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CHAPTER 3

Conducting Direct Instruction Lessons

In a direct instruction lesson, a teacher is presenting new content. Teachers generally teach simpler content, including factual information, vocabulary, and details from the proficiency scales directly. This method of instruction is most effective at communicating new and simpler content because it allows teachers to guide students through unfamiliar concepts and lays the foundation for more complex explorations of the topic.

The goal of this design area is for students to understand, when content is new, which parts are important and how the parts fit together. Teachers are able to meet that goal by answering the question, When content is new, how will I design and deliver direct instruction lessons that help students understand which parts are important and how the parts fit together? The three elements and associated strategies in this chapter help the teacher do just that.

Element 6: Chunking Content

Based on student needs, an effective teacher breaks the content into small chunks (that is, digestible bites) of information that students can easily process. Research has shown that information in small pieces allows students to hold it in working memory long enough to process it (Good & Brophy, 2003; Linden et al., 2003; Mayer, 2003; Rosenshine, 2002). The teacher should present chunks of information in a logical sequence, and he or she should determine the size of each chunk by how much students already know about the content (Marzano, 2007).

There are three strategies within this element.

1. Using preassessment data to plan for chunks

2. Presenting content in small, sequentially related sets

3. Allowing for processing time between chunks

The following sections will explore each strategy to provide you with guidelines to effectively implement this element. Read through each before creating a plan for your classroom. Teachers may use the strategies individually or in combination. Remember, these are not merely activities to be checked off; they are methods of creating a practice that combines your art with the science of chunking content. Reflect on your use of each strategy by filling out the “Strategy Reflection Log” on page 331.

Using Preassessment Data to Plan for Chunks

Based on students’ initial understanding of new content, the teacher presents new content in larger or smaller chunks. How much the students know about the topic determines how big, or small, the chunks will be. Preassessments can be either informal (such as those presented in element 4) or more structured, hardcopy assessments that include problems that represent the levels of the proficiency scale.

If students scored well in a specific area on a preassessment, the teacher presents that information as part of a larger chunk. When presenting information about which students displayed misconceptions or little prior knowledge on the preassessment, the teacher can use smaller chunks.

Presenting Content in Small, Sequentially Related Sets

Next, the teacher delivers the chunks. If presenting new declarative knowledge, the chunks include concepts and details that logically go together. If presenting new procedural knowledge, the chunks include steps in a process that go together. While executing the chunking process, the teacher monitors student understanding. If the students seem confused, before moving to the next chunk, the teacher stays with the content until understanding is achieved.

Allowing for Processing Time Between Chunks

The teacher provides a structured time for students to work together to process chunks of content. For example, a teacher has students work in groups of three. Students decide who will be member A, member B, and member C. The teacher presents the first chunk of information, and member A summarizes it. Members B and C add to what A has already said, and each group identifies elements of the chunk they are still confused about. The teacher takes questions from the whole class to clarify these confusions and then asks each group to predict what the next chunk will be about. The teacher presents the next chunk, and groups repeat the process, except that member B summarizes and members A and C add information. After the teacher presents the third chunk, groups repeat the process again, with member C summarizing, and members A and B adding information.

Monitoring Element 6

Specific student responses and behaviors allow the teacher to determine whether this element is being implemented effectively and producing the desired effects.

• Students actively engage in processing content between chunks.

• Students can explain why the teacher stops at specific points during a presentation of new content.

• Students appear to understand the content in each chunk.

Use this list to monitor student responses to element 6.

To monitor your own use of this element, use the scale in figure 3.1 in combination with the reproducible “Tracking Teacher Actions: Chunking Content” (page 62). As with other proficiency scales, level 3 or higher is the goal.

The following examples describe what each level of the scale might look like in the classroom.

• Not Using (0): A teacher introduces a new unit by giving a class-long lecture. She only pauses when a student raises his hand to ask a question and does not give the students time to process new or difficult knowledge.

• Beginning (1): A teacher does not plan in advance where he will pause when reading a short story with his students. He decides to pause every few sentences, which disrupts the narrative and causes his students to lose track of the story’s plot.

• Developing (2): A teacher purposefully presents the introduction to a new unit in small chunks by breaking the important concepts of the unit into categories. However, she does not use any techniques to verify that the students are processing and understanding each chunk of information.

Figure 3.1: Self-rating scale for element 6—Chunking content.

