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CE-MIST Writing Across the Curriculum Teaching Strategies

CE-MIST Suggested Instructional Strategies

  1. Give students real objects to observe, describe, sort and classify in collaborative small groups.
  1. Make models of abstract ideas or of things too big or too small to “see.”
  1. Get kids up and moving by using kinesthetic activities. For example:
  2. Use a rope and small groups of students to act out the behavior of molecules in a solid, a liquid, and a gas.
  3. Role-play how organelles would act on raw material entering a cell.
  4. Dramatize processes of the rock cycle.
  5. Ask students to become celestial bodies and demonstrate rotation, revolution, seasons and opposition by doing appropriate motions.
  6. Ask students to draw simple, series, and parallel circuits with their finger in the air.
  1. Use discrepant events to challenge thinking and uncover misconceptions.
  1. Incorporate songs or raps, riddles or poems.
  1. Uncover meanings of words by learning word roots.
  1. Use Share-Pair Circles. Divide the class into two equal groups. Each group forms a circle. The inner circle faces outward and the outer circle faces inward, to form pairs of facing students. In response to teacher questions, each pair discusses their ideas; then one of the circles rotates to create new pairs. Repeat until the original pairs are again facing each other.
  1. Use a Jigsaw Strategy. Divide the class into small groups. Divide the material into segments and ask each group to become an expert on just one portion. Each group will brainstorm creative ways to present their material to the whole class.
  1. Use Inquiry Stations. Divide the class into small groups and ask them to rotate through a series of self-guided stations that feature exploratory, hands-on activities. The students should have specific tasks to complete and data to collect. You might consider issuing passports and using a timer. Bring the whole group together at the end of the class to discuss what they discovered at each station.
  1. Play games. Using games can be a fun way to review material. Pictionary and Charades are ideal for reviewing vocabulary; Jeopardy can be used to reinforce facts. The game 20 Questions requires students to categorize information to narrow the possibilities. Playing cards can be used to randomly assign students to groups.

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