Part 1: When More Explaining Leaves Less Time for Practice

Teachers are already working hard to plan meaningful lessons and support all learners. Chunking makes that work more effective by breaking instruction into smaller, purposeful sections that give students more chances to process, practice, and succeed.

Teachers ask me all the time, “How can I make lesson planning faster?”

My answer is usually not what they expect.

I don’t tell them to find a shortcut that waters down the lesson. I don’t tell them to lower the bar. I don’t tell them to create three completely different lesson plans for one class period. Who has time for that?

Instead, I ask them to look at the structure of the lesson.

Because often the problem is not the teacher’s work ethic. It is not that the teacher does not care enough, plan enough, or try enough.

The problem is that the lesson is planned as one long teach instead of a series of smaller, purposeful chunks.

And that matters.

When I work with teachers in inclusive classrooms, I see the same pattern again and again.

A Typical Scenario

A teacher starts with a clear objective. The lesson begins well. The teacher explains the concept, gives examples, asks questions, and checks faces around the room.

Then the teacher sees it.

Jessica has that glazed look in her eyes. David is looking puzzled. Rob, who is on an IEP, is just kind of “out there” at this point.

So, being a caring teacher, the teacher keeps teaching.

They give another example. Then another one. They ask more questions, hoping to pull students in. They try to get participation going, but it feels like pulling teeth because the same students are answering over and over again.

By now, 20 minutes of class time has gone by and they still are direct teaching. Maybe they’ve included visuals or used dramatic role-play to engage. Maybe they’re doing outstanding direct teaching.

Still, some students are lost.

So they keep going.

Now 25 minutes are gone. In a 45-minute class, that leaves only 20 minutes for practice, application, grouping, reteaching, enrichment, closure, or whatever else was supposed to happen.

So, here is the question that stopped me in my tracks when I first started thinking deeply about Chunking Lesson Plans™:

Probably thinking, “Oh, geez. I’m bored.”

And who knows? They may have even begun to act out their boredom and frustration.

At the same time, after 25 minutes of direct teaching, there are probably still students who need more practice. There may still be a handful of students who have no clue what the concept means.

So, weren’t we in almost the same place after 10 minutes of direct teaching?

Why did we spend 25 minutes only to be at the same place we were in after ten?

What an epiphany this was for me.

That realization is the heart of Chunking Lesson Plans™.

The goal is not to teach less. The goal is to use whole-group teaching where it helps most, then give students time to process, practice, and apply.

Direct teaching is a best practice technique. Ten minutes, done well, is powerful. But after that, we need to do something different.

We need to chunk the lesson.

Why Lesson Planning Feels So Overwhelming in Inclusive Classrooms

Inclusive classrooms are complex.

In one room, a teacher may have students who are reading above grade level, students reading two or three years below grade level, students with IEPs, students with ADHD, students with auditory processing difficulties, English learners, anxious students, gifted students, students who need movement, students who need visuals, and students who need time to think before responding.

Teachers are expected to teach the grade-level standards, provide accommodations, keep students engaged, manage behavior, assess understanding, provide intervention, enrich advanced learners, and document what is happening.

No wonder lesson planning feels overwhelming.

Teachers do not need one more complicated form to fill out. They need something that visually cues them into remembering the methods they might use to meet the needs of all learners in the classroom.

That is where a planning tool matters.

The goal is not to make teaching mechanical. The goal is to reduce the mental load.

Instead of sitting there thinking, “What am I forgetting?” the teacher can glance at a visual planning reminder and ask:

• How will students access the information?
• How will they practice?
• How will they show understanding?
• What supports will help students who struggle?
• What options will keep students engaged?

That saves time.

Not because the teacher is doing less thinking, but because the teacher is not starting from scratch every time.

What Often Happens: Direct Instruction Expands, and Practice Time Shrinks

This is where lesson planning can get tricky:

A whole-class lesson often assumes that everyone needs the same amount of direct instruction, even when students are starting from different places.

