6 Sterling Strategies

For future teaching and lesson plan development

Name: Rachel Vanderkley

Date: 10/18/2017

Overview & Purpose

Within this document you will find six teaching strategies that I have learned throughout my first educational semester. In creating this
series of six strategies I had many options to choose from and this is just a sample of countless possibilities. Each of the strategies listed
will include an image as a metaphor to represent my strategy, along with an explanation of what the strategy is and how I might use it.
The purpose of this document is to review and decipher the information I have learned this semester and to apply my strategies to my
lesson planning.
 Sterling Strategy # 1: Jigsaw
Breaking an assignment down and assigning each individual with a portion, at the end everyone gets together and discuss their part
This is a good teaching stratagy that can reduce the amount of extraneous load students are presented with. Instead of having to go through
everything in a reading they can just focus on what their part is. At the end, they will still be presented with all of the important information
from the other sections of the reading but each student can filter out the unimportant parts for their peers. I would use this in a classroom
when I want my students to get the important information out of a long long paper but dont want them to all have to read the entire thing. I
used the metaphor of baking because to me each student separatly adds what they learned from their assigned reading like an ingrediant. At
the end once everyone has gone over their portion all the inforation will be formed into the final product of what was learned like a cake.

Sterling Strategy # 2: Concept Maps

A type of organizer that begins with a main idea and then branches out to show topics relating to that idea
Concept Maps are a great tool used to aid students in organizing and representing their knowledge. Outsourcing information into concept
maps frees up the working memory so that students are able to reduce their extraneous load and retain more information. I would use this in
my class because of this reason and you can find free concept mapping apps that are very easy to download and use. I would get students to
make their own maps but also have some for them that I have hung up. As a teacher, I would have concept maps all over my classrooms for
any grade and any subject to help students retain information. Having these maps could also allow the students to be aware of what material is
most important to know out of a lesson. I used a tree to symbolize the different ideas branching out from one main overarching idea.
 Sterling Strategy # 3: deBonos Six Hats Activity
Assigning each student with a different thinking hat or role so that they have to look at an assignment in a different way

When assigning students to review something collectvly, you can ask each of them to play a different role so that they have to consider
certain things that they might not usually. For example, one classmate would be assingned the black hat signigying caution and this student
will look for weaknesses in the reading or assignment (the different roles can be found online). This teaching stratagy promotes critical
thinking, brainstroming and innovation. I would use this teaching stratagy when assigning a reading that I want students to look at from all
different angles. I used the metaphor of a cameraman nbecause the assignment is being looked at in all different angles.

Sterling Strategy # 4: Book Talk

Assigning students to find a book to read and present to their peers. At the end students are presented with multiple new book options

Book talks improve student knowledge, literacy and creativity. By doing them the class is presented with different book titles that they now
know a little about and can consider reading. This teaching stratagy is excellent for motivating and practicing student reading. Book talks also
aid stuedents with their vocabulary, from reading and then listening to their peers presentations. I would use this in my classroom so that
students can experience books and hear about others. This way they can be introduced to different genres and forms of literacy. This also aids
them in practicing their presentation preformance and public speaking in front of their peers. I chose to use the metaphor of a buffet because
everyone tastes a little bit of the food presented and then discused what foods everyone picked and how they taste later at their tables.
 Sterling Strategy # 5: Exit Slip
Students written responses to questions teachers pose at the end of a class, they must hand in their answers before they leave.

This teaching stratagy is something that I was introduced to this semester and really enjoyed, exit slips only take a few minutres and povide
the teacher with an informal measure of how well students understood a topic. Exit slips are a quick and informalal way that teachers can
quickly assess their students understanding of course material. I would use this in my math lesson plan for my curriculum and instruction
class when wanting to formativly assess my students. This is a perfect stratagy to use for checking up on the class and seeing where people
are sitting at with their learning. After reviewing the slips teachers can plan accordingly and differentiate for the abilites and understanding of
each student. I chose a survey as the metaphor because exit slips are the students opertunity to let the teacher know how theyre feeling.

Sterling Strategy # 6: Debate

A formal discussion on a particular topic. Each student represents a side and in class opposing arguments are put forward

Debates are an approach to teaching and learning where a topic or question is presented and the students advocate opposing positions. They
do this attempting to make the auduence or other classmates agree with their position. I plan on using debates in my classroom for subjects
like social were I want students to consider all points. Debates are a pedacological stratagy that develop analytical and critical thinking skills
and they also allow students to practice collaboration, fairplay and teamwork. I think debates can also force students to think differently then
they might normally because you can assign them to be on the opposite side of what they might actually advocate for in reality. When
considering debates as a teaching stratagy I used the metaphor of a tennis match. Each side works hard to get points on why their side is
correct and attempt to win the match.