Summary
This is a collection of Instructional Strategies with digital versions you can use with your class or presentation. Most of these are simple tools to help you engage your participants with a topic of your choosing. Simply visit any of these Instructional Strategies, and find the "Go to" button under their "Interactive Version" section.Resources
3-2-1
- 6th - 12th
This writing activity enables students to summarize their understanding of material, to evaluate understanding for gaps in knowledge, and to communicate this to their teacher. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
October 28th, 2022
- Individual
- Engage/Opening, Explain/Closing, Evaluate/Assessment
- Less Than 10 Minutes
- Activate Prior Knowledge, Conversation Starter, Critical Thinking, Evaluate, Reflection, Review, Self-assessment, Writing
- 6th - 12th
S-I-T (Surprising, Interesting, Troubling)
- Preschool - 12th
Using this strategy, students identify something they find surprising, interesting, and troubling about the selected stimulus. Using S-I-T, students can summarize and demonstrate their interaction with a text, an image, or a video. Read more »
Created by: Sarah Brewer
February 8th, 2024
- Engage/Opening, Explore/Learning Activity, Extend/Additional Learning Activity, Evaluate/Assessment
- 10 - 20 Minutes
- Activate Prior Knowledge, Analyze, Conversation Starter, Elaborate, Evaluate, Hypothesize, Identify, Interpret, Reflection, Student Choice, Summarize, Synthesize
- Preschool - 12th
What? So What? Now What?
- 11th - 12th
Use this strategy as a method of reflection on a lesson, topic, or learning objective. The purpose is to allow students a scaffolding to reflect in a deeper manner than simply recalling what they did. Read more »
Created by: Cacey Wells
February 22nd, 2024
- Individual
- Evaluate/Assessment
- Less Than 10 Minutes
- Reflection
- 11th - 12th
Two Stars and A Wish
- Preschool - 12th
Two Stars and a Wish is a reflection strategy designed to provide student feedback via peer- and self-assessment. Students consider a recent activity, lesson, event, etc., and respond with two positive (stars) and one hopeful (wish) reflection. Read more »
Created by: Lindsey Link
May 4th, 2023
- Individual, Whole Class
- Explain/Closing, Extend/Additional Learning Activity, Evaluate/Assessment
- Less Than 10 Minutes
- Compare & Contrast, Critical Thinking, Evaluate, Identify, Reflection, Student Choice, Synthesize
- Preschool - 12th
Step In, Step Out, Step Back
- Kindergarten - Undergraduate
This strategy helps students analyze and understand differing social and cultural perspectives by putting themselves in the shoes of another person or character. Read more »
Created by: Lindsey Link
February 7th, 2023
- Individual, Large Group (at least 30), Medium Group (at least 10), Small Group, Small Group (at least 4), Whole Class
- Engage/Opening, Explore/Learning Activity, Explain/Closing, Extend/Additional Learning Activity, Evaluate/Assessment
- 10 - 20 Minutes, 20 - 30 Minutes
- Analyze, Compare & Contrast, Critical Thinking, Interpret, Reflection
- Kindergarten - Undergraduate
Examples and Non-Examples
- Preschool - 12th
This strategy has students explore what they know about a topic or concept by generating examples of what it is and what it is not. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
October 13th, 2023
- Engage/Opening, Extend/Additional Learning Activity, Evaluate/Assessment
- 10 - 20 Minutes
- Activate Prior Knowledge, Brainstorming, Collaborate, Compare & Contrast, Critical Thinking, Interpret, Organize, Problem Solving, Reflection, Student Choice, Summarize, Writing
- Preschool - 12th
How Am I Feeling? What Am I Thinking?
- 6th - 12th
Students self-evaluate or reflect on their learning and social-emotional status after exploring or engaging in a new topic or concept. This formative assessment can also double as an Exit Ticket. Read more »
Created by: Cacey Wells
October 18th, 2023
- Individual
- Evaluate/Assessment
- Less Than 10 Minutes
- Reflection
- 6th - 12th
Triangle-Square-Circle
- Preschool - 12th
This reflective strategy requires students to reflect and choose important pieces of information and question anything they don’t completely understand. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
February 21st, 2024
- Individual, Whole Class
- Engage/Opening, Explain/Closing, Evaluate/Assessment
- Less Than 10 Minutes
- Analyze, Critical Thinking, Evaluate, Identify, Organize, Reflection, Self-assessment, Student Choice, Summarize
- Preschool - 12th
Looks Like, Sounds Like, Feels Like
- Preschool - 12th
This social-emotional learning strategy allows students to analyze abstract behavioral terms, empowering students to identify the concrete characteristics of behaviors. This skill is useful in setting classroom norms and resolving conflict. Read more »
Created by: Mariah Warren
December 20th, 2023
- Individual, Whole Class
- Engage/Opening
- Less Than 10 Minutes
- Collaborate, Problem Solving, Student Choice
- Preschool - 12th
What Did I Learn Today?
