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Opinion Blog

Classroom Q&A

With Larry Ferlazzo

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to lferlazzo@epe.org. Read more from this blog.

Teaching Opinion

Q&A Collections: Instructional Strategies

By Larry Ferlazzo — August 20, 2021 12 min read
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During the summer, I am sharing thematic posts bringing together responses on similar topics from the past 10 years. You can see all those collections from the first nine years here.

Here are the ones I’ve published so far:

The 11 Most Popular Classroom Q&A Posts of the Year

Race & Racism in 69ý

School Closures & the Coronavirus Crisis

Classroom-Management Advice

Best Ways to Begin the School Year

Best Ways to End the School Year

Student Motivation & Social-Emotional Learning

Implementing the Common Core

Challenging Normative Gender Culture in Education

Teaching Social Studies

Cooperative & Collaborative Learning

Using Tech With 69ý

Student Voices

Parent Engagement in 69ý

Teaching English-Language Learners

69ý Instruction

Writing Instruction

Education Policy Issues

Assessment

Differentiating Instruction

Math Instruction

Science Instruction

Advice for New Teachers

Author Interviews

Entering the Teaching Profession

The Inclusive Classroom

Learning & the Brain

Administrator Leadership

Teacher Leadership

Relationships in 69ý

Professional Development

Today’s theme is on instructional strategies. You can see the list of posts following this excerpt from one of them:

thebestlessons

*Four Favorite Physical Education Instructional Strategies—Recommended by Teachers!

Differentiated instruction is among the favorite strategies three educators employ in teaching physical education.

* The What, Why, and How Of ‘Interleaving’

Four educators explain the strategy of “interleaving” and how it applies to classroom practice.

* Ten Ways I’ll Be Teaching Differently Next Year

I share 10 instructional practices I’ve developed during the pandemic that I will be continuing into the next school year.

* 69ý’ Questions Can ‘Drive Their Learning’

Four educators provide advice on how teachers can equip students with tools to support their asking open-ended & relevant questions.

* ‘69ý Will Ask Great Questions If We Give Them the Chance’

Four educators share ideas for encouraging students to develop questions, including through project-based learning.

* ‘Cultivating Student Questioning Is Not a Onetime Thing’

Five educators and authors discuss ways to cultivate students asking questions, including through “question-storming.”

* 10 Strategies for Encouraging 69ý to Ask Questions

Four educators share ways to encourage students to ask questions, including the “Notice & Wonder” routine.

* ‘The Essence of Critical Thinking Is Testing Claims With Evidence’

Three educators discuss how to cultivate critical thinking among students, including by using “design” and “computational” thinking.

* Integrating Critical Thinking Into the Classroom

Four educators offer suggestions on helping students develop critical-thinking skills, including through the use of “evaluative praise.”

* Eight Instructional Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking

Four educators share tips for supporting the development of critical thinking in the classroom.

* Ten Ways to Use Retrieval Practice in the Classroom

Five educators explain why and how they use retrieval practice in their classroom.

* Improving Instruction With Student Data

Three educators offer ideas on how they use student data to improve their instruction.

* Using Data to Support 69ý

Three educators write about how they use data to improve their instruction.

Three educators highlight the role of memory in learning, such as the importance of guarding against remembering “without understanding” and being strategic about when to emphasize memorization’s importance with students.

Four teachers offer different perspectives on memorization in teaching and learning, including one suggesting it is the “foundation” of the creativity process and another saying she is “tormented” by the issue.

Using drama and gallery walks are among the ways to incorporate movement in teaching, say four educators who share their strategies.

Four educators share ideas on how to use movement with students, including for learning vocabulary through the use of the Total Physical Response.

Five educators share ways to use music in lessons across the curriculum, including for textual analysis and to help create a positive classroom culture.

Five educators share multiple ways to use music in nonmusic classes, including having students create their own songs to help remember content and interpreting the music of different eras in social studies classes.

Four educators share ideas on how to leverage student background knowledge, including through using The Question Formulation Technique, word splashes, and sticky notes.

Seven educators explain the importance of tapping students’ background knowledge in order to learn new content, and they describe ways to do just that, including through the use of surveys and anticipation guides.

