"Adopting Learning Strategies while learning can be a strategy and tactics to equip students with learning tools for the rest of their lives."

In the past few years there has been a growing pressure on both teachers and students to prove, show and “certify” what they are able to do. There has been a growing concern for productivity, for the returns that school work can bring in. The emphasis seems to shift more and more towards competence - what you can do - and towards performance - showing that you can do it. In a way, this has resulted in a shift of attention away from the how - how you achieve that competence, the process you have to go through, and also what schools and teachers can do to make learning possible and rewarding for all students .

The basic idea is that learning strategies are essential components of a curriculum, as bridges between competence (what you have to learn to do) and process (what you have to go through to reach that result). 

The four main points are:

• first, that learning strategies belong to the learner and should be kept distinct from teaching strategies;
• second, that there are no "good" strategies because people need to discover their own;
• third, that we need tasks that prompt the use of strategies;
• and finally, that strategies should become part of selected classroom discourse - in other words, a strategic approach should be woven into the ways students and teachers listen and talk to each other every day, or, to put it in more technical terms, into their interaction patterns.

  

Learning strategies should be embeded in a curriculum

 

By learning strategies I mean any action which you may have to take to solve a problem in learning, to help you make the most of your learning process, to speed up and optimize your cognitive, affective or social behaviour. To give an example, I will put the reader of this paper in a testing situation. Please consider this sign1, which is removed from the context where it usually appears, answer the questions beneath it, and then compare your answers with my comments.

 

  "PLEASE BE QUIET IN THE CAR PARK"

 "DO NOT DISTURB PATIENTS"

 

Who is this sign for?

Where would you find it?

Which is the key word that helped you to decide?

 Clearly, this sign is addressed to drivers in a hospital car park, and the key word is patients. In this particular case most of the information in the sign is explicit, and you have probably not felt the need to stop and think - you have almost automatically processed it. There are no great problems involved, your brain has relied mostly on routine behavior, and so no specific strategies were called for. But consider this other sign and answer the same questions:

 " P LEASE DO NOT TAKE BATHROOM TOWELS TO THE BEACH"

 

Who is this sign for?

Where would you find it?

What helped you to decide?

 In this case the knowledge of words such as take, bathroom, towels and beach was not enough – there is something more involved in the comprehension of this short message. You have to access your general knowledge of the world, so that you can associate these words with a very specific situation - you start making hypotheses, like, these towels are not mine, otherwise they wouldn't ask me to leave them in the bathroom ... in what sort of public place do I use towels that don't belong to me? So by a process of gradual approximation you come to think of hotels, and call in your knowledge of the socio-cultural conventions associated with hotels, beaches and hotel customers. Of course, because the sign is not placed in its proper context, the surface meaning of the words is not enough to make comprehension possible in an automatic way - you had recourse to a strategy. Notice that you used this strategy unconsciously, although, if asked how you went about it, you could describe your steps in the process, as I have just done.

 

To argue that strategies are important as bridges in the curriculum, I will use a metaphor: the curriculum as iceberg .

Above the surface of this iceberg we have competence and performance - this refers to the question: What can you do, and to what extent can you show me that you can do it? But below the surface is your learning process. This refers to the question: How do you come to be able to do it? It is exactly here, halfway between competence (the "what") and process (the "how") that I put in learning strategies - to support and help you make the most of your learning process. If you think back to the sign about bathroom towels, you will realize that for a fraction of a second the sign did not make sense to you. However, because you are good strategy users, you immediately recognized that you needed something else: you prompted your brain to set in motion a process of association and a process of inference, you acted strategically.

 Notice that when we consider strategies in the curriculum we are only still very much near the surface of the curriculum iceberg. Deeper below, we come to the question: Why can I do something just in that particular way I do it? We are obviously talking about learning style, aptitudes and intelligence's, a person’s unique way of learning, her or his individual differences. This clearly makes a constraint on the range of strategies that come most familiar to people. For example, there are people who like and are good at using inference, but there are other people who find inference a difficult and even painful process.

 As we move even deeper down the iceberg, we come to the very basic questions: What do a foreign language and a foreign culture look like to me? What does learning a language mean to me? And what role can I play in it, what role should my teacher play? Do I think I can learn a language? Do I want to learn a language? Here we are concerned with very basic beliefs and values, attitudes and motivations. Again, notice how these issues feed back to the upper layers in the iceberg. Suppose that a student believes that reading is a passive process, in which all you have to do is let the text flow from the page into your mind. We could urge this student to use a variety of inference and association strategies, but she would probably put up some resistance to them and might even think that we were not doing our job as teachers because we are not giving her the necessary information.

 So strategies are placed in a strategic position in the curriculum, but they cannot be divorced from the total context, which sets heavy constraints on their use.

 To summarize my basic idea, we could say that

• on the one hand, strategies play a cognitive role in learning, because they facilitate and optimize processes, especially in new tasks, where one cannot rely on routine, automatic behavior; in tasks which require and/or allow conscious thinking and accuracy (for example, in a writing task); and when one is faced with problems or is experiencing difficulties (for instance, when one does not know a particular word and is forced to resort to a synonym, a general word or a paraphrase);
• on the other hand, strategies play an effective-motivational role in learning, because they are tools in the learners’ hand, tools that they can use on their own and which can give them the feeling that they can do something to solve their problems and do better. This is what we mean when we say, in rather technical terms, that strategies promote the restructuring of causal attributions: if learners know that they can do something to achieve success in learning, they are less likely to attribute their success or failure to bad luck or poor ability. They can start thinking in a more positive way, they can start thinking that success can be in their hands if they make an effort and use the right strategies. In this way they are also increasing their sense of self-efficacy, self-confidence, and expectations of success – they are empowering themselves. It is as if they said to themselves: "Now I know the rules of the game. I can try harder, play better and maybe win".

