Choral Response
Choral response is a method of classroom discussion in which students call out responses in unison. Choral response is effective for providing repeated opportunities to deepen declarative knowledge. For example, if you ask a question that requires a short answer, such as one about a definition or a step in a process, you can use choral response instead of calling on volunteers to answer. All students would be asked to say the answer on your cue. Teachers often use a hand signal or count to three before students respond.
This strategy helps students take risks in using their verbal skills because there is safety in numbers. It’s hard to be embarrassed about an incorrect answer if your voice is lost in the crowd. A student who is incorrect gets immediate feedback to that effect (from the crowd that responds otherwise) without the teacher having to check with each student individually. And this is one of the downfalls of choral response—it is not the best tool for checking individual understanding. However, used sparingly, it can be highly engaging for students and can enhance their memory of critical information.
The ESU6 Craft Knowledge Video Series has an excellent video titled Choral Response.mov (esu6pd, 2011; http://bit.ly/2qwtuvu) explaining and demonstrating choral response.
Comparisons
Students benefit cognitively from comparing, classifying, creating metaphors, and creating analogies. Results of employing these strategies can help boost student achievement from 31 to 46 percentile points (Marzano et al., 2001). Discerning and discussing similar and dissimilar characteristics of concepts or items is a basic building block of analysis. Teachers can direct this type of thinking and discussion or may allow students to do it on their own. Strive to frequently point out similarities and differences. Present students with similarities and differences explicitly when this helps them advance toward the designated learning target. Gradually decrease your support and allow them to become more independent in searching for, naming, and creating comparisons of all forms.
Graphic representations can be helpful. For comparison of two items, a Venn diagram (see page 24) works well. For multiple items, a comparison matrix is beneficial. For classifying or categorizing, a tree chart or Thinking Map called a Tree Map (Hyerle, 2009) works well. Metaphors and analogies are harder to put into a graphic format, but David Hyerle (2009) suggests a Thinking Map called a Bridge Map for analogies. Visit www.thinkingmaps.com for more information about Thinking Maps.
Concept Circle
Janet Allen (2007) popularized this strategy from Richard T. Vacca and Jo Anne Vacca (1986). When used for word association, this simple graphic organizer helps students analyze connections between words and explain relationships among words and the topic they are learning about. As teachers can choose the topics and the words appropriate for their students, Tyson (2012) notes that the concept circle works well with both elementary and secondary students.
The concept circle itself is simply a circle divided into four sections, like four large slices of pizza. Students record a word in each section as it relates to the topic. In addition to categorizing words, students should explain connections among those words either in writing or orally. Figure 2.1 provides a completed concept circle.
Source: Tyson & Peery, 2017.
Figure 2.1: Completed concept circle.
Exit Ticket
You can use the exit ticket strategy to help students process new material and to reflect on information. Additionally, students may also reflect on their own thinking and learning processes in writing when completing an exit ticket.
First, design the prompt or question that you want students to respond to. Students will respond at the end of the lesson and give you their written response as a “ticket out the door” or as closure for the lesson (hence the name). Exit tickets serve as an excellent formative assessment that can help you adapt your teaching for the very next lesson. You can share information from the exit tickets the next day in class or even as the information is coming in if you use a digital tool like TodaysMeet (https://todaysmeet.com) or Padlet (https://padlet.com).
Certain prompts always work for exit tickets, such as the following examples.
• Write about one thing you learned today.
• What’s the most important thing to remember from today’s lesson?
• Discuss how what you learned today would be used outside of school.
• What is something that was hard to understand in this lesson?
• What is a question you still have about today’s lesson?
• Summarize today’s lesson as if you were telling an absent classmate about it.
Exit tickets take just a few minutes but are a great way to incorporate writing across the curriculum and to ask students to reflect on their learning.
Four Corners
The four corners strategy is one that gets students talking with each other and moving and is a great way to inject energy into instruction. First, you need to generate a statement or question related to your topic. You either need to have four different and specific answers, or you can go with strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree if the question or statement is intended to check opinions or feelings. If you use a digital student response system like Plickers (https://plickers.com; see page 22), you need to have answer choices A, B, C, and D.
Second, present the statement or question and allow time for students to independently think about an answer before they start talking amongst themselves. Then, students gather in the corner of the room that corresponds to their choice. Once in a corner, ask students to talk with at least one other person there about why they selected the answers that they did. Call the whole class back together and, if time allows, have a student or two from each corner explain why their group chose the answer that it did.
You can use four corners to check background knowledge about a topic, to debate issues, to review previously taught material, and even to review for tests. One variation of this strategy is to ask students in one corner to convince others to come to their corner by providing reasons or evidence about why they should change their answers. Another variation is to have only two choices for an answer—perhaps agree and disagree—and ask students to form two lines or groups, one along one wall and the other opposite of and facing them. Students who are undecided or neutral stand in the middle of the room. You can allow students in the two lines to try to convince students in the middle to move toward one side or the other.
Frayer Model
The Frayer model is a graphic organizer or visual tool used for word analysis and vocabulary building. The model helps students deepen their knowledge of words that have conceptual weight;