Then, when some students do not get it, the teacher gives the whole class more direct instruction.

That feels responsible. It feels caring. It feels like we are not leaving anyone behind.

But in reality, we may be holding some students back while still not giving struggling students the kind of support they actually need.

Some students do not need another whole-class example. They need a smaller group. They need a different modality. They need to talk it through with a partner. They need to manipulate something. They need vocabulary clarified. They need the steps color-coded. They need to see the concept mapped out. They need guided practice.

Other students already have it. They need acceleration, enrichment, application, or an opportunity to go deeper.

When we keep reteaching the whole class, we often create two problems at once:

• The students who understand become bored.
• The students who do not understand still do not get enough targeted support.

What Chunking Lesson Plans™ Solves

Chunking Lesson Plans™ helps teachers use class time differently.

Instead of thinking, “I have to explain until everyone gets it,” the teacher thinks, “I am going to teach the core concept clearly and briefly, then use the rest of the lesson to find out who needs what.”

That one shift changes everything.

Let’s use the example from my book: teaching genre.

If I have five on-grade-level capable students with no learning disabilities in a small group, and I want to teach them the concept of genre, not to be experts on it, but to know what genre is and identify three types, most teachers would agree that I could teach that concept in about ten minutes.

So why do we often take 25 minutes in a whole-class lesson?

Chunking helps us stop doing that.

Instead, how about we teach the core instruction for about ten minutes and then stop. No matter how many glazed looks we see, we stop.

Not because we are abandoning students.

But, because we are moving them into a structure where we can actually help them better.

The Takeaway for Part 1

Faster lesson planning should not mean weaker instruction.

It should not mean copying a worksheet and hoping for the best.

It should not mean lowering expectations for students who struggle.

It means designing the lesson so that the teacher is not trapped in 25 minutes of direct instruction when 10 minutes would have been enough to launch the learning.

My whole philosophy is built around the idea that strategies can be good for all and critical for different learners.

Chunking Lesson Plans™ is one of those strategies.

It helps the teacher stop reteaching the whole class longer and longer and start using class time more intentionally.

In Part 2, we will look at how to plan the 10-minute core teach, what to do after that first chunk of instruction, and how to use the Lesson Planner Idea Jogger to make differentiated planning faster and more manageable.

Podcast: Stop Overexplaining with Ten Minute Chunks

Source note: Adapted from Susan Gingras Fitzell, Special Needs in the General Classroom: 500+ Teaching Strategies for Differentiating Instruction, especially the sections on Chunking Lesson Plans™ and the Differentiated Planning – Lesson Planner Idea Jogger.

FAQ

How can teachers make lesson planning faster without lowering expectations?

Teachers can make lesson planning faster by changing the structure of the lesson, not the rigor of the content. When instruction is chunked into smaller, purposeful sections, teachers can spend less time overexplaining and more time giving students opportunities to process, practice, and apply what they are learning.

Why does direct instruction sometimes take too much class time?

Direct instruction often stretches too long because teachers are trying to meet individual learning needs through whole-class teaching. When some students look confused, teachers naturally keep explaining. The problem is that this can reduce time for practice and still fail to provide the targeted support struggling learners actually need.

What is the benefit of chunking lesson plans in inclusive classrooms?

Chunking lesson plans helps teachers use class time more intentionally. A short, focused core teach gives students the foundation they need, and the rest of the lesson can be used to identify who needs practice, reteaching, enrichment, or a different way to access the content. This makes differentiated instruction more manageable in inclusive classrooms.

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I started using mind mapping after reading I Can See You Naked: A Fearless Guide to Making Great Presentations by Ron Hoff (1988). My first presentation was drawn out like a colorful board game with a route to follow, arrows, and picture images of what I was going to do.

