Activity 2.2 Strategy Instruction

1. Suggest at least three ways that strategies can help students in the classroom.
Strategies are a series of cognitive steps, providing you with effective tools to improve performance more quickly and easily. Strategies facilitate instruction and empower students to effectively complete task requirements. Strategies help students complete tasks more quickly, efficiently, and easily. Strategies help improve the performance of all students, including students with learning exceptionalities. Strategies provides forms of self-regulation; thereby, employing the tools of setting goals, self-monitoring, self-talking, and self-reinforcement. Strategies enable students with the tools to effectively complete tasks.


2. Compare the characteristics of strategic learners with those of non-strategic learners.
Strategic learners know what, when, and how to use strategies for completing tasks. Strategic learners know how to analyze problems and develop a plan. Meanwhile, non-strategic learners are unorganized and have no order or awareness in effectively completing the assignment. Strategic learners access their background knowledge and use skills previously learned to effectively conquer the tasks at and. To compare, non-strategic learners are unaware of the novel tasks, nor how to apply them. They do not employ memory techniques, nor use manageable steps to accomplish the task. Strategic learners use self-regulated strategies while engaged in a task.

3. List the six research-validated stages of SRSD. What aspects of each would you emphasize as the most important?
The six stages of the Self-regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) are (1.) developing background knowledge; (2.) discuss it; (3.) model it; (4.) memorize it; (5.) support it, and; (6.) establish independent practice. When developing background knowledge, the teacher must identify and assess the skills that students need to develop or already possess. The teacher must help students develop necessary skills through explicit instruction. The teacher discusses the importance and benefits of strategies, and how and when they will use them. Explaining the need of the strategy, and modeling the explicit steps is crucial during this process. Then, the students memorize the words in a manner that meaning is maintained. This step is important for the students to become fluent in the steps of the strategy. The teacher supports the strategies collaboratively and with charts or graphic organizers. The teacher attains constructive feedback and discusses ways to maintain the strategy. Ensuring the initial goal is attained, in addition to supporting the strategy in other settings, leads to independent practice. I emphasize the support and maintenance of the student’s performance, as needed, further encouraging this in various settings and different tasks.

4. Imagine you are a fifth-grade teacher. Mary Ann, a student in your class, understands why she should use an instructional strategy that you are teaching, but she is not yet ready to use the strategy independently. Explain how you would help prepare her to do so.
To better prepare for this instructional strategy, I would re-assess her knowledge and use of particular skills necessary to develop this strategy. I would then model and explicitly discuss the steps and reasons the steps are necessary. Since she has been shown the instructional strategy, I would then incorporate more memorization activities that helps her to learn the steps of the strategy and action performed. After she is fluent in the steps, we would create a graphic organizer or chart that reinforces this strategy, and supplies her with a resource to self-regulate the strategy and goal being attained.


5. You've followed along as Mr. Carter introduced the four self-regulation strategies in a way that was appropriate to the needs of his students. Can you describe an alternate way to introduce the self-regulation strategy?
In my first grade classroom, I could introduce the self-regulation strategy during learning centers, whereby the students would be monitored individually. Assuming the students have developed the background knowledge of the self-regulated strategy development, I could teach, discuss, and model each self-regulation strategy (i.e., goal-setting, self-monitoring, self-talk, self-reinforcement) during learning centers. The following day, learning centers could be organized in a format where the students engage in tasks that employ this self-regulation strategy. To reinforce understanding and assess their knowledge of the self-regulation strategy, students would then verbally explain to the teacher and/or illustrate on a paper an example of this strategy during learning centers.