High Impact Teaching Strategies

Examples tHAT illustrate the Strategy

Example 1: P-9 – Science

A graduate Science teacher in a P-9 metropolitan school is working with a mentor teacher to ensure their Plate Tectonics lessons are structured, succinct and aligned to the Science Understanding and Inquiry Skills standards. The teachers devise a lesson structure that ensures each lesson links to previous student learning, has clear learning intentions, details specific activities, and provides opportunities for assessment of learning. After gauging student prior knowledge through questioning, the teachers collaboratively set appropriate learning objectives and success criteria. They are presented as the lesson begins using acronyms: WALT (We Are Learning To) refers to learning objectives, and WILF (What I’m Looking For) refers to success criteria. The teacher sets clear expectations by defining WALT and WILF at the start of the lesson, ensuring students understand the lesson’s objectives and content. As the class moves through the activities, the teacher provides opportunities to measure student learning. Using Traffic Light questioning, students indicate their level of content understanding. The teacher has structured the lesson to allow time to work with the students requiring additional support. At the same time, those who indicate they have understood the concept are working on an extension activity. When students demonstrate a clear understanding of the concept they can transition to the next activity. At the end of the lesson, the teacher summarises and reinforces the main ideas, then poses a question to students in the form of an Exit Card. The teacher analyses their answers to assess whether they have grasped concepts well enough to progress in the unit. The lesson design reinforces routine through a scaffolded approach to learning informed by clearly identified goals and formative assessment. Time on task is optimised and student engagement maintained.