I remember thinking how much easier it was to use than index cards with a text script written on them. It was also much less restricting. I did not feel tied to reading the cards. Rather, I looked at the picture and went from memory. It saved me from the plight of many presenters: that of being tied to a script.

The technique worked so well for me that I started expanding the idea into my teaching efforts. As I read selections from English texts to my students, I drew the events out on paper in a map and graphic format. I would often interject silly ditties and exclamations of passion into the effort to make what I was reading to them stick out in their memory.

Given that my students were at the ‘cool’ age of ‘teen,’ they would often look at me and say, “You are crazy!” My pat answer was always, “Yes, I am, but you’ll remember this because of it.” Moreover, they did.

Students learn and remember graphic organizers better if they create them out of their own mental images and patterns. As a parent who has spent my children’s lifetimes trying to teach them how to learn, I was very excited when I walked into my daughter Shivahn’s college apartment and found mind maps, mnemonics, color, etc. all over one of her walls.

Now, it’s not unusual to find mandalas on her door or on her walls or flashcards scattered about, but this was a huge mind map made from recycled 8.5 X 11-inch pieces of paper. I had no idea what it all meant, but I do know it helped her to get an A in the course. My daughter co-wrote a book with me, Umm…Studying? What’s That?, so it’s reassuring to know that she didn’t ‘just’ write the book but also used the strategies and shared them with her peers.

Research Background for Mind Maps, Etc.

Many experts agree that developing cognitive maps and using advanced organizers increases critical thinking skills.

Long-term memory files information in the brain through patterns, procedures, categories, pairs, and rules. A mind map uses at least three of these five ways to store information, therefore helping the brain remember information better.

A classic mind map begins with a word, phrase, or idea typically placed in the center of a piece of paper. As the author of the mind map expands upon the word or phrase in the middle, the mind map expands to include various ideas that come to mind when considering that central prompt.

Graphic organizers enable the brain to categorize information. A mind map is a non-linguistic representation method of organizing information that enables students to file the information away in long-term memory in multiple modes or memory packets.

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OK, I’m sure you’re thinking, “Woah! RTI wasn’t even around way back then!” You got me! You’re right. The term RTI didn’t exist, however, really terrific instruction *did* exist. It’s how I was taught to teach at Rivier College, Nashua, NH. Sister Joseph, the head instructor of the teacher preparation program would have it no other way! Believe me, you didn’t do anything less than really terrific instruction or there was hell to pay. We didn’t mess with Sr. Joseph!

The idea that EVERY high school classroom needs to begin with RTI may sound a little bit radical. However, when teachers use differentiated, high-quality instruction, consistently, 80 to 90 percent of their students are successful in meeting achievement benchmarks. Further, using Tier One strategies right away reduces the need for Tier Two and Tier Three interventions.

Here are my reasons for why we should be focusing on RTI Tier 1 at the secondary level:

The traditional verbal linguistic/auditory delivery of information, where students are expected to passively sit in their seats and take in information while trying to copy notes at rapid speed, does not work for all students.
The students it does not work for are those who already are not responding to education and are doing poorly in the classroom and on state tests.
Students who move on to college, who did not get differentiation at the secondary level, often have trouble. This is because they learned only one mode of studying. When they are met with challenging coursework, they often lack the study skills to support them in a more rigorous academic environment. That’s why we often find our most successful high school students don’t meet expectations at the college level.

Applying Tier One teaching practices in all general classrooms is useful for a number of reasons:

• The high-quality, research-based instruction that students get will give them an edge as they move toward graduation.
• It will provide improved study skills that will carry students through college.
• Tier One strategies can have a dramatic and positive impact on students.

Additionally, Tier One strategies incorporate multiple modes of assessment. Teachers use a variety of measures to clearly identify what the student knows and doesn’t know.

By using teaching strategies that support all learning styles – whether it’s Fitzell Acceleration Centers, station teaching, or flexible grouping, teachers will have an arsenal of differentiated instruction methods that they can use to keep students engaged and learning no matter what their level.

