Activate Knowledge!

Activating what students already know about particular words can help the student out a ton. Plus it can also save a lot of time from explaining various words during class! Using graphic organizers for this is one way that students can explain and visualize what they already know about words, and which ones they need to review and study more.

Word Exploration: WTL strategy that makes connections with words and what they know coming in. Free-writing can be used to activate and put on paper what the students already know about a topic or target word. NO MORE THAN 5 MIN!!

Brainstorming: Students working in smaller groups to bring their collective knowledge into the group and attempt to relate a list of words or concepts to what they know already.

Word Sorts: A way to classify words into categories. For me as a psychology or history teacher this would help in placing different concepts into different time frames. Can be very beneficial for visual learners to see where the words fit into the entire context.

These are all ways in which activating what students know, can save time, and be very beneficial for the class as a whole.

Multicultural Books

Being more responsive to culture in the classroom can benefit not only you as a teacher but your students in the class greatly. Incorporating multicultural books can be very beneficial not only because you would be breaking the "norm" but they encompass every genre and are easy to access. These books allow students to see outside of their typical culture, or fit right into what they live everyday. Many of the books will encompass the familial norms, dress, sex roles, and values in these cultures and for many students it can open their eyes to what else is in the world. Also, as a teacher reading these, it can give basic background knowledge into the lives of some students.

In a social studies classroom these books can help out a lot with seeing the particular historical event, or economic event, or what have you, from the "other sides" perspective. Many of these books are written in the American "white"/Caucasian view point, and expanding outside of that will allow students to grasp the entire concept and see both sides of each spectrum.