Knowing this, students are more likely to take time to complete assignments. A teacher can encourage the student to utilize a separate assignment notebook for each subject they are studying, and track daily assessments of what they learned in class about their study of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. This employs the technique of practice, which enforces student's ability to write well and apply scientific method or logical analysis to information they learn in class. Students may for example, be encouraged to make notes alongside the daily assessments of what they learned about ways questions they may explore to further understand the topic at hand.
Strategy 5 - Nonlinguistic Representations
Marzano provides five methods educators can use to apply nonlinguistic representation including: "graphic organizers, pictures and pictographs, mental pictures, concrete representations, and kinesthetic activity" (p. 69). The more commonly used tools include graphic organizers and use of concrete representations, as we'll demonstrate using our social studies case examples.
In social studies class one, where students are learning about the homestead, a teacher can use a graphic organizer to combine "the linguistic mode and nonlinguistic mode of communication" using words that highlight key points and symbols that identify relationships in the information gathered (Marzano, 1998, p. 71). For example, in the homestead classroom, a teacher can encourage students to use what Marzano refers to as a "descriptive pattern organizer" where students gather facts they can characterize into a rectangle, then organization the facts using arrows or other symbols to represent relationships that exist between facts or comparisons. For example, students may list 2 important facts in each upper hand corner of a rectangle describing the homestead of the Midwest and that predicted for 2030, and then uses arrows to demonstrate any relationships that exist between the facts gathered from student's studies or predictions.
As a second example, using "concept pattern organizers" as described by Marzano (1998) students learning about Ancient Greece and Rome may learn to organize the information they learn using a single word or phrase that represents an entire category or class of information. For example, the keyword "relationships" may be used to describe the people, places, and events that took place in each geographic area that facilitated interrelationships among public officials.
Strategy 6 - Cooperative Learning
Cooperative learning involves five key elements: "positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual and group accountability, interpersonal and small group skills and group processing" (Marzano, 1998, p. 89). These activities encourage students to help each other learn and applaud one another for their successes when achieving certain goals, and helps build trust and decision-making skills among students, allowing students to learn how to interact successfully in a team-structured environment (Marzano, 1998).
In the example of a social studies classroom where students are reviewing the actual homestead of the Midwest vs. their interpretation of what it might by in 2030, the teacher may use informal groups where a teacher encourages each student to turn to their neighbor and share their thoughts and ideas about the present and future, and then encourages their classmate to do the same. The teacher may then encourage the student to turn to another student sitting on the opposite side of him or her, and do the same. This allows students to focus their attention and process information, and gain new and interesting perspectives when they understand more clearly how their classmate thinks compared with their own thought processes.
As another example, in the Ancient history classroom, a facilitator or teacher can encourage a larger group setting by breaking students into two halves, allowing each half to discuss their facts, knowledge and information of the subject, then come to a consensus that reflects the key areas of learning they explored in the classroom. Marzano (1998) encourages teachers using the cooperative learning technique to combine this with other classroom structures so that the tool does not lose its effectiveness (p. 90). For example, an instructor may elect to vary the size of the groups, by encouraging small focus groups one day consisting of four students and larger groups comprised of 1/2 of the class other days, while relying on other teaching techniques a majority...
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