Until we differentiate instruction at the secondary level, a basic requirement of RTI Tier One, we are shortchanging all our students: English-language learners, students with special needs, trade-bound students and students heading off to college. By differentiating instruction in your classroom, you will not only help those students struggling to understand course material but will also help all students achieve more success throughout their secondary and post-secondary education.

Extra bonus: You will love the feeling you get from seeing students succeed beyond all our expectations!

CLICK HERE to discover a wealth of teaching strategies and resources for maximizing student success!.

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Studies have shown that reciprocal teaching greatly influences student comprehension skills. They also found that students became readers that are more independent, better summarizers, predictors, and critical thinkers. As an additional benefit, students who participated in reciprocal teaching groups displayed fewer behavior problems.

One of the best ways to use reciprocal teaching is to practice a questioning strategy in which the reader reads the text, processes the meaning, makes connections to prior knowledge, and finally generates a question about the text.

Learning Objectives of the Questioning Strategy

• Identify the different types of questions appropriate for the lesson
• Formulate different types of focused questions
• Work in cooperative groups to practice reading comprehension strategies
• Synthesize information in order to respond to a variety of questions
• Interpret text and demonstrate higher level thinking skills in creating various types of questions
• Enhance comprehension through questioning
• Apply questioning strategies in many curricular areas

Take a few minutes to click the link above and watch some of the great videos on this technique, and don’t forget to share your great ideas in the comments, below!

For more information on differentiation and Response to Intervention, see Susan Fitzell’s book, RTI Strategies for Secondary Teachers.

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Condense information into a picture and embrace the power of color. Teachers often present information verbally and linguistically. However, many of our students are visual learners. A substantial amount of our brainpower is devoted to visual processing. When teachers add visual learning strategies to what they are teaching, student recall improves.

For example, after teaching for five or six minutes (or up to ten minutes in a high school class), give students three to five minutes to draw a picture, diagram, or symbol of what they just learned. This visual learning strategy lets students take the verbal linguistic information we just taught and turn it into visual information. This lets the brain process and use information in a different way that, in turn, helps students better remember what has been taught.

When we use drawing exercises in the classroom, we often encounter resistance from students. They complain that they can’t draw. One way to address this is to draw badly when we draw in the classroom. Use stick figure drawings and emphasize the importance of simple line drawings over drawing well. The point is to create an image that helps us remember what we’ve learned, not to get graded on our art.

If students say they can’t draw, pair them up with someone who doesn’t mind drawing. It would be a shame to lose students because of their initial resistance to doing something so different from what they are used to doing in school.

Snapshot Devices

Another way to present information visually is to use a snapshot device. Snapshot devices take the concepts we have already talked about to another level; their purpose is to take a snapshot of information and represent it visually so students will remember it. For instance, you’ve taught about how the West was settled and explained that certain inventions were involved, such as the six-shooter, the windmill, the sod house, the locomotive, and barbed wire.

A snapshot device is a picture with all of the things you have taught in it. It’s a scene, not just a collection of individual pictures. If you draw pictures of a six-shooter, a windmill, and a sod house with no way to relate these things to each other, then you are drawing ‘unconnected’ images. With a snapshot device, you take the information and make it into a scene to think about. Students will remember the cowboy with the six-shooters and the train coming down the hill behind the sod house. They will see the scene in their mind’s eye.

Assessing with Visuals

When students engage in drawing what they have learned, teachers have an opportunity to walk around the room and assess understanding by looking at students’ drawings and asking questions for clarification. Document your observations and you will have a form of authentic and immediate ongoing assessment.

For more information on differentiation and Response to Intervention, see Susan Fitzell’s book, RTI Strategies for Secondary Teachers.

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Troy Wittman speaks to my heart, my passion, and my concerns about education in the United States today. Please take 15 minutes and listen to his TedX talk. He’s controversial. You may not like what he has to say. All the more the reason for you to watch!

