Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Are You Using Best Practices to Inform Instruction?


“Best practices” is a term that seems to be kicked around lots in discussions among educators. Although we all may have a general idea of what the term means (the actions that teachers can take to insure that their instruction is effective, appropriate, and productive), and that we should be using these practices to help our students learn, you may not be sure that an instructional method that you are using is really a best practice or not.

               With this in mind, take this little assessment. Below you will find a list of just some of the more common strategies that are considered to be best practices. If you are already using one of these practices in your classroom, place a checkmark in the blank before it. If you intend to use one of these in the future, place a + in the blank. If you would like to research to learn more about one of these best practices to make sure that it would be appropriate for your students, place a ? in the blank.

  1. _____Portfolio assessments
  2. _____Alternative assessments
  3. _____Formative assessments
  4. _____Personalized instruction
  5. _____Service learning
  6. _____Rubrics
  7. _____Response to intervention
  8. _____Cooperative learning
  9. _____Tiered instruction
  10. _____Scaffolding instruction
  11. _____Literacy instruction
  12. _____Anchoring activities
  13. _____Graphic organizers
  14. _____Essential questions
  15. _____Project based learning
  16. _____Student-directed learning
  17. _____Workshop approaches to reading and writing
  18. _____Interdisciplinary instruction
  19. _____Inquiry based instruction
  20. _____Authentic experiences
  21. _____Data-driven instruction
  22. _____Integrated technology
  23. _____Standards-based curriculums
  24. _____Benchmark testing
  25. _____Capitalizing on background knowledge
  26. _____Differentiated instruction
  27. _____Learning styles
  28. _____Multiple intelligences
  29. _____The teacher as coach and facilitator
  30. _____Student research

 

No comments:

Post a Comment