• Applying (3): A teacher employs the chunk processing strategy to teach students new information. He observes and engages with the different groups in the room to make sure that every group member is participating and grasping the content. The teacher moves on to the next chunk when he is satisfied that the class understands what was just taught.

• Innovating (4): A teacher observes her class after describing each step of a complex procedure and asking them to try it out. She looks for students who appear to be struggling with the steps so that she can modify her instructional approach. She pairs one struggling student with a student who appears to be successfully implementing the step and then asks the partner who is doing the step correctly to demonstrate and explain it to the other student.

Element 7: Processing Content

During breaks in the presentation of content, an effective teacher engages students in actively processing new information. Research has shown that some processing macrostrategies (such as reciprocal teaching) increase student achievement (Rosenshine & Meister, 1994). Processing macrostrategies combine several individual research-based strategies (such as summarizing, questioning, or predicting) to help students actively process information (Marzano, 2007).

There are eight strategies within this element.

1. Perspective analysis

2. Thinking hats

3. Collaborative processing

4. Jigsaw cooperative learning

5. Reciprocal teaching

6. Concept attainment

7. Think-pair-share

8. Scripted cooperative dyads

The following sections will explore each strategy to provide you with guidelines to effectively implement this element. Read through each before creating a plan for your classroom. Teachers may use the strategies individually or in combination. Remember, these are not merely activities to be checked off; they are methods of creating a practice that combines your art with the science of processing content. Reflect on your use of each strategy by filling out the “Strategy Reflection Log” on page 331.

Perspective Analysis

This strategy was originally developed by Robert J. Marzano (1992) in A Different Kind of Classroom: Teaching With Dimensions of Learning. The teacher asks students to consider multiple perspectives on new knowledge using perspective analysis. Topics might include controversial political topics, school- and community-related issues, or historical perspectives, to name a few. This strategy involves five steps, each with a corresponding question.

1. Identify your own position on a controversial topic: What do I believe about this?

2. Determine the reasoning behind your position: Why do I believe that?

3. Identify an opposing position: What is another way of looking at this?

4. Describe the reasoning behind the opposing position: Why might someone else hold a different opinion?

5. When you are finished, summarize what you have learned: What have I learned?

Students then consider a different position on the topic and the reasoning behind it.

Thinking Hats

Edward de Bono (1999) originally developed this strategy in Six Thinking Hats. The teacher asks students to process new information by imagining themselves wearing any one of six different-colored thinking hats. Students should use multiple hats when examining one chunk of new content as a way of developing a more thorough understanding of the information. Depending on the hat they wear, students look at new knowledge in a slightly different way, as follows.

1. White hat (neutral and objective perspectives): When wearing the white hat, students examine facts and figures related to the new information without drawing conclusions or interpreting them.

2. Red hat (emotional perspectives): When wearing the red hat, students express how they feel about the new information but should still refrain from judging either the topic or their feelings.

3. Black hat (cautious or careful perspectives): When wearing the black hat, students look for weaknesses or risks that stem from the new information. (Some teachers have expressed concern about using the color black for this hat. If students might be offended, the teacher should use a different color hat for these perspectives.)

4. Yellow hat (optimistic perspectives): When wearing the yellow hat, students look for positive and valuable aspects of the new information.

5. Green hat (creative perspectives): When wearing the green hat, students generate new ideas or create novel solutions to problems using the new information.

6. Blue hat (organizational perspectives): When wearing the blue hat, students reflect on their thinking processes and decide what perspectives they would like to take (in other words, what hats they would like to put on) as they interact with new information.

Figure 3.2 outlines the six thinking hat perspectives.

Collaborative Processing

The teacher asks students to meet in small groups to summarize the information just presented, ask clarifying questions, and make predictions about upcoming information. After allowing the students to interact in small groups, the teacher can lead the whole class in a discussion of their summaries, questions, and predictions.

Since collaborative processing requires students to interact with peers, accurately summarize content, predict content, and clarify challenging information, students’ ability to comfortably use all elements of the collaborative processing strategy may need to develop over time. Use figure 3.3 to track students’ use of the collaborative processing strategy. If students seem stuck at the beginning or developing stages, evaluate which behaviors need to be strengthened through modeling, coaching, or instruction.