 

Learning strategies belong to the learner 

That learning strategies belong to the learner, and should be kept distinct from teaching strategies, may seem obvious, even banal, but in fact most of the time teachers are the source of strategies, they hold them in store for students and seem to “dispense” them when they think it appropriate. Textbooks are often full of strategies, but students rarely spot them as learning strategies, let alone think that learning strategies, as the term says, should belong to them. How often do teachers prompt students to use inference to deduce the meaning of unknown words? How often do they prompt learners not to stop when they meet a problem in reading or listening, but to go on and make hypotheses? And yet ... just leave students alone, on their own, and they will often fail to use those very strategies if teachers are not there to prompt them. Just give students a different task, and they will fail to transfer the strategies. Just let time pass ... and strategy training will melt as ice in the sun.

 What's wrong with this? I would like to argue that one of the possible reasons for this is a sort of confusion as to the respective roles of teachers and learners. Learning strategies are often locked in the package of teachers’ resources and techniques, so that, in the student's eyes, they remain part of the teacher's strategies. In this way students remain unaware that strategic behavior belongs to them. I invite the reader to reconsider how I dealt with the bathroom towels example earlier in this paper: I chose a task and a text which naturally invited the reader to use strategies, and this is what actually happened. If I had stopped there, the reader might have seen all this as a technique which I had used to make my paper more active and concrete - in other words, the reader might have perceived what s/he had done as a result of my own strategies as a writer, not as the result of her/his strategies as a reader. But then I briefly discussed how and why the reader had used the strategies. In this way I tried to make the reader aware of what s/he had done, not so much of what I had done. The difference is subtle, but I believe extremely important. Unless teachers make learning strategies visible by disentangling them from their own teaching strategies, students will not be able to perceive them as tools that belong to them:

 "One of the most critical aspects of strategies instruction is tied to a shift from more traditional instruction that teachers found it difficult to make - a shift from implicit, teacher-directed use of strategies to explicit instruction with the goal of student-regulated strategies use." (National Foreign Language Resource Center 1996)

 

So I can summarize my first main point with a word: explicit. I am advocating a shift from implicit presentation of strategies to explicit instruction, with the goal of promoting students' sense of belonging and self-regulation.  There are no "good" strategies  There are no intrinsically “good” strategies because people need to discover their own. Let me quote Rod Ellis (1994: 558) here, when he wrote that "much of the research on language learning strategies has been based on the assumption that there are "good" learning strategies. But this is questionable.".

 As a matter of fact, most of the strategy instruction that is carried out in classrooms and through materials belongs to one or more of the following types (Benson 1995):

direct advice and suggestions, such as "Look at the headlines and the photos. What hypothesis can you make on the content of this text?";

limited options, such as "Write an outline or draw a mind map before you start writing your composition";

examples of what successful learners do or have done to achieve success, such as "Read what Tom, Anne and Charlie have done to solve their problems in speaking a foreign language. What kind of strategies have they used?"

I do not want to imply that this is all wrong and useless. Of course making hypotheses on a text is a sensible thing to do. Of course outlines and mind maps are useful. Of course people can learn from what other people have done to solve problems. However, one big risk that one can run in using these techniques is that one may see them as inherently good, as useful in absolute terms, thus forgetting the context of use of strategies, with reference both to the learner and to the task. On the one hand, we have already seen how the use of specific strategies is conditioned by individual differences - so the right question to ask is not, "Is this strategy good?", but rather, "Is it good for me?". On the other hand, the task itself has its own features and sets its own constraints: using an outline or a mind map can be useful, depending on a number of factors, for example, the kind of text I have to write, the time I have, whether I can or want to work on my own or with other people, whether I can write a draft and then revise it, and so on. So teachers can still use a variety of techniques to present and practise strategies, on two essential conditions:

• first, that students experience strategies in the context of actual tasks, and not in a vacuum, so that they can put the strategies to the test of a real challenge;
• and second, that teachers provide opportunities for students to reflect on, verbalise and socialise their experience, raising their awareness of which strategies were useful for which tasks:

 "... Teachers need to make it clear that the goal of strategies instruction is not to supplant strategies that are already working, but to make students aware of the full range of strategies that students could be choosing from. Having more alternatives in one's strategic repertoire can increase one's ability to meet challenges in language comprehension and production. Moreover, teachers need to emphasize that the most important component of strategies use is being able to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies and choose alternatives when needed." (National Foreign Language Resource Center 1996)

 

I can summarise my second main point with the words experiential and reflective. Rather than just giving tips, suggestions or advice, we can let students experience strategies in the context of actual tasks and then we can let them talk or write about what they think has really worked for them.

 We need tasks that prompt the use of strategies

 My third main point is that we should start from tasks, not from strategies. This seems obvious, but the tendency in teaching practices and teaching materials has been to focus not on actual learner strategies (that is, what students really do when they try to solve problems), but rather on what teachers, researchers and materials writers have identified as general categories of "good" strategies. So we talk about classification strategies, planning strategies, communication strategies, and so on. We can rely on rather exhaustive lists and taxonomies of strategies, but we often forget that these categories, lists and taxonomies are the result of generalizations: they have been processed and neatly rearranged to serve as the basis for research studies, for syllabuses and for developing materials, but they do not reflect what learners actually do in the context of actual tasks while trying to solve actual problems.

