Creative learning initiative

My school is involved in the Creative Learning Initiative this year. Our got training at the beginning of the year, and CLI coaches come to our campus and co teach with teachers to help them implement the strategies we've learned. My big take away from the first session in August is that drama based instruction (which is what our trainers refer to it) is a lot like cooperative learning strategies. A strategy I tried this semester was the character x ray, where after reading a story you give students an outline of a body. They are supposed to write events of the story on the outside, and feelings the character might have felt because of those events on the inside. It was a very challenging activity because the characters don't always say how events in the story made them feel.

We went to a follow up training a few weeks ago. Here are some strategies I took away:

1. People to people: students walk around the
room. When the teacher says "people to people" students find the person closest to them and partner up. The teacher says another body part and students put their elbow to their partner's. Then they answer a question relating to the lesson.

2. Build a Phrase: can teach sequencing, beginning/middle/end, or story elements:character, setting, problem, solution. As the teacher does a read aloud, you stop at various points in the story and create motions for what is happening. At the end of the story, students retell the story with their motions. From those, you could have them pick one motion that most accurately represents the beginning of the story, one for the middle, and one for the end.

For informational text, you could build a phrase with all the supporting details to find out the main idea. This strategy would be perfect for struggling readers in the upper grades. It is interactive, and can make the learning more concrete for them.

3. Stage picture: after the class reads a story, groups work together to create a still picture of what happens after the story. Then the class makes pedictions and inferences about what the picture could mean while the group poses and doesn't say what is happening.

These are three great new strategies that could increase student engagement, and impact student achievement. I had so much fun at this training! :)

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