Teaching Strategies
We encourage teachers to use student-centered teaching strategies that nurture students' literacy and critical thinking skills within a respectful classroom climate. The strategies suggested here can be used with students of all ages with any academic content.
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| 3-2-1This activity helps structure students’ responses to an activity, a reading or a film. It provides an easy way for teachers to check for understanding and to gauge students’ interest in a topic. Sharing 3-2-1 responses can also be an effective way to prompt a class discussion or to review material from the previous lesson. | |
| Alphabet brainstormBrainstorming is an effective way to help students get ideas from head to paper. The Alphabet Brainstorm helps structure students’ brainstorming by asking them to generate an idea that begins with each letter of the alphabet. This can be done as an individual, small group, or whole class activity. It is a quick way to generate thoughts, measure prior knowledge, and evaluate learning. | |
| Anticipation GuidesAnticipation guides ask students to express an opinion about ideas before they encounter them in a text or unit of study. Completing anticipation guides prepares students to recognize and connect to these themes as they surface in their learning. Reviewing anticipation guides at the end of a lesson or unit is one way to help students reflect on how learning new material may have influenced their opinions, perhaps by reinforcing previously held beliefs or by causing ideas to shift. | |
| Assigning RolesMany teachers find that assigning students’ particular roles is an effective way to structure group work. Sometimes certain students tend to assume too much responsibility for the groups’ work, while other students may be reluctant to contribute to the group’s activities. Assigning roles helps distribute responsibility among group members and ensures accountability for all students’ participation. As students practice different roles, they have the opportunity to develop a variety of skills. | |
| Café ConversationsUnderstanding the past requires students to develop an awareness of different perspectives. The Café Conversation teaching strategy helps students practice perspective-taking by requiring students to represent a particular point-of-view in a small group discussion. During a conversation with people representing other backgrounds and experiences, students become more aware of the role many factors play (i.e. social class, occupation, gender, age, etc) in terms of shaping one’s attitudes and perspectives on historical events. Café Conversations can be used as an assessment tool or can prepare students to write an essay about a specific historical event. | Assessment, Developing a thesis, Perspective taking |
| Character ChartsGraphic organizers, like the sample below, can be used to help students organize information about major and minor characters in a text. Completed character charts are useful tools for writing essays and studying for tests. They are often used to record information about literacy characters, but can also be adapted to record information about historical figures. | Assessment, Discussion, Finding evidence, Graphic organizer, Literacy, Reading, Research, Writing |
| ChunkingAn important skill for students to practice is the ability to comprehend challenging texts. Chunking is an example of a strategy that helps students breakdown difficult text into more manageable pieces. Dividing content into smaller parts helps students identify key words and ideas, develops students’ ability to paraphrase, and makes it easier for students to organize and synthesize information. | |
| ContractingA Facing History and Ourselves classroom is a place where explicit rules and implicit norms protect everyone’s right to speak; where differing perspectives can be heard and valued; where members take responsibility for themselves, each other, and the group as a whole; and where each member has a stake and a voice in collective decisions. Facing History calls these spaces reflective classroom communities. Reflective classroom communities often do not happen by accident; rather, they are deliberatively nurtured by students and teachers who have shared expectations about how classroom members will treat each other. One way to help classroom communities establish shared norms is by discussing them openly through a process called “contracting.” Sometimes this involves drafting and agreeing to a formal contract of behavior as well. | |
| Document Analysis TemplatesAnalyzing historical documents requires students to identify the purpose, message and audience of a text. Document Analysis Forms are graphic organizers that guide students through a process of identifying important background information about a document (e.g. author/creator, date created, place, format, etc.) and using this data to determine the bias or perspective of a text. | Finding evidence, Reading |
| Essential Questions“To get at matters of deep and enduring understanding we need to use provocative and multilayered questions that reveal the richness and complexities of a subject” (Wiggins and McTighe). Essential Questions represent enduring questions that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no response. By connecting material to a significant theme that resonates with the lives of adolescents, essential questions can add relevance and focus to a unit of study. Essential Questions can be used to guide curricular decisions and can provide the backbone for assessments. | |
| FishbowlThe “fishbowl” is a teaching strategy that helps students practice being contributors and listeners in a discussion. Students ask questions, present opinions, and share information when they sit in the “fishbowl” circle, while students on the outside of the circle listen carefully to the ideas presented and pay attention to process. Then the roles reverse. This strategy is especially useful when you want to make sure all students participate in the discussion, when you want to help students reflect on what a “good discussion” looks like, and when you need a structure for discussing controversial or difficult topics. Fishbowls make excellent pre-writing activities, often unearthing questions or ideas that students can explore more deeply in an independent assignment. | Assessment, Consensus building, Debating, Developing a thesis, Discussion, Finding evidence, Perspective taking, Research, Sharing ideas |
| Formal Writing in a Facing History ClassroomFacing History and Ourselves is committed to helping students develop the skills and habits necessary for effective engaged citizenship. The capacity to express ideas through writing helps citizens communicate their ideas and advocate for themselves and their communities. Writing is also a tool for reflection and meta-cognition. Through writing, students are able to “think about their own thinking.” We believe that writing in a Facing History classroom embodies specific characteristics, including: Allows opportunity for student voice and choice Values complexity over simple responses Connects history to moral choices today Requires the use of evidence, from history, the humanities, and students’ own lives Encourages students to explore a question, issue or historical event from multiple perspectives For the purpose of this teaching strategy, the use of the term “writing” refers to written work that typically involves a process, including pre-writing, writing/revising, and sharing/assessment. This writing could be creative, analytic, narrative, or persuasive. For ideas about informal or “journal” writing (often an important pre-writing step), refer to the teaching strategy Journals in a Facing History Classroom. | Assessment, Developing a thesis, Evaluating sources, Finding evidence, Literacy, Reading, Research, Writing |
