Some instructional strategies I would love to include in my classroom are activating prior knowledge before beginning a lesson, the utilization of think-pair-shares, and exit tickets. Activating prior knowledge before beginning instruction is very important for students to understand how this new learning connects to their old learning. In the early grades, teachers can prompt this by guiding the children through the anticipatory set and reminding them of what they previously learned if they do not remember. I want this practice to be a constant in every one of my lessons as students start to train themselves to recall the information on their own. Think-pair-shares are also very important for students to share their thoughts, ideas, and opinions about the lesson with their peers. This encourages students to bounce ideas off of each other, and could offer different perspectives to one another. This opportunity for discussion also allows the students to create relationships with one another and get some of their energy out while still staying on task. This is such a good inclusion in my lessons and something I definitely want to use. This would also help facilitate class discussions at the end of instruction. I want to include exit tickets in my lessons to formally assess students at the end of instruction and see if they were engaged enough to retain information. This could give me feedback to alter my lessons to be more engaging and would also tell me if instruction needed to be repeated or reinforced. At the end of instruction, a small assessment will be given out for students to answer and turn in for grading. The exit ticket would typically only be one question and would not be summative. 

These strategies align with my philosophy because they all relate to Jacob Kounin’s theory of student accountability. For activating prior knowledge, the teacher is asking the students to remember the previous lesson and holding them accountable by calling on them and asking for volunteers to share with the class. The students are also given the responsibility of remembering what the previous lesson was and building off of that information in the current lesson. The think-pair-share strategy holds the students accountable to keep the discussion related to the lesson. Students are responsible to stay on task with their partner(s) and may be asked to share with the class afterwards. The exit ticket strategy also gives students the responsibility to pay attention during instruction so they can apply what they learned at the end when they fill out the ticket. This holds students accountable for their own assessment and allows the teacher to see who stayed on task.

While activating prior knowledge, students will either be gathered on the rug, or in their desks, both of which are easily accessible and the teacher can be seen from anywhere in the room by all students. If the students are on the rug then the teacher will be at the rug with them, facilitating an activity, discussion, or instruction. Each student would be paying attention as they are very close to the teacher and the teacher can see anyone being off task. If the students are at their desk, the teacher can also see every student and the students are staying in their seats, paying attention. The think-pair-share strategy can be used while the students are either on the rug or in their seats as well. The students can talk to those in their group of desks when they are sitting down without being disruptive and the students can also turn to the person next to them on the rug to talk. Either design is well suited for this instructional strategy. The exit ticket is meant to be filled out while the students are sitting at their desks after instruction and they can turn them in at the teacher’s desk. This works well with the floor design because the teacher’s desk is right in front of all the student’s desks and the teacher can also easily walk through the tables answering any questions.

I will activate prior knowledge within my students before every lesson I implement in my classroom. Every anticipatory set will include prompting my students to think about the previous lesson and what they had already learned. This would look like me asking my students guided questions that force them to think about the lesson they had already learned. I would include think-pair-shares in various points in my lesson as well. This could look like me introducing a lesson about the ocean and asking my students to turn and talk to their tables about what they already know about the ocean. After a few seconds of the students talking to one another, I would bring the class’ attention back to the front and ask for volunteers to share what they had talked about and write them on the board. I would then use this as a foundation to start my lesson about the ocean. An example of using the exit ticket strategy could be after completing the ocean lesson, I give my students a slip of paper with one question on it having to do with what we just learned about. The students would hand the slip in and we would transition to the next activity. I would use the slips of paper as a formative assessment of instruction to see if the students were engaged or if information needed to be revisited.