 So if we take a set of strategies, for example, association strategies for vocabulary development, or inference strategies for text comprehension, and set out to teach them, we run the risk of believing that what we are teaching is really what students would be doing in real contexts. But things do not work exactly in that way. Research has repeatedly shown that the choice of strategies depends on a number of factors, including the language being learned, the level of proficiency, the learning goals, and the learner's characteristics, such as age, sex, learning style, beliefs and motivations (Oxford 1989).

 

I am not suggesting that we should not use ready-made strategy packages, as are often provided by coursebooks. But I would like to stress the fact that the starting point for strategy development should not be strategies, but rather language learning tasks which prompt the use of strategies. Obviously, not all tasks are suitable for this kind of work. Only those tasks which include a genuine problem to solve really call for strategy use. This has clear implications for materials design. Notice that problem-solving can be a feature of the most demanding project work, but also of a reading passage which creates expectations and calls for higher cognitive skills such as inference and association. Of course this is not meant to make things more difficult for students! We should continue to be aware of the balance we should keep between task difficulty and students’ ability. It is like walking on a tight rope: if the task is too easy, no strategy will be called for and no new knowledge or competence will be produced – we will fall on one side. If the task is too difficult, even the best strategy cannot make up for abilities that one does not yet possess – we will fall on the other side. So the question is how to find the right balance so that the task poses a problem which can be solved by using strategies, a task which involves a slight stretch for most of the students in a class.

 

Once we have decided to focus on one or more tasks of this kind, we should then identify the possible strategies that could help a learner to do the task: for example, given a reading passage, what strategies could be used to tackle it? In this respect, I think that textbooks should help teachers become more aware of the possible strategies involved in doing a particular task. Our next step would be, not to directly teach students the strategies we are aware of, but to help them become aware of their own strategies and then come up with our own strategies for them to compare and discuss, adapt and maybe change.

 

The word I would use to summarize my third main point is embedded - to remind us that strategy instruction should start from tasks, from real problems, so that students can perceive strategies not as isolated pieces of instruction, or even worse, as a hindrance to learning ("just another brick in the wall", to quote the Pink Floyd's famous song), but as the normal, standard way of approaching tasks3.

 

 

Strategies should become part of selected classroom discourse

 I have just shown that promoting strategy use is really a matter of investigating what works best for individual learners in the context of particular tasks. Teaching learning strategies is not teaching in the traditional sense. We select a specific task that lends itself particularly well to strategy work because it poses a problem. Then we set students to work on the task, and, as they work through it, or just after they have finished working on it, we sort of "weave in" a moment of reflection and discussion on the strategies that they have used - or perhaps not used. When I say "weave in", I really mean integrating this discussion within classroom discourse, within what we and our students actually say when we are together, working on the same task. When we interact, we are not just speakers or listeners: in the same way, when we are working on strategies, we are exchanging information, thoughts and feelings - students presenting their strategies and us weaving in our own strategies, discussing and negotiating possible ways of approaching the problems posed by the task..

If we look at things like this, we can start viewing the question of time in a different way. One of the most frequent reservations and even criticisms about strategies instruction is that it takes time, and time is at a premium today. But if we view strategy work as part of our normal, routine interaction with students, then it is mainly a question of checking the results of a task not just in terms of right or wrong answers (the "product"), but also in terms of the strategies used ("the process"). This will not necessarily take much time - a few minutes here and there may be enough, if this becomes part of our systematic way of dealing with tasks. Of course, it is part of our job as teachers to select the most appropriate tasks and the most appropriate moments to "weave in" this thread of strategic work; it is a question of selecting and evaluating times and circumstances. 

My last main point can thus be summarized by using the word evaluative - to remind us that we need to evaluate what strategies to focus on in which contexts; but also, to remind us that students too need to evaluate their use of strategies.

 

Learning Strategies to Use in Your Classroom -Strategies to Engage, Motivate, and Enhance Student Learning- Incorporate learning strategies into your lessons. These strategies represent the most fundamental skills that effective teachers use on a daily basis to be successful.

Coopertative Learning Strategies

There has been extensive research on using Cooperative learning strategies in the classroom. Research says that students retain information quicker and longer, they develop critical thinking skills, as well as build their communication skills. Those mentioned are just a few of the benefits Cooperative learning has on students. Learn how to monitor groups, assign roles, and manage expectations.

is an effective way for students to learn and process information quickly with the help of others. The goal of using this strategy is for students to work together to achieve a common goal. It is essential that each student understands their cooperative learning group role. Here we will take a brief look at a few specific roles, expected behavior within that role, as well as how to the monitor groups.

Assign Individual Roles to Help Students Stay on Task

Assign each student a specific role within their group, this will help each student stay on task and help the overall group work more cohesively. Here are a few suggested roles:

• Task Master/Team Leader:This role entails the student to make sure his/her group stays on task. Sample statements: "Have we read the paragraph on George Washington yet?" "We need to move on, we only have ten minutes left."
• Checker:The checker's role is to make sure that everyone agrees with an answer. A Sample statement may be, "Does everyone agree with Jen's answer on the year Washington was born?"
• Recorder The role of the recorder is to write down everyone in the group's responses once they have all agreed to them.
• Editor:The editor is responsible for correcting all of the grammatical errors and to check for neatness.
• Gatekeeper:The role of this person can be described as the peacemaker. He/she must make sure that everyone is participating and getting along. Sample statement: "Let's here from Brady now."
• Praiser: This role entails a student to encourage other students to share their ideas and to work hard. A sample statement may be, "Great idea Reesa, but let's keep trying, we can do this."

Responsibilities and Expected Behaviors in Groups

An essential element of cooperative learning is for students to use their interpersonal skills in a group setting.