Jigsaw Cooperative Learning

The teacher organizes students in teams of equal size (for example, five members) and the content into as many categories as there are team members (for example, five categories). Once students are in their groups, the teacher assigns each student a topic about which he or she will become an “expert.” Once students each have their expert topic, groups disband and students with the same expert topic meet together in expert groups to investigate the topic, share their findings, ask questions of each other and the teacher, and discuss their ideas. After each student has become an expert on his or her topic, the original groups re-form and students each present their expert knowledge to the other members of the group. Other group members can ask questions of the expert or the teacher as they learn the new information.

Source: Marzano Research, 2016.

Figure 3.2: Thinking hats.

Figure 3.3: Recognizing students’ use of the collaborative processing strategy.

Consider the following tips when implementing jigsaw cooperative learning activities.

• Plan in advance which topics each group will be responsible for and which students will be grouped together.

• Before students begin researching their topics, ask them to consider what they already know about their topic. As they gather information, they should make connections between what they are learning and what they already know.

• Provide students with sources where they can get more information on their topic. These resources could be a chapter in a class textbook, a website, or a short article.

• Ask students to take notes or use a graphic organizer to record the important details they learn about their topic. Students should consider which information is important to share with their groups as they are researching.

• Provide multiple opportunities for students to discuss what they have learned with their classmates. Students can discuss new information with their expert groups, their primary groups, and the class as a whole at the end of the jigsaw cooperative learning activity.

• When students begin sharing information with their groups, ask them to consider if what they are saying is contributing to the group’s knowledge. Are they framing what they have learned in a way that other students can understand? Remind students that their classmates may not have the same background knowledge on the topic, so it is important that they provide sufficient details.

• As each group discusses new information, encourage students to make linkages between the different areas they explored. Students can describe how each topic relates to the other topics and how their new knowledge about each aspect contributes to their understanding of the unit as a whole.

Reciprocal Teaching

Small groups of students, with one student designated as the discussion leader, use this strategy to interact with new information. Before the teacher presents a chunk of new information, members of the group generate predictions about the content. After the teacher presents the chunk of content, the discussion leader asks the group questions about the information presented, and the members of the group discuss each question. After the questions have been discussed, someone from the group (not the discussion leader) summarizes the content presented so far, and the members of the group make predictions about the upcoming chunk of content, beginning the cycle again. The role of discussion leader should rotate from student to student so each student has the opportunity to generate questions about the content and practice facilitating the group’s discussion.

Figure 3.4 can help guide their discussions.

Concept Attainment

The teacher asks students to identify, compare, and contrast examples and nonexamples of a concept. Examples of a concept should clearly display the attributes of the concept, and nonexamples should clearly not have attributes of the concept. Concept attainment is ideal to use when examining a complex topic that may be difficult to explain or define. It also works well when examining categories of objects or concepts. For example, teachers can use this strategy to examine different animal classes, a group of shapes, a part of speech, an artistic movement, or a genre of music. Additionally, this strategy can help students visualize correct and incorrect behaviors or uses of a procedure in the classroom. Once students seem comfortable with the patterns presented, ask them to generate their own examples and nonexamples to add to a class list.

Source: Marzano Research, 2016.

Figure 3.4: Discussing in groups.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

Consider the following tips for using this strategy in your classroom.

• Organize examples and nonexamples into a simple chart to help students visualize patterns. If students are creating their own examples and nonexamples, ask them to record their choices in a graphic organizer.

• When asking students to define a mystery concept, begin first with examples and nonexamples that are simple and seem to parallel one another. These should give the students an idea of what is being contrasted. Instead of providing all of the examples at once, give two or three at a time and provide students with time to reflect on possible patterns.

• As you provide more examples, the students’ understanding of what is being defined should sharpen. Elements might become more abstract as students’ knowledge deepens.

• Avoid choosing examples and nonexamples with trivial differences that might confuse students.

• Instead of having students guess what the mystery concept is out loud, ask them to create their own examples and nonexamples that fit the pattern. Students can write their examples on the class chart to aid students who have not yet guessed the concept.

Think-Pair-Share

Frank Lyman (1981) originally developed this strategy. The teacher asks students to think critically about a question, pair up with another classmate to come to a consensus on their answer to the question, and then share their responses with other groups or the whole class. Limiting the amount of time for the thinking and pairing steps of the strategy can motivate students to make quick decisions and explain their thinking succinctly (for example, a teacher might give students thirty seconds to think of an answer and then three minutes to discuss with their partner). Since the procedure for this strategy is relatively simple, a teacher can implement it in a lesson either at planned points or informally as the need arises. The teacher can monitor the use of this strategy by observing students as they discuss topics, asking students to provide written summaries of their responses, or having pairs of students present their thinking to the whole class.

