh and Jeopardy. I actually have a Jeopardy board ready for each unit now that I’m completing my 4th year of teaching. Jeopardy boards are investments-30 minutes of prep the first time around. Once you do it, you can repeat it OVER AND OVER AND OVER until you fall out of your seat. And if you have really good classroom management, you don’t even have to run/host the game. The students will do it for you while you grade papers and watch.
Dry Erase Boards. Another method for reviewing or synthesizing. I don’t care how old a kid is THEY LOVE TO WRITE ON THE BOARDS! My seniors love it. The most common way, that I use them is to take the test and ask questions directly from the test. But, a teacher could also, ask students to write sentences summarizing concepts. To get dry erase boards for cheap, go to lowes or home depot and buy the big white boards and they will cut them into squares for you if you go to the department where . My first year, I had students purchase their own dry erase markers. However, now I ask kids to “donate” them to the class community. Now, I have over 40 brand new dry erase markers for use for next years batch of kids.
Drawings. Used to review or have student show me what they’ve just read. This can be done on the dry erase boards OR on their own paper. Once you’ve walked around and looked at the drawings can have students draw them on the big board for the entire class. We giggle and have fun with people’s stick figures. I even draw my own version and they get a whooot out of it b/c I have NO ARTISTIC SKILLS whatsoever. Nevertheless, you know a child got it if they can translate it into a drawing.
Guided Readings. They often come with the textbooks. It requires the students to read the text-preview before I begin teaching a concept. What I love about this? It’s an independent activity for which I have to provide LITTLE instruction. Next year’s textbook does not have guided readings. Therefore, I will spend my summer making them. It will be worth every single minute. EVERY SINGLE MINUTE. I just wish I could sell them to someone when I’m finished.
Collage. I pose a question to students like: How have the Ancient Greeks impacted world culture? They have to answer in collage form. I have one rubric that I modify each time I do this activity.
Graphic Organizers. There are tons of books out there with templates that teachers can use. Links to graphic organizers: Here. or Here. A book that I plan to purchase soon is: Tools for Thought.
United Streaming. I use this resource for more than just streaming in videos. Often times, there are activities/teacher guides/ideas for lessons or extensions.
Singing/Poetry/Rhyme/Drama. My kids LOVE to perform. Absolutely love it. The shy ones love to choreograph, write and see others perform. They also love to watch it back on video. I have generic rubric that modify for performances. Anything that incorporates Music produces the most excitement with my students.
Graffiti. I hang large pieces of butch paper all over the room. I put a topic on each piece of paper. Students rotate around the room adding notes to the butcher paper about that topic. Usually they rotate in groups staying at each poster for about 1 minute.
Foldables. I’ve written many , many posts about foldables. I discovered them about 2 years ago while reading someone’s blog. Since then, I can’t get enough of them. The products students produce are amazing.

These activities require very little preparation. And when I don’t know what to do, I pick of the following. One of the things my students love is the instructional variety. Rarely do we do the same thing every single day, unless we are continuing a video or activity that wasn’t finished the previous day. Mixed with new things I’m trying all the time, students in my classes have a “diverse” learning experiences.

Teaching Strategies | Miss Teacha | April 17, 2009 12:53 pm

9 Comments

By Midwest Teacher, April 17, 2009 @ 2:56 pm

LOVE IT! I’ll have to print this out. As it is, I need to get my butt out of here for the day and go home & PACK for my wknd out of town. W00t!
By Nancy, April 17, 2009 @ 6:15 pm

An easy alternative to the guided reading might be articles found on the Internet that relate to critical thinking in History–geocide, piracy, stolen artwork, the economy, and on and on. Do your kids have access to computers? If so they could blog their reflections. If you only have one computer then one or two people ccould respond a day, a class of 30 could be the ‘guest blogger’ twice a month.
By HappyChyck, April 17, 2009 @ 9:00 pm

Oh! Great ideas. Might give me little pump before the end of the year. We do tons of writing throughout the year, so many of these things are not great for me. I am getting ready to read a bunch of lit in the next month, and I think I’ll use more hands-on activities. One of my colleagues who teaches social students and teaches at both schools like I do would very much agree with your list! Great stuff here.

The collage rubric–green, crunk, fi–OMG! That cracked me up. You’re so cool!
By Miss Teacha, April 17, 2009 @ 9:45 pm

Happy Chyck, I stole the green, crunk, fi from co-teacher. That part of the rubric is from her. The kids said our words were out dated. So one day we’ll do a poll and fix it.
By Miss Teacha, April 17, 2009 @ 10:21 pm

Nancy, I like you idea. . . but we only have 1 computer in the classroom and it is used for the projection system. As a matter of fact, I have to bring my PERSONAL laptop to school to use at my desk when the students are working. It would be a totally feasible idea IF we weren’t so limited with technology. A month ago, I went get access to the computer lab w/my students for a few days to do a tech assignment AND its booked for the rest of the year.

Thanks for the positive vibes, MW Teacher & Happy Chyck . . . I’m sure ya’ll have a top 10 list and I would LOVE to read them. I hope I inspire a moment (of folks making strategy lists) so I can make my list longer and maybe next year I’ll have a top 20 strategy list!
By irrational, April 18, 2009 @ 8:57 pm

Thanks for all of the links! I hadn’t visited most of these before.
By TeacherMom, April 20, 2009 @ 6:21 pm

This is a fantastic list! I already printed it out. The reason why it’s so great is that everything is SIMPLE. I have read pages and pages of complex activities and wondered who in the world could ever deal with that much complexity. Anyway, thank you for posting this for us new teachers who need realistic ideas.
By jburch, April 23, 2009 @ 7:32 am

Wow, sorry it took me so long. I too have a go to list but I’ve borrowed and added from yours to share with my new teacher friends. thanks for the adivce.