I encourage the use of rubrics because of all the benefits research on their use as teaching strategies indicates. That said, I also encourage the use of quick, one minute, assessments (exit tickets, etc.) on a daily basis. The question I often get is “Do I grade them?” We, as a profession, are obsessed with grading; tagging students with an A,B,C,D, or, F. I don’t feel, nor do I advise, that we grade everything. Even rubrics do not have to result in a “grade.” I think the point that Mr. Wittman makes is that we are too “grade” and “test” obsessed and it’s hurting our kids. I agree. We need to find a balance.

I agree that the Common Core State Standards, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (and all the CCSS standards renamed by states trying to avoid the issues around the term “Common Core”), and many other systems of “standards” in use today have tremendous potential to bring back differentiating instruction, hands on learning, more focus on technology, etc. However, as I coach teachers, I’m sensing and feeling their anger, frustration, and panic about the standardized test that will assess students’ growth on the “standards” in their states.

Many are so concerned about the fact that the test is going to assess mastery on topics their students are not developmentally ready for, especially when assessing students with special needs and learning disabilities. Some teachers are paralyzed by the fear. Some are chucking all known DI strategies because they take too much time to implement. Some are trying to cover two to three years of material in one year to get their students ready for the test. Top that off with the fact that teachers are panicked because, in some cases, their teacher evaluation depends on how their students do on those tests.

I had a teacher say to me recently, “Why would I want to co-teach, or have an inclusive class, when my evaluation will depend on my students’ test scores? The teacher down the hall, who has all high level kids, will get a better evaluation than me simply because she doesn’t have kids on an IEP.”

This is the state of education today and I find it disheartening. Troy Wittman uses rubrics, as he states in his talk, however, it’s not the only tool he uses. He also made it clear that he’s fortunate to work with a school that does not foster teaching to the test… a school that is not creating a culture of fear over test scores.

Teachers are not the only ones who are fearful. School administrators are fearful of the tests also, and that fear trickles down.

As I watched the video myself, I could hear the cries of the teachers I’ve coached and presented to over the past few years in my mind – rebutting… “But in MY school, we could not do what you are doing Mr. Wittman, because …”

We need to find a balance…

For more information on differentiation strategies to reach ALL learners, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Special Needs in the General Classroom, Strategies That Make It Work. Available in both print and electronic versions!

We also offer a Professional Development Kit, for all teachers, with a Graduate Credit Option!

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Dropbox does not organize information or duplicate a file cabinet, unless the user somehow pulled that organization together. Google Drive is similar to Dropbox in that it holds files, however, its main advantage is that it allows multiple people to collaborate on projects, in real-time, from anywhere in the world.

When we look at Evernote from a “technology in education” standpoint, there are many ways this tool can be useful. One can browse the web and find an interesting website that relates to research being done for an article or paper then click on the plug-in icon in the browser that will send that webpage directly to the file folder of choice in Evernote.

Because Evernote is cross-platform, anything stored in Evernote is visible from all your devices. It’s like Microsoft Onenote on steroids. The only negative that I find in using Evernote as opposed to Microsoft Onenote is that if I want to add drawings or colors or visuals, I must do those in Skitch, which is a separate app unavailable on the PC. Skitch then syncs the newly created files with Evernote.

