Do you want to know the one method that has the greatest effect on your students’ achievement?  Are you doing the most of the cognitive lift and not your students? Is it your goal to be a more effective teacher? Keep reading because you’ll learn the five teaching strategies you need to be effective.

If you’re an experienced teacher, then some of this may sound familiar but you’ll way away with some new strategies to add to your toolbox. If you’re a new teacher, then you’re also in the right place because you can start off your teaching journey with a lot less trial and error as to what works and doesn’t work.

1. Gradual Release 

This is a method in which the teacher instructs students on the content and leads students towards greater independence.

In other words, the teacher teaches the content so that students are able to independently learn and complete projects, tasks and assignments.

• Framework: Teacher model, Teacher and student do together, Student completes independently
• Framework 2: Teacher model, Teacher and student do together, students do together, student completes independently
• The process can be linear but does not have to be. The key is to be informally and formally assessing at each step of the way to see where as the teacher you need to adjust, readjust so that students can gain that independence. See video here

2. Reciprocal Teaching 

This sounds difficult but once implemented with fidelity it does work. Its composed of teaching students how to predict, question, clarify, summarize.

The key to this to make sure that you teach students how to do each part of the strategy. Once you’ve done this then students can work in collaborative groups to learn from each other.

Each student gets an assigned role as predictor, questioner, clarifier and summarizer.  Teaching reciprocal strategies leads to greater reader comprehension. I worked with fifth graders in small groups and saw how this really helped them to become better readers.

3. Activating and Integrating prior knowledge 

• Prior knowledge is what students already know about a concept, topic, skill etc. This helps students to make a connection to what they are learning because they are able to use what they know to bring meaning to a new concept.
• For example a KWL chart/graphic organizer. You work with students to fill out your digital chart of what they know, want to know/learn before teaching and what they have learned after you’ve taught the concept.

4. Deliberate practice 

I think this is one of the most overlooked strategies because sometimes you think once students get a good score on a test or quiz then you feel that they understand the content.

But how do students really learn a new skill, strategy or concept? They do by practicing.

You also need to make sure that when students are practicing, they are practicing for a purpose and let students know the purpose. Is it for a specific goal?, is it to build a foundation so they are able to do more complex tasks, Is it for feedback?

One of the mistakes I made was that I always had my students practice but I didn’t give them a purpose. If students have a purpose for practicing, then their intrinsic motivation might be higher.

5. Your estimate of what you think your students can achieve 

The estimate of what you think your students will achieve has the highest effect size. In other words, what you believe about your students and what they can achieve will determine their academic growth. 

 You need to question any limiting beliefs that you may have about your students and yourself so that they can’t be limited because of any low expectations on your part. You also need to question any negative mindsets that you are bringing into the classroom.

All of these strategies have an effect size of .70 and higher. The higher the effect size of the strategy then the more likely your students’ achievement will increase; this is based on John Hattie’s research. Try one of these strategies and you won’t regret it. You can check out John Hattie’s research here.

Conclusion

Effective Teaching requires the use of research based strategies such as gradual release, deliberate practice, teacher mindset, reciprocal teaching, activating and integrating prior knowledge. Using these strategies will save you time and make you a make effective teacher.

Which one of these strategies will you use in your teaching?