they already know.
• Provide students with sources where they can get more information on their topic. These resources could be a chapter in a class textbook, a website, or a short article.
• Ask students to take notes or use a graphic organizer to record the important details they learn about their topic. Students should consider which information is important to share with their groups as they are researching.
• Provide multiple opportunities for students to discuss what they have learned with their classmates. Students can discuss new information with their expert groups, their primary groups, and the class as a whole at the end of the jigsaw cooperative learning activity.
• When students begin sharing information with their groups, ask them to consider if what they are saying is contributing to the group’s knowledge. Are they framing what they have learned in a way that other students can understand? Remind students that their classmates may not have the same background knowledge on the topic, so it is important that they provide sufficient details.
• As each group discusses new information, encourage students to make linkages between the different areas they explored. Students can describe how each topic relates to the other topics and how their new knowledge about each aspect contributes to their understanding of the unit as a whole.
Reciprocal Teaching
Small groups of students, with one student designated as the discussion leader, use this strategy to interact with new information. Before the teacher presents a chunk of new information, members of the group generate predictions about the content. After the teacher presents the chunk of content, the discussion leader asks the group questions about the information presented, and the members of the group discuss each question. After the questions have been discussed, someone from the group (not the discussion leader) summarizes the content presented so far, and the members of the group make predictions about the upcoming chunk of content, beginning the cycle again. The role of discussion leader should rotate from student to student so each student has the opportunity to generate questions about the content and practice facilitating the group’s discussion.
Figure 3.4 can help guide their discussions.
Concept Attainment
The teacher asks students to identify, compare, and contrast examples and nonexamples of a concept. Examples of a concept should clearly display the attributes of the concept, and nonexamples should clearly not have attributes of the concept. Concept attainment is ideal to use when examining a complex topic that may be difficult to explain or define. It also works well when examining categories of objects or concepts. For example, teachers can use this strategy to examine different animal classes, a group of shapes, a part of speech, an artistic movement, or a genre of music. Additionally, this strategy can help students visualize correct and incorrect behaviors or uses of a procedure in the classroom. Once students seem comfortable with the patterns presented, ask them to generate their own examples and nonexamples to add to a class list.
Source: Marzano Research, 2016.
Figure 3.4: Discussing in groups.
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Consider the following tips for using this strategy in your classroom.
• Organize examples and nonexamples into a simple chart to help students visualize patterns. If students are creating their own examples and nonexamples, ask them to record their choices in a graphic organizer.
• When asking students to define a mystery concept, begin first with examples and nonexamples that are simple and seem to parallel one another. These should give the students an idea of what is being contrasted. Instead of providing all of the examples at once, give two or three at a time and provide students with time to reflect on possible patterns.
• As you provide more examples, the students’ understanding of what is being defined should sharpen. Elements might become more abstract as students’ knowledge deepens.
• Avoid choosing examples and nonexamples with trivial differences that might confuse students.
• Instead of having students guess what the mystery concept is out loud, ask them to create their own examples and nonexamples that fit the pattern. Students can write their examples on the class chart to aid students who have not yet guessed the concept.
Think-Pair-Share
Frank Lyman (1981) originally developed this strategy. The teacher asks students to think critically about a question, pair up with another classmate to come to a consensus on their answer to the question, and then share their responses with other groups or the whole class. Limiting the amount of time for the thinking and pairing steps of the strategy can motivate students to make quick decisions and explain their thinking succinctly (for example, a teacher might give students thirty seconds to think of an answer and then three minutes to discuss with their partner). Since the procedure for this strategy is relatively simple, a teacher can implement it in a lesson either at planned points or informally as the need arises. The teacher can monitor the use of this strategy by observing students as they discuss topics, asking students to provide written summaries of their responses, or having pairs of students present their thinking to the whole class.
Figure 3.5 can help guide students’ use of this strategy.
Source: Marzano Research, 2016.
Figure 3.5: Think-pair-share guidelines.
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Scripted Cooperative Dyads
Donald Dansereau (1988) originally developed this strategy. The teacher presents a new chunk of information or asks students to read a short excerpt of a text. As they read or listen, students take notes about the main idea and key details of the content. Then, the teacher breaks students up into groups of two and assigns each student to act either as the recaller or the listener. In their groups, the recaller summarizes the content, without looking at his or her notes, while the listener adds missing information and corrects any errors in the recaller’s summary. Students should switch between the roles of recaller and listener after each chunk of information.
While this strategy may seem simple to implement, students’ attention can easily become centered on getting the procedure right rather than on the processing of new content. To prepare students for using this strategy, teachers can review the following skills in class.
• Taking notes and annotating: Comprehensive notes are essential to the implementation of scripted cooperative dyads. Model different strategies for note-taking that will help students efficiently record the key ideas from texts and presentations. One simple technique teachers can share with students at all grade levels is two-column notes. In this strategy, students draw a line to separate the right and left sides of their notepaper. In the right column, students write the main ideas or concepts discussed in the content, and in the left column students write important details that refine
