Week 2- Strategies to Include in Lessons

     I like a lot of the strategies; they are all very helpful tools. I enjoy organizing things in general. When I organize information or anything; it makes me feel more in control of my learning and the information makes more sense to me. I feel like a lot of students would feel the same way or be able to understand information better; by organizing it in their own way. They could do this through the use of the Frayer model, Choice boards, or K-W-L charts. The other strategies used for learning in general are the Jigsaw and Fishbowl strategies. There are many other strategies out there on the internet, that can be used. This website has several tabs that you can click on and learn about different strategy procedures for learning. Link: Active Activities for Learning 
     I feel as if I am a huge fan of the Choice boards and of the Fishbowl strategy. Even though we didn't talk about the Fishbowl strategy in class I am using this strategy as one of the two, to talk about on my blog. I am also going to implement the use of the fishbowl strategy in one of my lesson plans for this class. The fishbowl can be used for problem solving, resolving conflicts, group discussion, or even as a reading strategy. The way I plan to use it is by picking two students, or even rotating out the two students, to read key information in an article. Then two students are in the middle of a circle at a time. The two students each say what they learned from the article and then rotate out with two more students. You could also split the students into two groups and have two students stand in the middle of each of the circles. This gives everyone a chance to read or know about the material and to speak without taking up a lot of time. This site explains a few other different uses for this strategy. Link: Fishbowl Practice 
     I also really like choice boards. Some students are just going to have the mindset of they only want to do something if it is their idea. If you present them with many different activities that they can chose from and make the decision for themselves; they will work harder and there will be far less struggle involved. I posted several different types of choice boards, to use for different types of learning, on my last blog. So, I thought I might talk about different ways that K-W-L charts could be implemented in the classroom.

I found several types of K-W-L charts. The first one on the left is actually a K-W-H-L chart. It stands for What do I (know)? What do I (want) to know? (How) do I find out? What have I (learned)? I liked this chart because it has the section for "How do I find out?". Some students need a helper or reminder on what places they can look for the information. That is why I like that being included. Next, I like the chart in the middle picture; because it includes the section "still want to find out". I think that is important for spurring the thought of what's next; for when they get ready to write or read their next topic. I also like the paint sample cards; because they are colorful. However, the disadvantage is they could be too small for much writing. Otherwise, if you found them the perfect size, you could allow the students to glue them into a folder or punch a hole and put them all on a circle ring. This way they could flip through their past ideas and work. The last picture includes K-W-L but says Know-Wonder-Learned. I just thought that wonder was a different and neat way of saying "what I want to know". That may be less confusing for Kindergarten students; using the word wonder for "W". Either way it is a flip book the students can make. I really like activities in general and could see myself using all the strategies we have learned about so far and many others that are out there.