Julie Hawkins

EDCI – 711 - 600

TTP – Content Specific Strategies

Describe the different instructional strategies you will use in your unit. Include three lesson
descriptions which demonstrate how you will use the strategies in your unit.

In my Instructional Design Plan, I want to utilize many different instructional strategies to

differentiate my instruction and help meet the needs of my students. My IDP is for a
Kindergarten classroom and has a theme of Fall. In my lessons, I plan to use some simple
instructional strategies such as differentiation of learning styles, discussion, group work,
projects, integration between subjects, and technology. I will incorporate many different
instructional strategies to help my lessons be as successful and effective as possible. There are
three specific strategies I want to use for my lesson. These strategies are cooperative learning and
group discussion, real-life scenarios, and retelling and story maps.
Cooperative learning and group discussion are important strategies. Especially at a young age,
students need to learn how to work together, and utilizing information from their peers creates a
deeper understanding in their own head. Cooperative learning is really whenever students are
working together to learn a topic. This can be simply group work, all the way up the methods
like jigsaw where students actively research and teach others. However, just because students
work together, they may not be learning cooperatively. Students need to be actively engaged
with other students and be learning from one another. One way this can be accomplished is
through discussions. Discussions are where students are asked a question and they respond while
elaborating on their answer and talking about the topic with other students. While discussion is
more often utilized with older students and more complex topics, it can be used with younger
ones as well. Even students simply sharing their ideas and why they agree or disagree with
someone is important.
Real-life scenarios is a strategy that can be used to help relate the content they are learning to
their own life. Students tend to have a great understanding and connection to the material if it
applies to their own life and they have hands-on experience with it. This can be done in the form
of science experiments, discussing places in the community, using advertisements from the local
store, and having them write about their own life. This strategy is crucial because it reminds
students that there is a reason behind learning the content and that there is greater connection to
the content instead of just school. This strategy gives students an opportunity to apply their
knowledge in the real world and make deep, meaningful connections to this idea.
Retelling and story maps are instructional strategies that help students with their comprehension.
Retelling involves having students orally reconstruct a story they have been read. Retelling
requires students to truly comprehend what they read well enough to correctly order and
summarize the information to someone else. Students will simply describe the story they heard in
order and while identifying important details. Retelling can be as detailed as the teacher wishes.
Retelling is typically done orally but could be done in writing or drawing or well. When retelling
a story with pictures and written words, story maps are a great strategy to utilize. Story maps as a
visual representation of the elements that make up a story. This helps students focus on the most
important aspects of the story and how these elements relate to one another. This can be simple
 Julie Hawkins
EDCI – 711 - 600

or complex. For younger students, a story map may simply just show the characters and a
beginning, middle, and end. This is simply a way for students to visually show the story and
retell it.

Lesson Description #1 - Science

In this lesson, students will learn about the properties of objects using fall items such as
pumpkins, corn, and gourds. They will learn how to sort and describe objects by their properties
such as color, shape, size, texture, and weight. This activity will include sorting objects by their
properties, first as an entire class, then in groups of 4 to 5. Therefore, students will be working
together throughout the majority of the lesson. Students will be able to cooperatively learn about
the properties by sharing what they see. When students make an observation, they will be
required to sort it and explain why. Students can discuss if they agree or disagree with this
sorting using their observations as evidence.

Lesson Description #2 - Math

In this lesson, students will learn about different two-dimensional shapes. They will use
pumpkins, the book Spookley, and pumpkin shape cards to learn more about the different shapes.
They will learn about squares, rectangles, circles, and triangles as well as their properties. The
students will also participate in a “Shape Hunt” where they go around the school building and
find objects shaped like an object and point out its elements. This will allow students to bring the
content into their real lives and see the shapes are more than drawings and as something they can
see in everyday life.

Lesson Description #3 – English

In this lesson, students will learn about retelling a story while reading a fall themed story, Big
Pumpkin. They will first listen to a read aloud of the book and then work on retelling the story
both orally and through writing. After the story is read, students will create their own story map
and create character puppets. Then the students will work in groups to orally retell the story and
act out what happened.