In order for students to accomplish their task, each individual must communicate and work collectively. Here are a few of the expected behaviors and duties each student is responsible for.

Expected behaviors within the group:

• Everyone must contribute to the task
• Everyone must listen to others within the group
• Everyone must encourage group members to participate
• Praise good ideas
• Ask for help when needed
• Check for understanding
• Stay on task

(Use the talking chips strategy to control noise)

Responsibilities for each individual:

• To try
• To ask
• To help
• To be polite
• To praise
• To listen
• To be present

4 Things to Do When Monitoring Groups

In order to ensure that groups are working effectively and together to complete the task, the teacher's role is to observe and monitor each group. Here are four specific things that you can do while circulating around the classroom.

1. Give Feedback - If the group is unsure on a specific task and needs help, give your immediate feedback and examples that will help reinforce their learning.
2. Encourage and Praise - When circulating the room, take the time to encourage and praise groups for their group skills.
3. Reteach Skills - If you notice that any group does not understand a particular concept, use this as an opportunity to reteach that skill.
4. Learn About the Students - Use this time to learn about your students. You may find that one role works for one student and not another. Record this information for future group work.

Reading Strategies

Studies show that children need to practice reading every day in order to improve their reading skills. Developing and teaching reading strategies to elementary students will help increase their reading ability. Often when students get stuck on a word they are told to "sound it out." While this strategy may work at times, there are other strategies that may work even better. The link contains a list of reading strategies for elementary students. Teach your students these tips to help improve their reading ability.

Studies show that children need to practice reading everyday in order to improve their reading skills. Developing and teaching reading strategies to elementary students will help increase their reading ability. Often when students get stuck on a word they are told to "sound it out." While this strategy may work at times, there are other strategies that may work even better. The following is a list of reading strategies for elementary students.

Teach your students these tips to help improve their reading ability.

Reading Strategies

• Look at the picture and prepare your mouth to say the word.
• Read the sentence again from the beginning.
• Skip the word and come back to it.
• Sound the word out slowly.
• Break the word into parts.
• Ask yourself, does the sentence make sense? Does it sound right?
• Ask a friend or teacher.

Reading Prompts

Use the following reading prompts when working one-on-one with a student:

• Wait a few moments to see if the student tries to attempt to say the word.
• Ask the student, "Does the word make sense in the sentence?"
• Say to the student, "Look at the picture, see if that helps you figure out the word."
• Say, "Put in a word that you think makes sense."
• Say to the student, "Start the sentence from the beginning and try saying it again."
• Ask the student, "What letter does the word start and end with?"
• Tell the child to read the sentence from the beginning and skip the word.

• Say, "Now that you skipped the word, what word do you think fits in the sentence?"
• Tell the student the word if they still cannot get it.

Word Walls

A Word Wall is a categorical listing of words that have been taught in the classroom and displayed on the wall. Students can then refer to these words during direct instruction or throughout the day. Word walls provide students with easy access to words they need to know during activities. The most effective word walls are used as a learning reference throughout the year. Learn why teachers use a wall and how they use them. Plus: activities for working with word walls.

A word wall is a collection of words which are displayed in large visible letters on a wall, bulletin board, or other display surface in a classroom. The word wall is designed to be an interactive tool for students and contains an array of words that can be used during writing and reading.

When to use: Before reading During reading After reading How to use: Individually With small groups Whole class setting

Why use word walls?

• They provide a permanent model for high frequency words
• They help students see patterns and relationship in words, thus building phonics and spelling skills
• They provide reference support for children during reading and writing activities.

 How to use word walls

• Make words accessible by putting them where every student can see them. They should be written in large black letters using a variety of background colors to distinguish easily confused words.
• Teachers and students should work together to determine which words should go on the word wall. Try to include words that children use most commonly in their writing. Words should be added gradually — a general guideline is five words per week.
• Use the word wall daily to practice words, incorporating a variety of activities such as chanting, snapping, cheering, clapping, tracing, word guessing games as well as writing them.
• Provide enough practice so that words are read and spelled automatically and make sure that words from the wall are always spelled correctly in the children's daily writing.
• New information should be added on a regular basis.
• Use content-area material from the curriculum rather than randomly selected words.
• Word walls should be referred to often so students come to understand and see their relevance.

Wondering what words to put on your word wall? Your grade's scope and sequence and curriculum manuals should provide good content guidance for words. Other resources exist too, for example, Jordan School District created lists of words by grade level and content area.

Word Families

Teaching about word families is an important part of learning. Having this knowledge will help students decode words based upon letter patterns and their sounds. According to (Wylie & Durrell, 1970) once students know the 37 most common groups, then they will be able to decode hundreds of words. Help children recognize and analyze word patterns by learning about the benefits of word families, and most common word groups. Word Families are sometimes referred to as groups, chunks or rimes. A word family has something in common with each other, have it be the prefix, suffix or root word. For example, green, grass, grow all have the "gr" sound in the beginning of the word.

What are the Benefits?

Word families are important because they help young children recognize and analyze word patterns when they are learning to read.

When teaching analytic phonics, teachers use word families to help children understand these patterns and that certain words have the same letter combinations and sounds.

Most Common Word Families

According to researchers Wylie and Durrel, there are 37 common word families: ack, ain, ake, ale, all, ame, an, ank, ap, ash, at, ate, aw, ay, eat, ell, est, ice, ick, ide, ight, ill, in, ine, ing, ink, ip, it, ock, oke, op, ore, ot, uck ,ug, ump, unk.

