11 Learning Strategies for the Elementary Classroom
Discover learning strategies that you can use in your classroom to better engage your students
Each child is excited about what they’re working on. At every desk, children pore over their work, whisper excitedly in pairs, researching, and preparing reports. It’s an ideal teaching scenario. When everyone’s working hard, it’s like you’ve found a magical teaching strategy.
There are many successful strategies for teaching. The key is to know which ones to use when, and with which students. That’s why we’ve put together a helpful teaching strategies list together. With this teaching strategy list in hand, you can find a perfect strategy that will work well with your lesson goals and learning standards.
Here are 11 teaching strategy examples you can use in the elementary classroom:
1. Individual Learning
When students are each working at their desks, this is individual learning. Each child may be working on their own work, specially adapted to their needs. Whether they’re reading leveled reading passages or making their way through Happy Numbers math, when students are each working alone, this is individual learning.
2. Centers
Centers are popular in elementary classrooms. Center work usually involves themed work, such as math, science, spelling, reading, etc. Each center may have some manipulatives and materials for the children to use. Often, a few children work at a center together. When they finish the activity at one center, they may move to another center. You can time center sessions and have everyone move at once (for example, after 20 minutes). Other teachers allow students to move at their own pace through the centers.
Some examples of centers include:
– Board games
– Spelling with playdough or pipe cleaners
– Math with manipulatives
– Apps and games on technology (like Happy Numbers)
– Using puppets to tell stories
– Book on tape/digital books
– Simple science experiments
– Writing a story
Centers can be a great way for teachers to find time to work with small groups of students. At the beginning of the year, the teacher may train students in how to use the centers. Then, the activities may change throughout the year, but all based on basic rules children know to follow. This allows the teacher some free time to conduct lessons with small groups of children.
3. Group Work
When children work in groups, they get a chance to practice important social skills. Plus, they must discuss what they are going to do, how they’ll do it, and why. This helps them develop skills in persuasion, and more! Plus, children support and help each other with the content in a group. So, some students will have to explain content to other students. Both students benefit. The one explaining reviews the content, and the one who needs help gets extra exposure to the content.
Some examples of group projects include:
– Conducting an experiment
– Putting on a play or a reader’s theater
– Reading and answering questions about a story
– STEM projects such as building a bridge with toothpicks and marshmallows
– Realworld math problems
– Correcting or editing each other ‘s work
There are many opportunities for group work in the classroom.
4. Concept Mapping and Charts
Webbing, charts, and mind mapping are a few other strategies for learning. You can use these when talking about just about any topic. In particular, they can be useful when categorizing. For example, you can make a list of herbivores and carnivores. Or, you can use a ven diagram to show herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores.
Some charts are especially good for beginning a new unit of study. For example “KWL” which stands for “what we KNOW, what we WANT to know, and what we LEARNED.” In this chart, children fill out the first two columns first. Then, at the end of the unit, they fill in the “what I learned” section.
5. Summarizing
Summarizing is a very useful strategy to improve comprehension. In fact, it can boost a student’s memory of the reading material by 33%. In this strategy, the student reads a passage or book. Then, they identify the main ideas in the passage. Finally, they write a short summary which involves restating the content and main ideas in their own words. Summarization may also be done orally.
6. Acronyms
Have you ever heard of ROYGBIV? This acronym tells the colors of the rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet). It’s easier to remember the order of the colors with the acronym than simply memorizing the colors. This works in many cases. From FANBOYS (conjunctions) to more complex acronyms such as “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge”, which stands for the notes on the treble clef in music, acronyms make memorization easy. It’s best to use acronyms when the content is all related.
7. Role-Playing
Acting is for more than studying plays. In fact, role-playing can be a great way for students to practice a whole range of ideas and concepts. For example, students can role-play about fractions by cutting up a pie for a certain number of guests. Here are some other ideas for role-playing:
– Role-play the water cycle. Have different students be the sun, bodies of water, and clouds. Provide students with props. Then, ask them to explain what’s going on.
– Act out the solar system with each child being a different planet, moon, asteroid, or the sun.
– Role play a story, each child is a different character.
– Pretend one child is an reporter, interviewing a scientist, author, or an eye witness. (ie. reporter interviews a person who survived a hurricane in their house.)
8. Discussion
Discussion and debate are other wonderful ways to bring learning to the classroom. You can assign sides of a debate, or ask children to simply voice their opinions. However, there can be much to be learned from preparing an argument. Children learn to see other points of view and defend their own ideas. For example, children can debate about whether or not there should be homework, how best to curb global warming, or which character made the best decisions in a book.
Discussion can also come about naturally. If you ask lots of “why” questions and other open-ended questions, students may naturally begin to discuss a topic.
9. Brainstorm
A brainstorm is a great way to get a read of what your children know about a topic. However, it’s important to set some ground rules before brainstorming. For example:
– All ideas are welcome
– The goal is quantity of ideas
– No ideas are “wrong”
Once children have practiced being open-minded, the brainstorms can begin! This is a great way to open up a topic. For example, you might ask “What do we know or would we like to know about frogs?” Then students can answer.
10. Modeling and Examples
Most teachers use this learning strategy in the classroom. It’s a vital one for success! In this strategy, the teacher models an example problem, behavior, or assignment. With the example, children have a clear guide of what they’re expected to do. However, take care not to provide too close an example, otherwise children may simply copy. For example, if you want to provide a sample of a book report, make sure it’s of a different book than the one the child will read.
Modeling and examples can be powerful teaching strategies because it makes expectations very clear. In addition to work samples, teachers can demonstrate behaviors, such as how to work in a group, how to clean up, or even how to ask for permission to use the bathroom.
11. Correcting Mistakes
The last teaching strategy on our list is correcting mistakes. Have you ever noticed that elementary students enjoy correcting their teacher’s mistakes? If you haven’t, then you need to start making more mistakes! For example, when writing on the board, you can forget to capitalize a proper noun. Then, see if students notice. Invite the child who noticed to come and correct it.
Correcting mistakes can work across subject areas. From math to language arts, science, and social studies, correcting mistakes can help children keep their observation skills sharp. Plus, it’s a great way to review material.
What are your favorite teaching strategies for the elementary classroom? Connect with us on social media and tell us about your favorite teaching strategies.