Figure 3.5 can help guide students’ use of this strategy.

Source: Marzano Research, 2016.

Figure 3.5: Think-pair-share guidelines.

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Scripted Cooperative Dyads

Donald Dansereau (1988) originally developed this strategy. The teacher presents a new chunk of information or asks students to read a short excerpt of a text. As they read or listen, students take notes about the main idea and key details of the content. Then, the teacher breaks students up into groups of two and assigns each student to act either as the recaller or the listener. In their groups, the recaller summarizes the content, without looking at his or her notes, while the listener adds missing information and corrects any errors in the recaller’s summary. Students should switch between the roles of recaller and listener after each chunk of information.

While this strategy may seem simple to implement, students’ attention can easily become centered on getting the procedure right rather than on the processing of new content. To prepare students for using this strategy, teachers can review the following skills in class.

• Taking notes and annotating: Comprehensive notes are essential to the implementation of scripted cooperative dyads. Model different strategies for note-taking that will help students efficiently record the key ideas from texts and presentations. One simple technique teachers can share with students at all grade levels is two-column notes. In this strategy, students draw a line to separate the right and left sides of their notepaper. In the right column, students write the main ideas or concepts discussed in the content, and in the left column students write important details that refine their understanding of those main ideas. In addition to asking students to take notes, teachers can also encourage the annotation of texts through the use of symbols, sticky notes, or different colored highlighters.

• Summarizing: Students’ summaries should build on and relate to the information they recorded in their notes. Ask students to try to describe the who, what, where, when, why, and how of information. Students looking for errors in their partners’ summaries should also focus on these details. Teachers can have students practice their verbal summarization skills by giving them only a limited amount of time to summarize new content. If students are new to providing verbal summaries, teachers can also allow them to freewrite their ideas and the points they would like to make before asking them to present their summaries. Students should not refer to notes during their freewrite but try to come up with points from memory.

• Acting as the listener: When students take on the listener role, they will need to critically engage with what their partner is saying and look through their notes for refining or additional information. While students might think the listener role is easier because they will have their notes in front of them, in fact, the listener role requires students to enact multiple processes at once and is equally as challenging as the recaller role. The listener must actively cross-check facts, procedures, and key ideas the recaller brings up and politely correct their partners when appropriate. Additionally, listeners should listen for information that they might have missed or didn’t quite understand when they were taking notes. In this way, scripted cooperative dyads are an exchange of information and ideas that should challenge students to examine what they know and understand about the topic.

Monitoring Element 7

Specific student responses and behaviors allow the teacher to determine whether this element is being implemented effectively and producing the desired effects.

• Students appear to be actively interacting with the content.

• Students volunteer predictions.

• Students can explain what they have just learned.

• Students voluntarily ask clarification questions.

Use this list to monitor student responses to element 7.

To monitor your own use of this element, use the scale in figure 3.6 (page 50) in combination with the reproducible “Tracking Teacher Actions: Processing Content” (page 63). As with other proficiency scales, level 3 or higher is the goal.

Figure 3.6: Self-rating scale for element 7—Processing content.

The following examples describe what each level of the scale might look like in the classroom.

• Not Using (0): A teacher does not provide opportunities for students to make predictions, summarize, or ask clarification questions about new content. After introducing new content, instead of providing time for the students to process what they have just experienced, the teacher uses direct instruction to introduce another piece of new information.

• Beginning (1): A teacher asks her students to use the thinking hats strategy to examine a new concept discussed in class. She encourages the students to use the thinking hats to deepen their responses and understanding but does not walk them through the process of using one hat at a time. Students fill out a worksheet using the hat descriptors but are not given the opportunity to discuss their conclusions or summarize how using the hats helped them better understand the new concept.

• Developing (2): A teacher uses the strategy of reciprocal teaching to help his students engage with new ideas in a unit on energy and motion. Within each reciprocal teaching group, he designates one student the discussion leader and asks that the other students answer the discussion leader’s questions, clarify difficult information, and summarize the new content. After the first round of reciprocal teaching, he asks for the groups’ summaries and predictions and moves on to the next chunk of new information. He does not monitor how well students executed the strategy or if it helped them increase their understanding.

