Journal entries are also a good way to assist students in identifying what they know about a topic, and journals give students practice in written expression. These approaches require students to work together toward a content-driven goal and facilitate an opening discussion of the target topic. Students must become actively involved in the learning process. Incorporating physical involvement as a part of the learning experience has become a passion for me and an extremely successful teaching strategy. Getting students out of their desks and physically active demonstrates concepts and creates new ways for the brain to access information.
Physical movement can redirect disruptive energy into more creative energy.
You can incorporate physical movement by having students create human time lines and human political and physical maps. Students can act out electrical circuits, become the circulatory system, and create lines of longitude and latitude right on the classroom floor. Creating visuals through the use of graphic organizers is an extremely effective tool to represent conceptual relationships that may be difficult to grasp. Using graphic organizers before asking students to read a particular chapter or book will prepare them for the reading and guide their thinking and understanding of the text. During a reading, the use of graphic organizers requires students to interact with the text, categorize and organize information, and focus on key information.