• ack- back, hack, pack, rack
• ain - brain, chain, main, plain
• ake - awake, bake, cake, fake
• ale - ale, bale, sale, tale
• all - all, ball, call, hall
• ame - blame, came, game, same
• an - an, ban, can, pan
• ank - bank, drank, sank, tank
• ap - cap, map, rap, tap
• ash - bash, dash, rash, sash
• at - bat, cat, fat, mat
• ate - fate, gate, late, rate
• aw - claw, draw, paw, saw
• ay - day, hay, may, say
• eat - beat, feat, meat, seat
• ell - bell, fell, tell, well
• est - best, rest, vest, west
• ice - dice, mice, nice, rice
• ick - brick, kick, pick, sick
• ide - bride, hide, ride, side
• ight - bright, fight, light, night
• ill - bill, hill, pill, still
• in - bin, chin, grin, tin
• ine - dine, fine, mine, vine
• ing - bring, king, sing, wing
• ink - drink, link, pink, sink
• ip - chip, dip, lip, sip
• it - bit, fit, hit, sit
• ock - block, clock, rock, sock
• op - cop, hop, mop, top
• ore - bore, more, sore, tore
• ot - got, hot, not, rot
• uck - buck, duck luck, tuck
• ug - bug, hug, mug, rug
• ump - bump, dump, jump, pump
• unk - bunk, dunk, junk,sunk

Graphic Organizers

An easy way to help children brainstorm and classify ideas is by using a graphic organizer. This visual presentation is a unique way to show students the material they are learning. A graphic organizer assists the students by organizing the information to make it easier for them to comprehend. This valuable tool provides teachers with the opportunity to assess and understand their students thinking skills. Learn how to choose and how to use a graphic organizer. Plus: the benefits, and suggested ideas. Special education students often need support in organizing their thoughts and completing multi-stage tasks. Children with sensory processing issues, autism or dyslexia can easily become overwhelmed by the prospect of writing a short essay or even answering questions about material they have read. Graphic organizers can be effective ways to help typical and atypical learners alike. The visual presentation is a unique way to show students the material they are learning, and can appeal to those who are not auditory learners.

They also make it easy for you as a teacher to assess and understand their thinking skills.

How to Choose a Graphic Organizer

Find a graphic organizer that's best suited to the lesson you'll teach. Below are typical examples of graphic organizers, along with with links to PDFs that you can print out.

KWL Chart 

"KWL" stands for "know," "want to know" and "learn." It's an easy-to-use chart that helps students brainstorm information for essay questions or reports. Use it before, during and after the lesson to allow students to measure their success. They'll be amazed by how much they've learned.

Venn Diagram

A Venn diagram is a visual brainstorming tool used to compare and contrast two (sometimes three) different things. Comparing is looking at traits that things have in common, while contrasting is looking at how they differ from each other.

A Venn diagram is made up of two large circles that intersect with each other to form a space in the middle. Each circle represents something that you want to compare and contrast. Where the two circles intersect, you would write traits that the two things have in common. In either side of the intersecting space, you would write the differences among the two things.

The red space is for commonalities and the white spaces is for differences. Keep in mind that Venn diagrams can be a variety of colors or not colored at all.

When there are a lot of traits in the middle space and not a lot in the outer circles, the things are very similar. And if there aren't many traits in the middle and a lot on each outer circle, the two things don't have much in common.

Creating a Venn Diagram

Now, let's create our own Venn diagram to choose which puppy you want to take home with you. One of the puppies is a poodle and the other is a Great Dane.

Start by writing down lists of information about each puppy, including important characteristics and details that will help you compare and contrast. For example, you know you want a puppy that won't grow to be too big, and your parents are worried about the puppy's hair shedding all over the furniture. Finding information like this may require a little bit of research, like looking up how big each puppy will grow to be.

Let's say your lists look like this:

• Great Dane:
• Happy puppy
• Calmer and more relaxed
• Will grow to be very large
• Medium shedding
• Eats a lot
• Doesn't bark a lot
• Poodle:
• Happy puppy
• Very energetic and excited
• Will stay small whole life
• Very little shedding
• Eats a little
• Doesn't bark a lot

Adapt this mathematical diagram to highlight similarities between two things. For back to school, use it to talk about how two students spent their summer vacations. Or, turn it upside down and use the kinds of vacations—camping, visiting grandparents, going to the beach—to identify students who have things in common.

Double Cell Venn

Also known as a double bubble chart, this Venn diagram is adapted to describe the similarities and differences in characters in a story. It's designed to help students compare and contrast.

Concept Web

You may have hear concept webs called story maps. Use them to help students break down the components of a story they have read.

Use an organizer to track elements such as the characters, setting, problems or solutions. This is a particularly adaptable organizer. For example, put a character in the center and use it to map the attributes of the character. A problem in the plot can be in the center, with the different ways characters try to solve the problem. Or simply label the center "beginning" and have the students list the premise of the story: where it takes place, who are the characters, when is the action of the story s

When created correctly and thoroughly, concept web is a powerful way for students to reach high levels of cognitive performance. A concept web is also not just a learning tool, but an ideal evaluation tool for educators measuring the growth of and assessing student learning. As students create concept maps, they reiterate ideas using their own words and help identify incorrect ideas and concepts; educators are able to see what students do not understand, providing an accurate, objective way to evaluate areas in which students do not yet grasp concepts fully.Inspiration Software Inspiration, Kidspiration and Webspiration Classroom service all contain Diagram Views that makes it easy for students to create concept maps; students are able to add new concepts and links as they see fit. Inspiration, Kidspiration and Webspiration Classroom also come with a variety of concept map examples, templates and lesson plans to show how concept mapping and the use of other graphic organizers can easily be integrated into the curriculum to enhance learning, comprehension and writing skills. For more concept map examples as well as other graphic organizer examples, mind map examples.