• Applying (3): A teacher uses collaborative processing to introduce his students to a unit on triangles. He separates the students into groups and explains the overall process and their individual roles. The teacher models how the process works with several volunteers. After presenting each chunk of new content, he observes and assists the students as they implement the collaborative processing strategy. At the end of class, the teacher takes an informal survey to find out if the students found the strategy helpful and if they would use that strategy again.

• Innovating (4): A teacher uses the jigsaw cooperative learning strategy with her class during a unit on the French Revolution. She separates the class into groups of three and assigns each person in the group an effect of the revolution to investigate. As the students meet in their expert groups, she checks in, answers the groups’ questions, and asks each student to record his or her research. When students reconvene with their original groups, they compile their research into a chart that they can share with the class and teacher. Because the class was extremely successful with this strategy, she extends the activity and their learning by adding a class discussion about which effects of the French Revolution have most shaped modern-day beliefs and society.

Element 8: Recording and Representing Content

An effective teacher engages students in activities that help them record their understanding of new content in linguistic ways or represent the content in nonlinguistic ways. Research has shown that representing information linguistically (summaries and notes) is associated with student achievement gains (Bangert-Drowns, Hurley, & Wilkinson, 2004; Crismore, 1985; Ganske, 1981; Hattie et al., 1996; Henk & Stahl, 1985; Marzano, Gnadt, & Jesse, 1990; Pflaum, Walberg, Karegianes, & Rasher, 1980; Raphael & Kirschner, 1985). Research has also shown that representing information nonlinguistically (models, pictures, mental images) increases student achievement (Guzzetti, Snyder, Glass, & Gamus, 1993; Haas, 2005; Hattie et al., 1996; Lovelace, 2005; Mayer, 1989; Nesbit & Adesope, 2006; Powell, 1980; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986). When information is both linguistic and nonlinguistic, students process information more thoroughly and deeply.

There are eleven strategies within this element.

1. Informal outlines

2. Summaries

3. Pictorial notes and pictographs

4. Combination notes, pictures, and summaries

5. Graphic organizers

6. Free-flowing webs

7. Academic notebooks

8. Dramatic enactments

9. Mnemonic devices

10. Rhyming pegwords

11. Link strategies

The following sections will explore each strategy to provide you with guidelines to effectively implement this element. Read through each before creating a plan for your classroom. Teachers may use the strategies individually or in combination. Remember, these are not merely activities to be checked off; they are methods of creating a practice that combines your art with the science of recording and representing content. Reflect on your use of each strategy by filling out the “Strategy Reflection Log” on page 331.

Informal Outlines

In an informal outline, students use indentation to indicate the relative importance of ideas. They write big ideas at the left side of the paper, and indent and list details under the big idea to which they pertain. Students can also use numbering, bullets, or Roman numerals to organize information and display its relative importance. Figure 3.7 can help guide students in writing informal outlines.

Source: Marzano Research, 2016.

Figure 3.7: Informal outline template.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

Summaries

The teacher asks students to summarize content. Summarizing requires that students record the critical content from a text or lesson. Summarization techniques often require multiple complex cognitive processes and should be directly taught and modeled for students. Figure 3.8 is a scale that describes different phases of summarization mastery that teachers can use to measure students’ ability to summarize content.

Figure 3.8: Proficiency scale for summarization.

Consider using the following summarization activities in your classroom.

• Use summary frames to structure students’ early attempts at summarization. A summary frame is a series of questions that focus on important elements of the content. Students answer the questions and then use their responses to generate a summary. For example, in a summary frame for a short story, the teacher might create a series of questions that ask students to list the setting, characters, main conflict, and resolution of the story.

• Show students how supplementary information, such as headings, images, and graphs, in visual presentations of content and texts can help them decipher what the main idea and key details are.

• Practice basic summarizing techniques by asking students to describe the plot of a familiar movie or story in one or two sentences. Remind students that it is not necessary to retell the whole plot; they should simply try to tell listeners the most important information in their own words. For extra support, ask students to list the who, what, where, when, and why of the plot before giving their summary.

• Ask students to use a simple graphic organizer to find the main idea and key details from a short presentation or text. Using an organizer can help students understand what kind of information is important to highlight in a summary. For extra support, provide students with the main idea before the start of the lesson and have them fill in the key details.

• When students begin summarizing content, ask them to think about what they would tell someone who had missed class to help them understand the important ideas from a lesson. Have them practice what they would say with a partner. To encourage students to condense their summaries to only the most critical details, have partners time each other to see if they can summarize ideas in thirty seconds or less.

