student Engagement Strategies Toolbox
1. Political Cartoons. (Presentation Strategy)
http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/21733
This strategy allows students to sequence events, and explore the hearts and minds of historical figures by creating dialogue between characters. This is a great primary source that offers several insights into the culture, assumptions, attitudes and trends of the time. It is a complex visual strategy so as a teacher, prepare accordingly.
2. Question the Author (Communication Strategy)
http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/question-author-30761.html
This strategy helps students comprehend difficult texts by critiquing the author’s writing. This enables class discussion and interpretation. The teacher finds a passage that the students will find entertaining and decide and where to stop in the passage for analysis. When you stop you have higher-order thinking questions for them to answer.
3. Socratic Seminar (Communication Strategy)https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategy/socratic-seminar
This strategy is for students to facilitate a discussion around a written text, in which the students are helping one another understand ideas, issues and values in the text. It is important to note that this strategy is intended to produce a common, shared understanding and not utilized for debating or arguing. The steps are simple: 1. Select a text. 2. Scaffold how to annotate a text. 3. Make rules explicit. 4. Teacher starts with a question and then the students facilitate their own discussion about the text. 5. Reflect and evaluate.
4. Think, Pair and Share (Communication Strategy)
https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategies/think-pair-share-facilitating
This strategy is straightforward, but it is proven to be really effective for English Language Learners and Special Needs students. The teacher gives a student a question and gives them an opportunity to thoroughly respond, then they pair up with somebody and share their responses and finally the pair shares to the entire class.
5. Two-Column Note-Taking (Organization Strategy)
https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategy/two-column-note-taking
This strategy is helpful for students to organize and identify important information in a lesson. After they have identified key concepts or asked questions on the left column then they can share these with a partner and the partner can try to answer the question or they can compare to see if they have identified the same key concepts. Last but not least, the teacher assess the notes and gives feedback on whether the student took good notes or note, and if they didn’t then the teacher helps them become better note-takers.
6. Graphic Organizer (Organization Strategy)
http://aem.cast.org/about/publications/2003/ncac-graphic-organizers-udl.html#.VhS0UrRVhHw
There are many different types of graphic organizers that you can create, but my favorite has always been the Venn Diagram. The first step is to draw three circles that overlap each other. in the outer spaces you write how two things are similar and in the middle space you write how they are similar. I consider this the most important because comparing and contrasting is one of the highest levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. However, every graphic organizer is useful for students to arrange important information in a variety of ways.
7. Civic Games and Interactives (Interaction Strategy)
http://www.icivics.org/games
Playing a game is a great way to get students interested and engaged in a widely considered boring content in school: political science.
8. Finding Primary Sources (Collection Strategy)
http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/history/resources/pubs/usingprimarysources
I believe that every History teacher should be using this strategy, because analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating primary sources is one of, if not the, most important historical skill that students need to learn. This is good practice for the students to start developing higher-level outcomes. This strategy works by researching and choosing primary sources of a particular topic.
http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/21733
This strategy allows students to sequence events, and explore the hearts and minds of historical figures by creating dialogue between characters. This is a great primary source that offers several insights into the culture, assumptions, attitudes and trends of the time. It is a complex visual strategy so as a teacher, prepare accordingly.
2. Question the Author (Communication Strategy)
http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/question-author-30761.html
This strategy helps students comprehend difficult texts by critiquing the author’s writing. This enables class discussion and interpretation. The teacher finds a passage that the students will find entertaining and decide and where to stop in the passage for analysis. When you stop you have higher-order thinking questions for them to answer.
3. Socratic Seminar (Communication Strategy)https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategy/socratic-seminar
This strategy is for students to facilitate a discussion around a written text, in which the students are helping one another understand ideas, issues and values in the text. It is important to note that this strategy is intended to produce a common, shared understanding and not utilized for debating or arguing. The steps are simple: 1. Select a text. 2. Scaffold how to annotate a text. 3. Make rules explicit. 4. Teacher starts with a question and then the students facilitate their own discussion about the text. 5. Reflect and evaluate.
4. Think, Pair and Share (Communication Strategy)
https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategies/think-pair-share-facilitating
This strategy is straightforward, but it is proven to be really effective for English Language Learners and Special Needs students. The teacher gives a student a question and gives them an opportunity to thoroughly respond, then they pair up with somebody and share their responses and finally the pair shares to the entire class.
5. Two-Column Note-Taking (Organization Strategy)
https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategy/two-column-note-taking
This strategy is helpful for students to organize and identify important information in a lesson. After they have identified key concepts or asked questions on the left column then they can share these with a partner and the partner can try to answer the question or they can compare to see if they have identified the same key concepts. Last but not least, the teacher assess the notes and gives feedback on whether the student took good notes or note, and if they didn’t then the teacher helps them become better note-takers.
6. Graphic Organizer (Organization Strategy)
http://aem.cast.org/about/publications/2003/ncac-graphic-organizers-udl.html#.VhS0UrRVhHw
There are many different types of graphic organizers that you can create, but my favorite has always been the Venn Diagram. The first step is to draw three circles that overlap each other. in the outer spaces you write how two things are similar and in the middle space you write how they are similar. I consider this the most important because comparing and contrasting is one of the highest levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. However, every graphic organizer is useful for students to arrange important information in a variety of ways.
7. Civic Games and Interactives (Interaction Strategy)
http://www.icivics.org/games
Playing a game is a great way to get students interested and engaged in a widely considered boring content in school: political science.
8. Finding Primary Sources (Collection Strategy)
http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/history/resources/pubs/usingprimarysources
I believe that every History teacher should be using this strategy, because analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating primary sources is one of, if not the, most important historical skill that students need to learn. This is good practice for the students to start developing higher-level outcomes. This strategy works by researching and choosing primary sources of a particular topic.