Repeated Reading Strategy

Repeated readings is when a student reads the same text over and over again until the rate of reading has no errors. This strategy can be done individually or in a group setting. This method was originally targeted for students with learning disabilities until educators realized that all students can benefit from this strategy. Learn the purpose.

→ Description of Strategy

→ Purpose of Strategy

→ The Procedure

→ Activities

Targeted Reading Levels: 1-4

What Is It?

Repeated reading is when a student reads the same text over and over again until the rate of reading has no errors. This strategy can be done individually or in a group setting. This method was originally targeted for students with learning disabilities until educators realized that all students can benefit from this strategy.

Purpose of the Strategy

Teachers use this reading strategy to help their students develop fluency and comprehension while reading. This method was designed to help students who have little to no experience with reading fluently to gain confidence, speed and process words automatically.

How to Teach It

Here are some guidelines and steps to follow when you use the repeated reading strategy:

1. Choose a story that is approximately 50-200 words. ( A passage that is 100 words long seems to work the best).
2. Select a story or passage that is de codable verse predicable.
3. Select a few words that you think will be hard for the students to learn and explain them.
4. Read the story or passage you chose aloud to the students.
5. Have students read the selected passage aloud.
6. Have students re-read the passage as many times as needed until the text is fluent. 

Activities

The repeated reading strategy can be used with the whole class, small groups or partners.

Posters, large books, and the overhead projector is ideal when working with the whole class or while working in groups.

Here are a variety of activities and strategies that are designed to help students read accurately, effortlessly and at an appropriate speed: 

1. Partnering

• Partner Reading

This is where two students are grouped into pairs who are on the same reading level.

1. Group students into pairs.
2. Have the first reader select a passage and read it to their partner three times.
3. While the student is reading the partner take notes and helps with words as needed.
4. Students then switch roles and repeat the process.

• Choral Reading  

is another way for students to practice re-reading text. Group students into pairs and have them read a passage together in unison.

• Echo Reading 

Echo reading is a wonderful way for students to practice their phrasing and expression while instilling confidence in their reading. In this activity, the student follows along with their finger while the teacher reads a short passage. Once the teacher stops, the student echoes back what the teacher just read.

2. Individually

• Tape Assistance

A tape recorder is a great way for students to practice re-reading text. When using tapes, students are able to read and re-read the text as many times as needed to increase their speed and fluency. Once the text has been modeled by the teacher, the student can then practice reading in unison with the tape recorder. After the student feels confident in the text then they can read it to the teacher.

• Timed Reading

Timed reading is when an individual student uses a stopwatch to keep track of their reading.

The student tracks their progress on a chart to see how their speed improved over the course of reading the passage several times. A teacher can also use a reading fluency chart to track progress. 

Quick Tip

• Build students site word knowledge by using word walls, bingo, flashcards and speed drills.
• Practice reading with appropriate texts.
• Allow students to choose what they read from a few passages you choose.
• Enlist parents or volunteers to help when practicing re-reading skills.

Phonics Strategies

Are you looking for ideas for teaching phonics to your elementary students? The analytic method is a simple approach that has been around for nearly one hundred years. Here is a quick resource for you to learn about the method, and how to teach it. In this quick guide you will learn what analytic phonics is, the appropriate age to use it, how to teach it, and tips for success.

The analytic method is a simple approach that has been around for nearly one hundred years. Here is a quick resource for you to learn about the method, and how to teach it.

What is Analytic Phonics?

The Analytic Phonics method teaches children the phonic relationships among words. Children are taught to analyze letter-sound relationships and look to decode words based upon spelling and letter patterns and their sounds.

For example, if the child knows "bat", "cat" and "hat", then the word "mat" will be easy to read.

What Is the Appropriate Age Range?

This method is appropriate for first and second graders and struggling readers.

How to Teach it

1. First, the students must know all the letters of the alphabet and their sounds. The child will need to be able to identify the sounds in the beginning, middle and end of a word. Once the students are able to do that, the teacher then selects a text that has a lot of letter sounds.
2. Next, the teacher presents the words to the students (usually site words are selected to start). For example, the teacher places these words on the board: light, bright, night or green, grass, grow.
3. The teacher then asks the students how these words are alike. The student would respond, "They all have "ight" at the end of the word." or "They all have "gr" at the beginning of the word."
4. Next, the teacher focuses on the sound of the words make by saying, "How does the "ight" sound in these words?" or "How does the "gr" sound in these words?"

1. The teacher picks a text for the students to read that has the sound they are focusing on. For example, choose a text that has the word family, "ight" (light, might, fight, right) or choose a text that has the word family, "gr" (green, grass, grow, gray, great, grape).
2. Finally, the teacher reinforces to the students that they just used a decoding strategy to help them read and understand words based upon the relationships letters have with one another.

Tips for Success

• Use books that have predictable, repetitive sentences.
• Encourage children to use picture clues for any unknown words.
• Teach students about word families. (now, how cow) (down, frown, brown)
• Encourage students to look for consonant clusters at the beginning and ends of words. ( bl,fr,st, nd)
• When teaching analytic phonics, make sure to emphasize the importance of each sound.

Multi sensory Teaching Strategy

The Multi sensory teaching approach to reading, is based upon the idea that some students learn best when the material that they are given is presented to them in a variety of modalities. This method uses movement (kin esthetic) and touch (tactile), along with what we see (visual) and what we hear (auditory) to help students learn to read, write and spell. Here you will learn who benefits from this approach, and 8 activities to teach your students.