Ideas for Using Evernote Technology in the Education Classroom

1. Use Evernote to complete research for a project and share that research with the teacher.
2. Add articles by adding the “clipper” tool to your web browser.
3. As students read articles, they can add their own thoughts and ideas in Evernote, either in writing or via audio files.
4. When students take notes in class, they can use Evernote and share those notes with other students.
5. Students can add photographs taken with their devices to represent vocabulary, a setting in a play or novel, people they think might “look like” a character in a novel, etc.
6. Students use Evernote to create portfolios in the classroom. Handwritten notes can be scanned or captured with Evernote’s camera function and added to their portfolio.
7. Teachers can use Evernote for researching and organizing their notes with the bonus of being able to search all notes in one place.
8. Teachers can create a notebook for each student and invite students to the notebook. Then teachers can comment on student notes.
9. Teachers can create one shared notebook for student assignments. Invite each student to that one notebook and list the days’ work as well as the homework.
10. Teachers add digital versions of literature covered in class. Save the links in the notes and share them with students.
11. Post a public link to the notebook on the school website so that parents can join the notebook from the public link and support students with assignments.
12. Evernote’s reminder function can support students to complete assignments on schedule.

For example: You surf the web and find a current event or editorial article related to the current lesson objective. You clip the article, include a video you found online related to the topic, include a picture gallery related to the report and add a corresponding worksheet that you will use in class. Add references to vocabulary in the article to the same folder. You then share an alert about this folder and assignment via Twitter or e-mail.

You can also install the “Clearly” extension for Evernote which eliminates ads, distracters, and web items to which you do not want students exposed.

Excerpted from 100+ Tech Ideas for Teaching English and Language Arts: Maximize iPad, Mobile, and Online Apps in Every Classroom – Currently ON SALE at Amazon.com

For more information about using technology to strengthen instruction, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Using iPads and Other Cutting Edge Technology to Strengthen Your Instruction.

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In response to a survey I sent out, several teachers who have found ways to overcome these challenges shared strategies that they use in their own classrooms for grouping students and providing enrichment activities.

Here are six more excellent enrichment ideas from some of the great teachers in my network!

10. Reading Comprehension Acceleration Activity for Language Arts, English, and Reading in the Content area: Choose books slightly above their reading level that will challenge student thinking on point of view or a historical issue. Instruct students to meet “book club style” to discuss the text. Encourage students to make connections to past instruction and suggest points to discuss in the upcoming lesson(s). For example, choose several books from a specific time period such as Sadako and The 1000 Paper Cranes, I Survived Pearl Harbor, How Baseball Saved Us, I survived the Nazi Invasion of 1944, and Number the Stars. These all give a different child’s point of view about World War II. Students get a 360-degree view of events during that time and draw their own conclusions based on their reading and discussion. Contributed by Chrystal Williams, Clara Love Elementary, Justin, TX

11. Vocabulary and Content Specific Terminology: Choose a key term discussed in your lesson and have students research the term to gain more detail. For example, when Felicia Thomas was teaching pre Civil War events through to Civil War there was minimal time in the lesson to thoroughly discuss the role of an abolitionist. So, the acceleration group researched the term to identify and respond to the who, what, when, where, why. Contributed by Felicia Thomas, Joseph Martin Elementary, Hinesville, GA Twitter: @fthomas_jme

12. Background Knowledge for Current Topic: Have students read informational articles and create questions for a classmate or parent based on their reading. Also contributed by Felicia Thomas, Joseph Martin Elementary, Hinesville, GA Twitter: @fthomas_jme

12. Computer Classes – Application, Problem-solving, Analysis, and Synthesis: After providing an overview of the key components of high-end computer systems via teacher presentations and video tutorials, Lawani, uses a “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” style quiz to reinforce learning for about 5 minutes. Then he splits the class into groups of 3 or so and give each group a different kind of computer system, for which they must research and identify the key components they would use, depending on the purpose for which their computer will be used. He allows five minutes for the research and then facilitates a Q&A to monitor and evaluate their understanding. Contributed by Lawani, Lewisham Southwark College

13. Create Game Questions to Reinforce Learning and Peer Review With the Class: Instruct students to create questions (about 5) to be used for a study guide, quiz, or test, or to play (my favorite) Kahoot @ Kahoot.it. Students create questions that are relevant to what has been taught and must include an answer key. This can be done individually or as a group. Contributed by Janna Ramirez, Lyman Hall Elementary, Hinesville, GA Twitter: @JhalesRamirez