Pictorial Notes and Pictographs

The teacher asks students to use pictorial notes and pictographs to illustrate new content. Pictorial notes may serve as an accompaniment to written notes or, in some cases, as the primary note-taking form. Figure 3.9 is an example of pictorial notes.

Source: Marzano Research, 2016.

Figure 3.9: Example of pictorial notes.

Pictographs, like pictorial notes, may be accompanied by text for clarification. Pictographs often represent data in mathematical charts. In place of numbers, images indicate how much of a certain item each category has. Additionally, pictographs can be simple drawings that express words or phrases. Pictographs can use any kind of image for any amount, as long as there is a clear key that defines the symbols for the students and teacher.

Figure 3.10 is an example of a pictograph that compares the number of apples harvested from three orchards. Students could draw this kind of chart before completing a word problem that uses these data.

Source: Marzano Research, 2016.

Figure 3.10: Sample pictograph.

Combination Notes, Pictures, and Summaries

This strategy combines notes, pictures, and summaries. Students record written notes about the content in the left-hand column of a chart, pictographs or pictorial representations of the content in the right-hand column, and a summary of the content in the lower section of the chart. Figure 3.11 can guide students’ use of this strategy.

Source: Marzano Research, 2016.

Figure 3.11: Combination notes organizer.

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Graphic Organizers

Students record their knowledge using graphic organizers that correspond to specific patterns commonly found in information. Common text structures include sequence, description, comparison, causation, and problem/solution. Find graphic organizers for these structures in figures 3.12, 3.13, 3.14, 3.15, and 3.16 (pages 55–56). Teachers can combine nonlinguistic representations with other note-taking strategies (like combination notes, pictures, and summaries).

Source: Marzano Research, 2016.

Figure 3.12: Sequence graphic organizer.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

Source: Marzano Research, 2016.

Figure 3.13: Description graphic organizer.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

Source: Marzano Research, 2016.

Figure 3.14: Comparison graphic organizer.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

Source: Marzano Research, 2016.

Figure 3.15: Causation graphic organizer.

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Source: Marzano Research, 2016.

Figure 3.16: Problem/solution graphic organizer.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

Free-Flowing Webs

In this strategy, students place big ideas in central circles and then use lines to connect big ideas to smaller circles that contain important details about each big idea. Unlike a simple description graphic organizer, a free-flowing web should connect multiple subtopics by showing how they relate to a central topic. A free-flowing web works well for organizing students’ knowledge about an advanced concept or process. Teachers can ask students to complete a free-flowing web individually, but it can also serve as a group or whole-class review activity. Figure 3.17 shows a free-flowing web for the topic of pollution.

Figure 3.17: Sample free-flowing web.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

Following are possible uses for a free-flowing web.

• To compare the causes, effects, and possible solutions for a major global, political, or cultural issue

• To delineate different opinions in an argument or perspectives on a topic

• To diagram the steps, uses, purposes, and origins of a procedure

• To map the setting, players, and effects of an important historical event

• To describe the major story elements (such as plot, characters, setting) of a book or short text

• To compare the different subcategories within a category

Academic Notebooks

Students compile their notes to provide a permanent record of their thinking and make corrections to their thinking as they review previous entries. Students should date their entries and record reactions, questions, answers, and assessments of their progress. They can also make entries reflecting their conclusions and insights.

Figure 3.18 can help guide students’ use of this strategy.

Figure 3.18: Template for a page entry in an academic notebook.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

Dramatic Enactments

For this strategy, students role-play characters or act out scenes, processes, or events. They can also use their bodies to create symbols for concepts such as radius, diameter, and circumference. While dramatic enactments can be highly engaging for students, they can be superficial if handled incorrectly. For example, if students are simply given roles with lines to read from a script, no deeper understanding of the content is taking place. Teachers must budget time in class for students to explain the explicit connections between their enactments and the content they represent. Consider the following tips for effective dramatic enactments.

• Students must have a strong understanding of the content before performing a dramatic enactment. While students can engage in research and more extensive investigation of a topic before performing a dramatic enactment, if this is a new strategy in the classroom, it may be beneficial to directly teach key information. Creating dramatic enactments can also help clarify and distinguish content for students, but only if they have the requisite background knowledge.

• Dramatic enactments should engage students’ creativity and critical thinking skills. Dramatic enactments often ask students to reimagine content as something else or create a metaphor between content and movement. This concept might be challenging for students at first, so provide several examples for students to watch or help them map out a plan for their enactment before practicing it. If possible, save recordings of previous years’ enactments or find a similar activity online that students can reference while working on their project.