| Found PoemsFound poems are created through the careful selection and organization of words and phrases from existing text. Writing found poems provides a structured way for students to review material and synthesize their learning. | |
| Four CornersA Four Corners Debate requires students to show their position on a specific statement (strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree) by standing in a particular corner of the room. This activity elicits the participation of all students by requiring everyone to take a position. By drawing out students’ opinions on a topic they are about to study, it can be a useful warm-up activity. By asking them to apply what they have learned when framing arguments, it can be an effective follow-through activity. Four Corners can also be used as a pre-writing activity to elicit arguments and evidence prior to essay writing. | |
| Gallery Walk Teaching StrategyDuring a Gallery Walk, students explore multiple texts or images that are placed around the room. Teachers often use this strategy as a way to have students share their work with peers, examine multiple historical documents, or respond to a collection of quotations. Because this strategy requires students to physically move around the room, it can be especially engaging to kinesthetic learners. | Assessment, Consensus building, Debating, Discussion, Kinesthetic, Perspective taking, Reading, Sharing ideas |
| Human TimelineThe human timeline teaching strategy uses movement to help students understand and remember the chronology of events. | Assessment, Kinesthetic |
| Iceberg DiagramsTypically, there are numerous underlying causes that give rise to a specific event. Often these causes rest “beneath the surface” and can be difficult for students to “see.” The Iceberg teaching strategy can be used to help students gain awareness of the multiple factors that give rise to particular events. The visual image of the iceberg helps students remember the importance of looking deeper than what is on the surface in order to better understand events in the past or present. This strategy can be used as a way for students to organize their notes as they learn about a period in history, as a way to review material, or as an assessment tool. | Art, Assessment, Evaluating sources, Graphic organizer, Reading |
| Identity ChartsIdentity charts are a graphic tool that helps students consider the many factors that shape who we are as individuals and as communities. They can be used to deepen students’ understanding of themselves, groups, nations and historical and literary figures. Sharing their own Identity charts with peers can help students build relationships and breakdown stereotypes. In this way, identity charts can be utilized as an effective classroom community-building tool. | |
| InterviewingOne way to help students gather information is to have them conduct interviews. The process of interviewing gives students more ownership of knowledge, especially if they are generating their own interview questions and are accountable to presenting it back to the class. | Assessment, Perspective taking, Research, Writing |
| Journals in a Facing History ClassroomOur ideas about the importance of journals in a Facing History and Ourselves classroom have been informed by decades of experience listening to teachers and students as well as by academic research, especially the following studies: Lisa Colt, Fanny Connelly, and John Paine, “Excerpts from Student Journals in Response to the Curriculum Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior.” Moral Education Forum, Summer 1981. Philosopher Hannah Arendt, herself a refugee of the Holocaust, asked, "Could the activity of thinking. . . be among the conditions that make men abstain from evil-doing or even ‘condition' them against it?"[i] A study of Nazi Germany reveals the danger that can befall a society that is conditioned not to critically examine the world around them. Adolf Hitler remarked, "What luck for leaders that men do not think."[ii] His belief that people "do not think" (or that people could be conditioned not to think) gave him confidence that he could push through his racist agenda without much resistance. Indeed, the Nazis built an education system that force-fed knowledge and propaganda and discouraged questioning and individual thought. They also prohibited free speech and free assembly, and kept their citizenry so busy with state-required tasks and meetings that there was "no time to think." Just as dictatorships like the Third Reich rely on an unthinking populace to maintain control healthy democracies depend on a citizenry capable of critical thinking in order to support institutions such as a free press, an evenhanded judicial system, and fair and open elections.Facing History and Ourselves is committed to helping students develop their ability to critically examine their surroundings from multiple perspectives and to make informed judgments about what they see and hear. Keeping a journal is one tool that Facing History has found instrumental in helping students' develop these skills. A journal might be defined as any place where thoughts are recorded and stored. Loose-leaf and bound notebooks both make excellent journals. Many students find that writing or drawing in a journal helps them process ideas, formulate questions, and retain information. Journals make learning visible by providing a safe, accessible space for students to share thoughts, feelings and uncertainties. In this way, journals are also an assessment tool-something teachers can review to better understand what their students know, what they are struggling to understand, and how their thinking has changed over time. In addition to strengthening students' critical thinking skills, journal writing serves other purposes as well. Journals help nurture classroom community. Through reading and commenting on journals, teachers build relationships with students. Frequent journal writing also helps students become more fluent in expressing their ideas in writing or speaking. Students use their journals in different ways. Some students may record ideas throughout class while others may only use it when there is a particular teacher-driven assignment. Some students need prompts to support their writing, while other students feel more comfortable expressing their ideas without any external structure. Just as students vary in how they use their journals, teachers vary in their approach to journal writing as well. While there are many effective ways to use a journal as a learning tool in the classroom, below are six suggestions that we offer based on decades of experience working with teachers and students. [i] Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind (Orlando: Harcourt Inc. 1971), 5. [ii] Quoted in Joachim Fest, The Face of the Third Reich (New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1970), 39. |
