Cues, questions, and advance organizers are great tools to help students get focused at the beginning of a lesson. One strategy that was mentioned in the reading for this week focused on preparing for a field trip. Providing students with the opportunity to research and create a brochure that includes maps, facts, pictures, and an agenda will help students to be more focused and learn more from the experience. Another strategy that was mentioned focused on providing students with a preview of what they are going to learn during a chapter or unit. Several teachers in our building use this strategy by setting a goal for the day, week, month, and quarter. Students are well aware of the expectations and what they are going to learn during the time frame. Using programs like Kidspiration to create an organizer will help students by providing an essential question to guide their learning. The primary focus at our school is responding to text and using higher level questioning. An organizer like this will help students with both of these goals. Throughout the lesson or unit, students could add and organize information as it is taught. Using multimedia resources including web sites, BrainPop and United Streaming are great ways to help students get settled in and focused while allowing teachers the opportunity to teach from bell to bell (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K..2007).



Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.