• Students should be able to describe the choices they made in their dramatic enactments. Teachers can ask students to write a short summary of why they chose to structure their enactment the way they did or have students explain their reasoning verbally for the class.

• Dramatic enactments should encourage students to explore different perspectives, cultures, time periods, and characters. Dramatic enactments can be particularly useful to help students put themselves in someone else’s shoes. Teachers can have students create short dramatic enactments that explore unique perspectives and then ask students how the dramatic enactment helped them better understand that perspective.

• Dramatic enactments should not focus on students’ acting or performance abilities. Not all students will feel comfortable with the idea of performing in front of their peers. Teachers should encourage students to present clearly and confidently but remind them that the enactment is primarily about engaging with the content and learning from their own as well as their classmates’ performances.

Mnemonic Devices

A teacher can use mnemonic devices to help students remember, record, and represent critical content. Mnemonic devices often link content to symbols, imagery, or patterns of sound to strengthen the memory of the user. A teacher can lead students in the use of mnemonic devices to encourage their continued engagement with content. Following are examples of mnemonic devices.

• Acronym mnemonics: Probably the most common acronym mnemonic is ROY G BIV, which represents the spectrum of colors found in the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). Students can create their own acronym mnemonic by using the first letters from a series of words to create a new word. Acronym mnemonics can be helpful when trying to remember items that belong to a category or steps in a process or procedure.

• Music mnemonic: Music has long been a useful mnemonic device; many students learn the alphabet or the quadratic equation using a melody. Advertisers also frequently take advantage of this mnemonic by setting their slogans to catchy melodies. For best use of this strategy, set a list of steps or facts to a song or melody that most students will be familiar with. Students can create their own music mnemonics by using the melody of a nursery rhyme, pop song, or common folk song to help them remember facts, dates, processes, and other lists of information. Extend this activity by having students create a short music video to accompany their music mnemonic.

• Image mnemonic: Unlike pictorial notes, an image mnemonic may not represent a fact or concept directly but may instead capitalize on the sound or other qualities of the concept to create a memorable, often silly, image. Students draw an image to help them remember content. For example, in order to remember that pi is the ratio of the circle’s circumference to its diameter, a student might draw a whole pie balancing on top of half a pie. In this kind of mnemonic, while it is important to create a memorable image, it is equally important that the student is able to link the image to the fact or concept to remember, so it is essential that the connection between the image and content is not too tenuous.

• Spelling mnemonic: Students can create their own spelling mnemonics to help them remember the spelling of words that they often forget. This activity works well for distinguishing between two words that are very similar in spelling or sound. Teachers and students can use images, pithy phrases, or other devices to design a spelling mnemonic. One example of a spelling mnemonic, “you always want two desserts, but you only want one desert,” helps students remember that dessert has two of the letter s and desert only has one.

Rhyming Pegwords

Students use this strategy to remember a list of facts or information. The method uses a set of concrete images that rhyme with the numbers one through ten, such as the following.

One is a bun.

Two is a shoe.

Three is a tree.

Four is a door.

Five is a hive.

Six is a stack of sticks.

Seven is heaven.

Eight is a gate.

Nine is a line.

Ten is a hen.

To remember a fact or piece of information, a student associates it with one of the concrete images. For example, a student might want to remember the following list of information about ancient Egyptian civilization.

1. Egyptian civilization developed along the Nile River in Africa.

2. The Egyptians used a system of writing called hieroglyphics.

3. The Egyptians built the pyramids as burial places for their pharaohs.

To remember these facts, the student might connect the first item to the image for the number one, a bun. He or she might picture a hot dog bun with the Nile River flowing through the center of it. The second item would be connected to the image for the number two, a shoe—perhaps a shoe with hieroglyphs written on the side of it. The third item in the list would be connected to the image of a tree, for the number three. The student might imagine a tree whose leaves and branches had been trimmed to create a pyramid shape. These images help the student ensure that he or she has remembered all the items in the list. This strategy is especially helpful with long lists of facts or lists that must be recalled in a certain order.

Link Strategies

Students use this strategy to remember facts or information by first creating symbols or substitutes for important ideas and then linking those symbols or substitutes together in a narrative. A symbol is an image that reminds one of important information, like a rainbow to represent the concept of an arc. A substitute is a word that is easy to picture and sounds like the information one is trying to remember, like the word ark to remember the concept of the arc of a circle.