The Multisensory teaching approach to reading, is based upon the idea that some students learn best when the material that they are given is presented to them in a variety of modalities. This method uses movement (kinesthetic) and touch (tactile), along with what we see (visual) and what we hear (auditory) to help students learn to read, write and spell.

Who Benefits from this Approach?

All students can benefit from multi sensory learning, not just special education students.

Every child processes information differently, and this teaching method allows for each child to use a variety of their senses to understand and process information.

 Teacher's that provide classroom activities that utilize various senses, will notice that their students learning attention will increase, and it will make for an optimal learning environment.

Age Range:0- 3

Multi sensory Activities

All of the following activities use a multi sensory approach to help students learn to read, write and spell using a variety of their senses. These activities feature hearing, seeing, tracing and writing which are refereed to as VAKT ( visual, auditory, kin esthetic and tactile).

Clay Letters Have the student create words out of letters made of clay. The student should say the name and sound of each letter and after the word is created, he/she should read the word aloud.

Magnetic Letters Give the student a bag full of plastic magnetic letters and a chalk board.

Then have the student use the magnetic letters to practice making words. To practice segmenting have the student say each letter sound as he/she selects the letter. Then to practice blending, have the student say the sound of the letter faster.

Sandpaper Words For this multi sensory activity have the student place a strip of paper over a piece of sandpaper, and using a crayon, have him/her write a word onto the paper.

After the word is written, have the student trace the word while spelling the word aloud.

Sand Writing Place a handful of sand onto a cookie sheet and have the student write a word with his/her finger in the sand. While the student is writing the word have them say the letter, its sound, and then read the whole word aloud. Once the student completed the task he/she can erase by wiping the sand away. This activity also works well with shaving cream, finger paint and rice.

Wiki Sticks Provide the student with a few Wiki Sticks. These colorful acrylic yarn sticks are perfect for children to practice forming their letters. For this activity have the student form a word with the sticks. While they are forming each letter have them say the letter, its sound, and then read the whole word aloud.

Letter/Sound Tiles Use letter tiles to help students develop their reading skills and establish phonological processing. For this activity you can use Scrabble letters or any other letter tiles you may have. Like the activities above, have the student create a word using the tiles. Again, have them say the letter, followed by its sound, and then finally read the word aloud.

Pipe Cleaner Letters For students who are having trouble grasping how letters should be formed, have them place pipe cleaners around a flashcard of each letter in the alphabet.

After they place the pipe cleaner around the letter, have them say the name of the letter and its sound.

Edible Letters Mini marshmallows, M&M's, Jelly Beans or Skittles are great for having children practice learning how to form and read the alphabet. Provide the child with an alphabet flashcard, and a bowl of their favorite treat. Then have them place the food around the letter while they say the letter name and sound.

Reluctant Reading Strategy

We have all had those students who have a love for reading, and the ones who don't. There may be many factors that correlate with why some students are reluctant to read. The book may be too hard for them, parents at home may not actively encourage reading, or the student is just not interested in what they are reading. As teachers, it is our job to help nurture and develop a love for reading in our students. By employing strategies and creating a few fun activities, we can motivate students to want to read, and not just because we make them read. Here you will find five activities that will encourage even the most reluctant readers to be excited about reading.

By employing strategies and creating a few fun hands-on activities, we can motivate students to want to read, and not just because we make them read.

The following four hands-on reading activities will encourage even the most reluctant readers to be excited about reading:

Storia for iPad

Technology today is unbelievable! There are so many ways to make books exciting that Scholastic book clubs decided to join in on the fun of ebooks! This app is exciting because not only is it free to download, but the amenities seem endless! There are literally thousands of books to download, from picture books to chapter books. Storia offers interactive read aloud books, a built-in highlighter and dictionary, along with learning activities to accompany the book. If you give a student the opportunity to choose a hands-on book of their choice, you will see it is a powerful way to encourage even the most reluctant reader.

Record Students Reading Books

Allowing children to choose what they want to read based upon their own interests will encourage them to want to read. A fun activity to try is to let the student select a book of their choice and record them reading the book aloud. Then play back the recording and have the student follow along to their voice.

Research has shown that when students listen to themselves read, their reading becomes better. This is the perfect activity to add to your learning centers. Place a tape recorder and several different books in the reading center and allow students to take turns taping themselves read.

Teacher Read Aloud

Listening to stories from a teacher may be one of a student's favorite parts of the school day. To instill this kind of passion for reading with your students, give them the opportunity to choose which book you read to the class. Choose two or three books that you feel are appropriate for your students and let them vote on the best one. Try to sway the vote towards the students who you know are the reluctant ones to read.

Have a Scavenger Hunt

Games are a fun way to engage students in learning while still having fun. Try creating a classroom scavenger hunt where each team has to read the clues to find out where the items they are searching for are. The students that do not like to read will not even realize they are practicing their reading skills.

Six Traits of Writing

Help your students develop good writing skills by implementing the six traits of writing model into your classroom. Learn the six key characteristics, and definitions of each. Plus: teaching activities for each component.

Help your students develop good writing skills by implementing the six traits of writing model into your classroom.

What are the Six Traits of Writing?

The six traits of writing have 6 key characteristics that define quality writing, they are:

• Ideas
• Organization
• Voice
• Word Choice
• Sentence Fluency
• Conventions

Ideas

This component focuses on the main idea and content of the piece. The writer chooses details that are informative and not necessarily details that the reader already knows.

(The grass is green, the sky is blue.)

Objective

• Awareness of details
• Knowing what is important
• A good sense of the main point

Activities

• Use photographs during activities and ask students to describe what happened in each photo.
• Write (science, math) class predictions in a notebook and reflect upon them.
• Read a poem and have students write about a real-life connection that they have to the poem.