14. Go Deeper Through Creating Models that Teach: Have students use apps like Wixie, ExplainEverything, or Educreations to”go deeper” into a standard and/or learning target. Challenge them to create video learning models for students that need extra practice. Contributed by Janice Brennan, Taylors Creek Elementary School, Hinesville, GA Twitter: @jbrennan_tce

15. Offer Students Choices for Enrichment: Janice Brennan offers her students choices that accelerate learning. Examples of Acceleration Center™ she’s provided include Boggle Your Mind, a figurative language matching game, a vocabulary-independent word study for a novel the class is reading. 10 minutes is the ideal time limit and Janice’s students love the timed aspect. Also contributed by Janice Brennan, Taylors Creek Elementary School, Hinesville, GA Twitter: @jbrennan_tce

Get Part 1 and Part 2 in one convenient document!

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When chunking lesson plans, which is a strategy whereby you divide your lesson plan into chunks of approximately 10 minutes or less, you can have a 10-minute chunk of time with three ability-based groups, each doing work at their level of instruction. In this scenario, one group could be your specially designed instruction, or reteach group, another group might be working on practice items while the third group would be working on enrichment activities that challenge and accelerate learning.

While teachers typically focus on the group of students who are receiving specially designed instruction, or being re-taught the material, other students need activities that keep them engaged and behaving appropriately. It’s typical for students to work on practice activities after instruction in the classroom without much need for teacher attention. This group is not much different than the group that might be doing the odd numbers on page 35 after a lesson on how to work an algebraic equation. Teachers are used to this scenario and may lightly supervise students in this group. In reality, this doesn’t change the chunking strategy. The difference is that teachers are teaching one group of students while their other students are engaged in the practice activity.

The real challenge is what to do with the students who are ready to move beyond the current level of instruction. How do you give those students something that’s more challenging, that enriches their learning, but doesn’t cause them to feel resentful that they’re doing harder work, more work, or boring work?

It seems logical that we might give these higher achieving students more difficult problems to solve, more challenging work to accomplish, longer and more demanding essays to write. They’re capable, so the temptation is to challenge them with these types of assignments. However, what often happens is that students become resentful, start to misbehave, and then go home and complain to their parents that they are being discriminated against because they have to do more work than other students in the classroom. The key is to give students challenge activities that are fun, engaging, and take learning up a level in a way that they find stimulating and motivating.

These activities can be used to challenge students for a 10 to a 12-minute chunk of time while you are reteaching another group of students.

10 Minute Acceleration Center Enrichment Activities For Use Across All Content Areas

1. A WebQuest Challenge: Send students on a WebQuest to answer an open-ended question about the topic you just taught. WebQuests move students beyond just the facts. They require students to use prior knowledge and stimulate curiosity that promotes an investigation of the topic at a deeper level.

A WebQuest provides students with the goal, or quest. They then have to research the given topic on the Internet to find information about that quest and analyze what they find by reading, watching videos, listening to audio, viewing images, etc. in order to synthesize their research and come to a conclusion.

An excellent resource for Web Quests can be found at Tommarch.com. Also, check out http://webquest.org/

2. Be a Character Detective: Research a key person (scientist, author, historical figure, mathematician, etc.) to come up with a theory as to why they are notable. What prompted them to do what they did? What events or people in their life influenced them? Where would the world be if their lives had been different? Students can present their findings and conclusions in a quick presentation (via screencasting, a skit, a song, an iMovie or Animoto trailer, or a mind map).

3. What’s the Source of that Theory? Use Wolfram Alpha to research background information on a theory in geometry, algebra, or science, and present that new information to the class in a creative manner.

4. Visual Research and Analysis (Math): In math, use Google images to find structures that include a specific shape, such as a parabola, and determine the formula for that particular shape. Possibly, consider how a shape might contribute to the structural integrity of objects such as chairs or tables.

