Instructional Strategies

Using a variety of instructional strategies helps students with different learning abilities and intelligences to be reached.  As a teacher, I know that not every student is the same.  They come from different backgrounds and speak other languages.  It is not right to assume that all students learn the same. 

One of the things that I was reminded of was Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.  I know for a fact that there are students in my class that are in one of the learning methods discussed in the readings.  “Verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, musical/rhythmic, body/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist and existentialist.”  I can tell the methods of learning that my students express in the classroom and it is important that I use different strategies to instruct them.

 Students of the 21^st century are used to learning with the use of technology, communicating and collaborating with others and that is something that needs to be implemented in daily instruction.  What worked for us growing up, may not work for students in this century.  Even though it can be difficult and stressful to incorporate technology into instruction, it is doable and should be done in small chunks until the teacher is comfortable using it.  For some reason, students are more engaged and pay attention better when technology is involved.  Technology is also able to reach all the different types of learners one encounters in their class.  This makes me happy because it can be stressful to think about all the different learners in my class when there is only one of me and 24 of them. 

Since knowing that technology can enhance my students’ learning, I try to incorporate it into every lesson, every day in different ways.  Being in a 1to1 laptop classroom, it is great to have laptops as a resource for students to use to learn at their own pace and at their own desk.