For example, consider the scientific process. There are generally six steps in the process: (1) ask a question, (2) do background research, (3) construct a hypothesis, (4) test the hypothesis by doing an experiment, (5) analyze the data and draw a conclusion, and (6) report the results. The link strategy might produce the following narrative and symbols.

Prince Science went on a quest with his handy magnifying glass to look for the magic hippo. He went through many perils but trusted his horse, Dart, to draw him to the hippo’s conclave. Afterward, the hippo and the prince developed quite the rapport.

• Quest: Quest sounds like question and stands in for the first step of the scientific process.

• Magnifying glass: Magnifying glass stands in as a symbol for research.

• Hippo: Hippo is a substitute for the word hypothesis.

• Perils: Perils is a substitute for the word experiment, because it sounds similar.

• Dart and the hippo’s conclave: The phrasing of this sentence is meant to sound like and be a substitution for data and draw a conclusion.

• Rapport: Rapport is a substitute for report.

Monitoring Element 8

Specific student responses and behaviors allow the teacher to determine whether this element is being implemented effectively and producing the desired effects.

• Students produce summaries that include critical information.

• Students produce nonlinguistic representations that include critical information.

• Students can explain their linguistic and nonlinguistic representations.

• Students remember the critical content from previous lessons.

Use this list to monitor student responses to element 8.

To monitor your own use of this element, use the scale in figure 3.19 in combination with the reproducible “Tracking Teacher Actions: Recording and Representing Content” (page 64). As with other proficiency scales, level 3 or higher is the goal.

Figure 3.19: Self-rating scale for element 8—Recording and representing content.

The following examples describe what each level of the scale might look like in the classroom.

• Not Using (0): A teacher expects that her students will take notes if they need to, but she does not provide them with any kind of strategies to do so.

• Beginning (1): A teacher asks his students to use combination notes to record critical information from a lesson. However, students are unfamiliar with the summarizing part of the organizer, and because the teacher does not model or explain techniques for summarizing, many leave that section of their notes blank.

• Developing (2): A teacher teaches her class a mnemonic for remembering different units of measurement. She uses the mnemonic effectively throughout the unit, but she doesn’t try to determine if it enhanced their recall of the content.

• Applying (3): A teacher has his class use academic notebooks to record information, ideas, and reflections. He encourages students to write notes and record their ideas as diagrams or drawings. At the end of every unit, the teacher asks students to go back through their notes to amend any misunderstandings and respond to hypotheses made earlier in the unit. He then collects the academic notebooks and reviews them to see how the students’ entries compare to their assessment answers and scores.

• Innovating (4): A teacher asks her class to use graphic organizers to record and represent critical content. First, she provides students with several templates they can use to record their notes and explains each purpose. She then puts students into small groups to complete their graphic organizers. As they complete their graphic organizers, she walks around the room, checking in with specific students who she knows have been having difficulty with the content. At the end of the lesson, she asks each group to explain why students chose their graphic organizer and what it helped them understand about the content.

Action Steps

Use the “Tracking Teacher Actions” reproducibles that follow (pages 62–64) to monitor your implementation of each element in this chapter.

Additionally, visit the appendix (page 329) for the reproducible “Tracking Progress Over Time” (page 330), which helps teachers set goals related to their proficiency with each element and track their progress toward these goals over the course of a unit, semester, or year. Also, the “Strategy Reflection Log” (page 331) in the appendix provides a space to write down your thoughts and reflect on the implementation process for specific strategies related to each element. Finally, visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for both student surveys and teacher surveys, the results of which provide feedback about your proficiency with each element.

Tracking Teacher Actions: Chunking Content

The teacher can use this form to plan his or her usage of strategies related to the element of chunking content.

Source: Adapted from Marzano Research. (2016). Marzano compendium of instructional strategies. Centennial, CO: Author.

Tracking Teacher Actions: Processing Content

The teacher can use this form to plan his or her usage of strategies related to the element of processing content.

Source: Adapted from Marzano Research. (2016). Marzano compendium of instructional strategies. Centennial, CO: Author.

Tracking Teacher Actions: Recording and Representing Content

The teacher can use this form to plan his or her usage of strategies related to the element of recording and representing content.

Source: Adapted from Marzano Research. (2016). Marzano compendium of instructional strategies. Centennial, CO: Author.

The Handbook for the New Art and Science of Teaching

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