Questions to Ask Yourself

What is my message?

Is my message clear?

Did I include details?

Organization

This trait requires that the piece fits in with the central idea. The organizational structure needs to follow a pattern such as chronological order, comparison/contrast, or any other logical pattern. The writer needs to make strong connections to keep the reader's interest.

Objective

• Sense of sequence, beginning and ending
• Ability to organize

Activities

Take a piece of the students' writing and cut it into chunks and have the students piece it back together in order.

Jumble a list of directions and have the students arrange them in order.

Read a few books to the children and use a graphic organizer to compare and contrast them.

Questions to Ask Yourself

• Was the piece I wrote in order?
• How does my paper start?
• How does my paper end?

Voice

This trait refers to the style of the writer.

The voice is where the writer imparts his/her personal tone to the piece while still fitting in with the genre of the piece.

Objective

• Individuality
• Passion
• Feelings

Activities

Read a variety of children's literature and have students try to identify the author.

Compare the voice in fiction and nonfiction books.

Have students write a piece about their favorite subject in school. When they are finished, have them read their piece to the class and see if the students can identify who wrote the piece.

Questions to Ask Yourself

• Does it sound like me?
• Does the reader understand how I feel?
• Does my writing shine?

Word Choice

Word choice requires that the writer choose his/her words very carefully. The writer should enlighten the reader by choosing strong words that clarify or expand the idea.

Objective

• Awareness of language
• Awareness of different words

Activities

Keep a word wall.

Brainstorm a list of words and list the "better word" to use.

Make a word spinner and add new words to replace common words.

Questions to Ask Yourself

• Do my words paint a picture?
• Do I use words that are appealing?
• Is every word that I use important?

Sentence Fluency

This trait requires that sentences flow naturally and smoothly. Fluent writing has rhythm and is free of awkward word patterns.

Objective

• Awareness that the sentence makes sense
• Rhythm

Activities

Write an acrostic poem using the student's name.

Write a half sentence and have the students complete it.

Rewrite popular poems.

Questions to Ask Yourself

• Did my sentences start differently?
• Is my paper easy to read aloud?
• Did I use complete sentences?

Conventions

This trait focuses on the correctness of the piece (spelling, grammar, punctuation).

Objective

• Awareness of conventions
• Patience to look back
• Experiment with writing

Activities

Answer questions in journals with conventional words in response to answering them phonetically.

Use peer partners to correct spelling and punctuation.

Use mini-lessons to teach conventions.

Questions to Ask Yourself

• Did I use a title?
• Did I capitalize the correct letters?
• Did I check spelling?

LEARNING THROUGH STORY:

Conflict is a necessary element of a story. It drives the narrative forward and is what compels the reader to stay up all night reading in hopes of some sort of closure. The types of conflict can be broken down into up to seven different types. While most stories focus on one particular conflict, they often contain more than one. 

The most common kinds of conflict are:

• Man versus Man
• Man versus Nature

• Man versus Self
• Man versus Society

A further breakdown would include:

• Man versus Technology
• Man versus God or Fate
• Man versus Supernatural

Man versus Man is what you have when there is a clear protagonist (good guy) and antagonist (bad guy). In this version of conflict there are two people, or groups of people, that have goals or intentions that conflict with each other. Resolution comes when one overcomes the obstacle created by the other. Good examples of this would be and The Count of Monte Cristo. 

Man versus Nature is the conflict that arises when a character is pitted against weather phenomena, physical terrain, or an animal. The Revenant is a good example of this conflict. Although revenge, a more man versus man type of conflict, is a driving force, the majority of the narrative centers around Hugh Glass’s journey across hundreds of miles after being attack by a bear and enduring extreme conditions.

Man versus Self occurs when a character struggles with an internal conflict. The conflict can be an identity crisis, mental disorder, moral dilemma, or choosing a path in life. Fight Club stages the conflict as man versus man, only to later reveal the protagonist has dissociative identity disorder.

Man versus Society is the sort of conflict you see in books that have a character at odds against the culture or government in which they live. Books like The Hunger Games demonstrate the way a character is presented with the problem of accepting or enduring what is considered a norm of that society but in conflict with the protagonist’s moral values. 

Man versus Technology takes place when a character is confronted with the consequences of the machines and/or artificial intelligence created by man. This is a common element used in science fiction writing. Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot is a classic example of the fear of robots and artificial intelligence one day surpassing the control of man. 

Man versus God or Fate can be a bit more difficult to differentiate from man versus society or man. This sort of conflict is usually dependent upon an outside force directing the path of a character. In the Harry Potter series, Harry’s destiny has been foretold by a prophecy. He spends his adolescence struggling to come to terms with the responsibility thrust upon him from infancy. 

Man versus Supernatural can be described as the conflict between a character and some unnatural force or being. The Last Days of Jack Sparks demonstrates not only the struggle with an actual supernatural being, but the struggle man has with knowing what to believe about it.

 THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING STRATEGIES

Learning strategies are essential components of a curriculum, as bridges between competence and process. In the light of this belief, in this paper I have argued that an approach to strategies education should be explicit, experiential, embedded and evaluative - what I call the "4E approach". Such an approach seems to be promising in that it offers

         task-based value - because strategies are first and foremost applied to specific language tasks;

        skills-based value - because strategies can be developed across language skills and communicative activities;

        cross-curricular value - because strategies can be made to overflow through the watertight compartments of school subjects; and, last but not least,

        lifelong learning value - because strategies can be part of our effort to equip students with learning tools for the rest of their lives.

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