5. Video Curation and Analysis: Find videos on the topic of instruction that present the knowledge in a unique or entertaining way. For example, find music videos that explain the difference between metaphor and simile. Or find videos, for example, that present the prologue to a Shakespearean play in three different styles (a skit created by students, professional production, a dramatization uploaded by a teacher). Analyze how the different presentations provide the viewer with differences in perspective on the piece of literature.

6. Analyze that App: Provide students with a rubric to analyze a device app, or a video, or an instructional website. Have them use the rubric to create a “top three” list of resources for the other students in the class on any given topic.

7. Create a Whiteboard Movie (Screencasting): Instruct students to create a whiteboard movie using an app such as Explain Everything, and show two sides of an issue, both sides of an argument in a debate, or two different characterizations of a social situation.

8. Karaoke Mnemonics: Students choose a karaoke version of a popular song so that they have the music without words. Create new lyrics to sing the concept just taught so that they will remember the lesson.

9. Dramatize Dry Text in Person or with Video: Show students an episode of Real Actors Read Yelp and have them use the movie app on their device to dramatize content area reading that would typically be very dry, similar to what the actors have done with the Yelp reviews.

Next week, I’ll share six more great ideas from real teachers who use the ideas they share in their own classrooms. Don’t miss it!

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The post 15 Challenge, SDI, and Enrichment Activities to Keep Challenge Groups Engaged in the Mixed-ability Classroom – Part 1 appeared first on Susan Fitzell.

MTSS, Multi Tiered System of Supports,  encompasses several approaches, one of which is Response to Intervention (RTI). Here are a few strategies for classroom implementation at the secondary level.

1. Tier One of RTI requires the use of best practice, research-based teaching methods. Research-based strategies implemented in the differentiated classroom reduce the need for interventions.

2. Using frequent progress monitoring, teachers determine where a student is lacking and then seek Tier Two interventions that might be appropriate for that student. Often, Tier Two interventions can be researched-based practices used in Tier One, but with three modifications:

• Specific students receive more intense instruction and application of strategies.
• Students are given more time to practice and implement the strategies.
• The intensity of implementation may increase.

3. Having adequate time to implement interventions is often the greatest challenge faced at the secondary level. When teachers routinely implement small group work, flexible grouping, or center teaching, interventions in Tier Two fall right into place in the general educator’s lesson plan.

4. Rather than forcing teachers to follow a script from a published program, teachers are encouraged to use their professional skills, experience, and an understanding of student needs and data derived from frequent progress monitoring to determine appropriate interventions. The key is using a problem-solving model to hone in on possible interventions.

5. An option for delivering Tier Two instruction that works well for students at the secondary level is a tutored study hall combined with in-class, frequent, immediate interventions made possible by Chunking Lesson Plans^®.

6. Tier Three is not as delineated as Tiers One and Two in literature on Response to Intervention. School districts define Tier Three requirements as follows:

• Interventions are more intensive, based on problem-solving models, and implemented through a combination of means including classroom instruction, outside-of-school instruction, or in-school instruction outside of the general classroom.
• A combination of intensive interventions implemented in general education as part of a wrap-around approach to meeting a student’s needs.
• Some school districts, as well as books on the topic of RTI, consider special education to be part of Tier Three.

7. How we assess students to determine their understanding of content is critical to the Response to Intervention process. Keep it simple, frequent, and efficient. Authentic assessments incorporate a variety of measures into the evaluation process and focus on formative assessment. Types of authentic assessment include rubrics, exit cards, curriculum-based measurement, student self-evaluation, and documented observations.

Originally published and copyright© 2012. Excerpted from RTI Strategies for Secondary Teachers by Susan Fitzell, Corwin Press ©2011. www.responsetointernventiononline.com

For more information on differentiation and Response to Intervention, see Susan Fitzell’s book, RTI Strategies for Secondary Teachers.

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