- Preschool - 12th
Reflective writing helps the teacher determine if a day's lesson met its intended learning goals. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
January 29th, 2024
- Individual
- Extend/Additional Learning Activity, Evaluate/Assessment
- Less Than 10 Minutes
- Activate Prior Knowledge, Analyze, Critical Thinking, Evaluate, Self-assessment, Student Choice, Summarize, Writing
- Preschool - 12th
RAFT
- 6th - 12th
This strategy enables students to create new understanding about a topic by adopting another point of view in their written responses. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
August 21st, 2023
- Individual
- Explain/Closing, Extend/Additional Learning Activity, Evaluate/Assessment
- 20 - 30 Minutes, More Than 30 Minutes
- Critical Thinking, Identify, Student Choice, Synthesize, Writing
- 6th - 12th
Fiction in the Facts
- 6th - 12th
Students analyze statements to differentiate between fact and fiction, promoting critical thinking and discourse among students to identify correct content area knowledge. Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
October 13th, 2023
- Individual, Whole Class
- Engage/Opening
- Less Than 10 Minutes
- Analyze, Collaborate, Compare & Contrast, Critical Thinking, Evaluate, Recognize
- 6th - 12th
Stoplight
- Preschool - 12th
Students self-identify their understanding of a topic at anytime during instruction. This strategy promotes metacognition and allows teachers to quickly assess students' individual confidence, understanding, or knowledge about a topic. Read more »
Created by: Lindsay Hawkins
January 24th, 2024
- Whole Class
- Engage/Opening, Evaluate/Assessment
- Less Than 10 Minutes, 10 - 20 Minutes
- Activate Prior Knowledge, Conversation Starter, Physical Movement, Reason, Reflection, Review, Self-assessment, Speak & Listen, Student Choice, Summarize, Synthesize
- Preschool - 12th
Stoplight Questions
- 5th - 12th
Stoplight Questions help students consider how rigorous their research and inquiry questions are. This strategy equips students to evaluate their questioning for deeper learning. It also helps them internalize what defines a quality research question. Read more »
Created by: Teresa Lansford
December 7th, 2023
- Large Group (at least 30)
- Explore/Learning Activity
- 20 - 30 Minutes
- Brainstorming, Research
- 5th - 12th
Stoplight Stickies
- Preschool - 12th
This strategy provides a formative assessment to gauge how confident students feel about their understanding of new content and/or their ability to put that new learning into action. Read more »
Created by: Shayna Pond
January 25th, 2024
- Whole Class
- Engage/Opening, Evaluate/Assessment
- Less Than 10 Minutes
- Activate Prior Knowledge, Evaluate, Self-assessment
- Preschool - 12th
5W Cube
- Preschool - 12th
The 5W Cube is a portable strategy to target open-ended questions (beginning with who, what, when, where, why, and how) as a means of exploring content and conversational speech. The 5W Cube helps students formulate questions and foster meaningful connections with content. This strategy can be used... Read more »
Created by: Lindsey Link
February 20th, 2024
- Whole Class
- Engage/Opening, Explore/Learning Activity, Explain/Closing, Extend/Additional Learning Activity, Evaluate/Assessment
- Less Than 10 Minutes, 10 - 20 Minutes, 20 - 30 Minutes, More Than 30 Minutes
- Activate Prior Knowledge, Analyze, Brainstorming, Conversation Starter, Elaborate, Evaluate, Identify, Infer, Interpret, Organize, Recognize, Reflection, Review, Speak & Listen, Summarize, Writing
- Preschool - 12th
Critical Thinking Cube
- 6th - 12th
This is a writing activity that enables students to have fun while practicing different levels of critical thinking, from lower order to higher order. Students construct cubes to examine a topic of study from six different perspectives. Read more »
Created by: Daniel Schwarz
March 8th, 2024
- Individual, Small Group
- Extend/Additional Learning Activity, Evaluate/Assessment
- 20 - 30 Minutes
- Activate Prior Knowledge, Analyze, Brainstorming, Collaborate, Compare & Contrast, Conversation Starter, Critical Thinking, Elaborate, Evaluate, Identify, Interpret, Persuade, Recognize, Speak & Listen, Summarize, Synthesize, Writing
- 6th - 12th
Commit and Toss
- 6th - 12th
Students are encouraged to evaluate their classmates' effort without personal bias in this anonymous peer evaluation and writing strategy. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
February 20th, 2024
- Individual, Whole Class
- Engage/Opening, Explore/Learning Activity, Explain/Closing, Extend/Additional Learning Activity
- 10 - 20 Minutes, 20 - 30 Minutes
- Activate Prior Knowledge, Compare & Contrast, Critical Thinking, Elaborate, Evaluate, Persuade, Reason, Reflection, Self-assessment, Student Choice, Summarize, Writing
- 6th - 12th
Six-Word Memoirs
- 11th - 12th
This is a strategy of brevity. You can say a lot briefly. Six-Word Memoirs does just that. Students describe topics in six words. Saying less requires identifying essential facts. It means thinking about word choice. It also requires eliminating unimportant information. It's not easy, but it's doable.... Read more »
Created by: Chelsee Wilson
February 20th, 2024
- Individual
- Extend/Additional Learning Activity, Evaluate/Assessment
- 20 - 30 Minutes
- Critical Thinking, Elaborate, Review, Summarize, Synthesize, Writing
- 11th - 12th
I Notice, I Wonder
- 6th - 12th
Students use guided inquiry to create and answer good questions from the information at hand, activating their prior knowledge and engaging them in higher-order thinking. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
April 25th, 2024
- Whole Class
- Engage/Opening, Explore/Learning Activity, Explain/Closing
- 10 - 20 Minutes
- Activate Prior Knowledge, Collaborate, Critical Thinking, Hypothesize, Identify, Infer, Reflection, Speak & Listen
- 6th - 12th
Think-Pair-Share
- Preschool - 12th
In this activity, students collaborate with a partner to brainstorm and share ideas. This strategy can be used in a variety of ways to get participants thinking, communicating, and collaborating. Read more »
Created by: K20 Center
April 25th, 2024
- Engage/Opening
- Less Than 10 Minutes
- Activate Prior Knowledge, Brainstorming, Collaborate, Conversation Starter, Hypothesize, Present, Reason, Speak & Listen, Student Choice
- Preschool - 12th
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