Teaching Methods

Celebrations- Activities that focus on the joy of completion and accomplishment. These activities serve as reminders and markers. It is also appropriate to stop and acknowledge and appreciate their accomplishments.

Student or participant presentations- Individual students or groups of participants can present information to the rest of the class. Be sure to have clear guidelines for participants to follow, including time, and objective.

*The students got a chance to present their short stories they wrote about friends.

Dramatic presentations-Dramatic presentations may be in the form of skits, plays, mock news, radio, or television shows. They should be videotaped, for the participants to see themselves, as well as not in the classroom or training session. If this is used with students be sure to have the appropriate permission forms.

*Students were able to act out a short skit in thier story about a porcupine.

Cooperative group work-Cooperative group work is a special form of small group work. All small group activities are not necessarily cooperative groups. For a group to be cooperative, a “sink or swim together” mentality must be created. Students, participants work in small heterogeneous groups (2-6 members) where each member is accountable not only for his or her own learning but for helping other members of the group do the same thing. The success of each individual depends on the success of the entire group. For a group to be cooperative, a sense of positive interdependence among the group members must be establishes. The leader must help the group establish mutual goals, joint rewards, assign specific roles, and shares materials. Cooperative learning situations promote the development and practice of higher- level reasoning, critical thinking, decision-making, problem solving, communication, and interpersonal skills. The leaders, teacher manages the activity by setting up the groups, and clearly explaining the tasks that must be accomplished. The teacher also serves as a consultant.

*Students were broken up into grouos and assigned different roles to take. The students were to read a chapter in the book and present their summaries to the rest of the class.

Games and puzzles-Games and puzzles can be used to provide a different environment in which learning can take place. They can also be used in cooperative learning groups. Many types of games and puzzles can be adapted to present and review concepts. Games such as Bingo, Concentration, or Jeopardy are easily formatted for different subjects. They can be used for review, reinforcement, critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making. Watch the competitiveness, as this is a learning tool to be used as for fun.

*SPARKLE* was one of the students' favorite game when going over spelling words.

Creative writing-This strategy can take many forms, from poems, stories, written role play (script) journal written reflective thoughts. They can be shared or not. This form gives the participants a creative outlet to the subject taught or discussed. One can also see transfer learning happen in this form of expression.

*The students had a chance to write what they are most thankful for for thanksgiving. They were assigned to read the letter to their families.

Journal writing-Journal writing affords the opportunity for thinking and writing. Expressive writing requires that participants become actively involve in the learning process. This process becomes less effective if participants need to worry about spelling or grammar. Students should be encouraged to write freely in their journals without fear of evaluation.

*Every morning, the journal topic is written on the board. The leader of the day reads the topic and students have to respond to the topic.

Mini lecture-The mini-lecture is a concise way to provide participants with background information, research findings, or motivational examples to spark interest and give them a framework for discussion or activity to follow. Mini-lectures should be brief and targeted, setting up an activity or discussion.

*Before each lesson, I do a mini-lecture to motivate the students for the big activity.

Discussion- A true discussion occurs when a GROUP of people including the leader, share experiences, debate ideas and theories, discuss experiences and work together on common problems. It is not; a teacher asks a question and a participant answer. Class discussion can be used to initiate, amplify or summarize a session.

*After every lesson, we do a class discussion on what they've just learned. I ask the students if they enjoyed the activity, what else could we have done, and what we shouldn't have done.

Experiments and demonstrations- Demonstrations and experiments can be used to show how something works or why something is important. These activities also provide a way to show how something works or why something is important. These activities also provide a way to show the correct process for doing something, like a procedure. They should be carefully planned and conducted. They often involve the use of supporting materials.

*Before any big activity, I demonstrate how to to a specific assignment and then let the students do it in their own.