Bobson Wong, Adeyemi Stembridge, Jennifer Davis Bowman, Starr Sackstein, Kathy Dyer, and Rachelle Dene Poth share ideas on how students can teach their classmates.

This second post in the series on students teaching their classmates includes commentaries by Rita Platt, Paul Solarz, Laurie Buffington, Laura Greenstein, and Anne Taffin d’Heursel Baldisseri.

Amber Chandler, Cheryl Mizerny, Andrew Miller, Karen Goeller, Michael D. Toth, Megan Bang, Laura M. Brady, Stephanie A. Fryberg, and Mary C. Murphy share their ideas on students as teachers.

This four-part series on peer teaching is wrapped up today with responses from Bryan Goodwin, Jenny Grant Rankin, Sarah Thomas, and Bradley Witzel.

Claudine Phillips, Kelly Wickham Hurst, Mary K. Tedrow, and Diane Mora wrap up this three-part series where educators shared their best classroom lessons.

Heather Stinson, Meredith Allen, David Hochheiser, Sonny Magana, and Brooke Ahrens contribute their “best lesson” experiences.

Tara Dale, Sarah Cooper, Alexis Wiggins, Debbie Silver, Stephaney Jones-Vo, and Cindi Rigsbee share their best lessons and what made them so great.

Abby Shink, Andrew Kozlowsky, Michael Young, Bradley Witzel, Heather Stinson, and Andrew Miller share their thoughts on learning games.

Susan Lafond, Michael Fisher, Eric Schildge, Jennifer Thomas, and Adam Powley discuss how games can be used effectively in the classroom.

Barbara Blackburn, Meghan Everette, Rachael George, Jody Passanisi, and readers share their advice with textbook publishers about how they can improve their products.

John Spencer, Kevin Parr, Jessica Torres, and Tammy Quist share their suggestions on how to handle the days and weeks leading up to school breaks.

In today’s final post in this series on collaborative learning, Paul Vermette, Cindy Kline, Jennifer Fredricks, Jenny Grant Rankin, Andrew Miller, and Tamara Fyke contribute their ideas.

Beate Planche, Lyn Sharratt, Debbie Zacarian, Meredith Allen, Nancy Sulla, Bret Gosselin, Emily Phillips Galloway, and Paola Uccelli share their suggestions on encouraging student collaboration.

Today’s post features contributions from Michael Thornton, Robin Brandehoff, Ivannia Soto, and Nell K. Duke. They share recommendations for how teachers can encourage student collaborative learning.

Matthew Homrich-Knieling, Nancy Sulla, Michele L. Haiken, Jim Peterson, Rachel Baker, and Louise Goldberg write about their suggestions for Do Now activities (also known as Warm-Ups).

This four-part series on underused teaching strategies wraps up with commentaries from Regie Routman, Gabriella Corales, Shawna Coppola, Donna Wilson, Marcus Conyers, Fred Ende, Tom Hoerr, Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, and Adam Fachler.

Ron Berger, Debbie Zacarian, Greg Walton, Christopher Panna, Kathy Dyer, Barb Pitchford, Paul Bloomberg, and Malke Rosenfield share their favorite underused teaching strategies.

Jo Boaler, Katie Brown, Rachael George, Laura Greenstein, Dan Rothstein, David Jacob, and Greg Brown name what they consider underutilized teaching and learning strategies.

Kathy Glass, Amber Chandler, Carol Salva, Jennifer Davis Bowman, and Janet Allen propose their “nominees” for underused—and effective—instructional strategies.

Shanna Peeples, Kathy T. Glass, Maria Walther, Sandi Novak, and Toby Karten wrap up a five-part series on using questions in the classroom.

Adeyemi Stembridge, Ph.D., Kara Pranikoff, Starr Sackstein, Jackie A. Walsh, Andrew Miller, and Brian D. Schultz take their turn at responding to the question of how to use questions effectively with students.

Tan Huynh, Laura Robb, Judy Reinhartz, Ph.D., and Erik M. Francis share their suggestions for using questions in the classroom.

Sean Kelly, Sidney D’Mello, Shelly Lynn Counsell, Jennifer Davis Bowman, Rachael Williams, and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm contribute their advice on how teachers can use questions with students.

