Athy College

Teaching strategies

PMI: Positive, Minus, Interesting

(A thinking organiser)

PMI assists in making wise decisions, it is often connected to the area of critical thinking.

Positive: Reasons why something is a good idea or decision.

Minus: Why something won’t work or is an unwise idea.

Interesting: The position or action one take having balanced out the Positives and the Minuses.

 

EBS: Examine Both Sides

(A thinking organiser)

EBS is connected to the process of critical thinking; searching for truth.  This tactic encourages students to look at the world from another person’s perspective, unlike a debate where students select and defend ones position.

 

Fish Bone

(A graphic organiser)

Fish bone is used to organise information and is often used in problem solving or to identify and organise factors.  The head of the Fish Bone provides the issue or idea that acts as the focus for the thinking, students organise ideas according to some type of classification of the main ideas and sub ideas.

 

Venn Diagram

(A graphic organiser)

Venn diagrams are used to organise information and invite the learner to ask how things are the same and how they are different.  Venn diagrams do not have to overlap and can occur as one circle within another or two circles not touching.

 

Gallery Tour

(A processing tactic)

A student tapes or pins up a work completed by his/her group then stands by it and explains it to a small group of other students who visit.  About 2/3 of the class are touring and 1/3 are sharing.  They then rotate until each person has had a chance to share.

 

Inside Outside Circles

(A sharing tactic)

Students are placed in two circles, one circle within the other, each student facing another.  Students have 15 to 30 seconds to think about the question on the board, then the inside person is asked to share with the person on the outside their attempt to solve the question.  Then the outside person shares or extends the thinking of the inside person.  Then the outside people rotate one to the left, ready for the next question and interaction with a new person.

 

Think Pair Share

(A group organiser)

Students are asked to think to themselves, then share with a partner.  To be effective, students must listen to each other and ensure that not just one student does all the talking.  An alternative is think pair square.  One person talks, the next person has to paraphrase what the person said, then that person shares and the other person paraphrases their ideas.

 

Numbered/Lettered Heads

(A group organiser)

Groups number off (1, 2, 3) or letter off (A, B, C).  An effective way of increasing the concept of accountability and assist in initiating a transition, or in handing out or collecting materials.

 

Value Lines

(A thinking/emotions organiser)

Value lines pushes students’ analysis and evaluation levels.  Even though students have only two choices, they have a wide range of values between those extremes.  Interestingly, as students explore their thinking around those feelings they often make complete reversals in their positioning.

 

Walk About

(Building relationships)

Walk About links other more complex processes.  It builds individual accountability, physical movement and variety into the learning process.  One student from a group joins another group and share’s the home groups ideas.  This student then returns with the comments and ideas gathered.

 

Place Mat

(An organising tactic)

Groups of students work both alone and together around a single piece of paper to simultaneously involve all members.  The paper is divided up into pieces based on the number of members in the group, with a central circle or square.  Students record their reflections and ideas related to a key question or issue.  Many variations are possible, from simply sharing with their group to each choosing their most important issue for the centre, to cutting out their section and recombining with other groups.

 

Graffiti

(An idea generating tactic)

This creative brainstorming process involves collecting the wisdom of all or most of the class.  Each group has a large piece of paper which has a topic (same or different) in the middle.  Students get 30 seconds to think and then 60-90 seconds to individually but simultaneously record their ideas on the paper.  They then stop, stand up, and go, as a group to a different piece of paper and again write their ideas.  They continue until each group has visited each of the others.

 

Four Corners

(An evaluation tactic)

Begin with a statement, issue or question and students chose a corner that best captures their perspective, view or response, e.g., strongly agree, agree, strongly disagree and disagree.  They move to that corner and share with the others there why they made that decision.

 

Three Step Interview

(Check for understanding tactic)

Students are encouraged to share their thinking, ask questions and take notes.  Each student is assigned a letter, then each is assigned a role: A = Interviewer, B = Interviewee, C = Reporter.  The roles rotate after each interview.

 

Team/Games/Tournament

(Check for understanding tactic)

TGT is usually employed as a check for understanding information that was taught or acquired.  Students work in a home team of three and review the information learned.  They then break into tournament groups where one student from each group gets together with two students, each from one other group.  Tournament groups then respond to a number of questions that are on cards with the answers on the back.  When they have completed the questions or the time is up, they return to their home team and add up the individual tournament scores.  The group with the most points receives an incentive.

 

Excerpted from Barrie Bennett and Carol Rolheiser, Beyond Monet: The Artful Science of Instructional Intelligence (2001) Toronto: Bookation Inc.