Inquiry Training is a model of instruction that looks a lot like 20 Questions. You’ll teach your students to ask more helpful questions and to avoid rushing to a hypothesis too quickly.
Year: 2021
My Favorite Models of Instruction
I used to teach without any structure. Just “blah blah blah”ing. Then I only knew Direct Instruction. THEN I learned that there are more than a dozen models of instruction to build my lessons around.
Scholar’s Cafe
Get students moving, thinking, writing, and reading each others’ ideas with a Scholar’s Cafe.
Why I Stopped Giving Talks
I made my living talking about teaching. Here’s why I’m done with that!
A Classic: “Who’s On First” and 21st Century Kids
My 21st century 12-year-olds absolutely died watching Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s On First” skit. And we got a great homophone activity out of it too.
How To Introduce the Depth and Complexity Icons to Students
Here are a few ways that you can introduce the prompts of Depth and Complexity to a range of students (yes, even kindergartners!).
Making Our Own Depth and Complexity Icon Posters (That Emphasize Thinking)
Why I let students make their own depth and complexity posters rather than buying and displaying professional printable posters.
Add Criteria to Improve “Evaluate” Questions
With some small changes, we can turn fluffy opinion questions into thought-provoking evaluation questions.
Remix the Song “Help!”
Students took the classic song, Help!, and rewrote it to be about their collective summers.
Embed A Classic
An easy way to spice up any lesson is to remove the god-awful samples and replace them with selections from great works of art, music, film, tv shows, and historic moments. You get the added bonus of exposing students to new ideas.