Jeri Asaro, Dan Rothstein, Diana Laufenberg, Rebecca Mieliwocki, Jenny Edwards, Scott Reed, Cara Jackson, and Ben Johnson share suggestions on how to use questions effectively in the classroom.

This three-part series on organizing classroom discussions wraps up today with suggestions from Tan Huynh, Kathy T. Glass, Sandi Novak, and Brett McLean.

Kara Pranikoff, Laura Robb, Sky Sweet, Tricia Ebarvia, and Patty O’Grady contribute their commentaries about facilitating classroom discussions.

Rita Platt, Adeyemi Stembridge, Ph.D., Jackie Walsh, Doug Lemov, and Valentina Gonzalez share their suggestions on how teachers can best organize classroom discussions.

Today’s guests—Tan Huynh, Sean Llewellyn, and Andrew Miller—share their reflections on what makes a successful IB or AP program.

Rebecca Mieliwocki, Gallit Zvi, Denise Krebs, Yvette Jackson, Veronica McDermott, Amy Sandvold, Josh Patterson, and Maurice J. Elias share their responses on how to incorporate “Genius Hours” into the classroom.

Cathy Beck, Heidi Pace, Anna Bartosik, Jenny Edwards, Josh Patterson, Ashley Roberts, and Andrew Miller contribute their suggestions on how to emphasize learning transfer in the classroom.

Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, Adeyemi Stembridge, Todd Finley, Kenneth Baum, and David Krulwich share their ideas on transfer of learning.

Tan Huynh, Russel Tarr, Laura Greenstein, Eric Jabal, Erik M. Francis, and Andrew Miller share their ideas on taxonomies and the classroom.

Meghan Everette, Rebecca Stobaugh, Sandra Love, Michael Fisher, Susan M. Brookhart, Howard Pitler, and Tony Frontier contribute their advice on using learning & questioning taxonomies in the classroom.

Daniel L. Schwartz, Jessica M. Tsang, Kristen P. Blair, Otis Kriegel, Stephanie Smith Budhai, Faye Brenner, and Effuah Sam offer their suggestions on handling field trips.

Ron Berger, Camille A. Farrington, Gail Desler, Abby Schneiderjohn, and Mike Janatovich contribute their thoughts on the best ways to plan and use field trips.

Jennifer Orr, Herb Broda, Anne Jenks, Russel Tarr, and Andrew Miller share their ideas on how to maximize the learning potential of field trips.

What data is, how can it be used effectively, and how can it be misused are questions we’ll consider today with commentaries from Nancy Fichtman Dana, Jenni Donohoo, Myron Dueck, Pete Hall, Andrew Miller, Jessica A. Hockett, Kristina J. Doubet, and Kimberly Long.

This post features contributions from Roxanna Elden, Barnett Berry, and Pedro Noguera, along with comments from readers.

Diana Laufenberg, Jeff Charbonneau, Ted Appel, and special guest John Hattie share their thoughts.

Debbie Diller and Leslie Blauman share their thoughts, as do readers.

Three educators—Julia Thompson, Ariel Sacks, and Gini Cunningham—contribute their responses.

This post features guest responses from three educators—Virginia McEnerney, David Booth, and Heather Wolpert-Gawron.

*

Educator/authors Cathy Vatterott and Bryan Harris contribute their thoughts here.

*

This post features guest contributions from Jonah Lehrer, former staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Imagine: How Creativity Works, and Ashley Merryman, co-author of NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children.

*

Middle school teacher Heather Wolpert-Gawron, author of ‘Tween Crayons and Curfews: Tips for Middle School Teachers, and I share our ideas.

*

Three guests share their recommendations: Ron Ritchhart, author and researcher for Harvard’s Project Zero; educator Todd Stanley, co-author of Critical Thinking and Formative Assessments: Increasing the Rigor in Your Classroom; and Robert Swartz, director of the National Center for Teaching Thinking.

*

Barbara R. Blackburn, author of Rigor is NOT a Four-Letter Word; Cris Tovani, author of So...What do They Really Know?; and “Senior Provocateur” Ira Socol provide diverse guest responses, and I throw in an intriguing chart.

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The opinions expressed in Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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