George Lucas Educational Foundation
Edutopia

Teaching Strategies

Discover and share best practices for improving your teaching craft -- delivering instruction, engaging students, reaching struggling students, and more.

  • Simple Ways to Bring Learning Outside

    Going outside helps students focus, and activities for classes from social studies to math can incorporate the natural world.
    Trey Jones

  • A Lesson Planning Framework That Leads to Productive Struggle

    Dialogic learning is a form of collaborative inquiry that works like gradual release of responsibility in reverse—beginning with “you do.”
    Paul Sylvester

  • A Strategy for Giving Corrective Feedback to ELLs

    Using sentence frames and explicit feedback thoughtfully can provide the right balance of structure and scaffolding for English language learners.
    Shveta Miller

  • Why Are Some Kids Thriving During Remote Learning?

    Though remote learning has brought many challenges, some students seem to be thriving in the new circumstances. What can we learn from them?
    Nora Fleming

  • What Teachers in China Have Learned in the Past Month

    An American whose classroom in Beijing is now online shares what she and her team have learned since the coronavirus hit, just as U.S. teachers make the same shift.
    Laurel Schwartz

  • Teaching Strategies of Award-Winning Online Instructors

    A recent study gleaned five insights on virtual instruction by examining the techniques shared in common by top-rated online instructors.
    Michael Ralph

  • New Strategies in Special Education as Kids Learn From Home

    In special education, teachers say that schedules, sensory supports, and close collaboration with families can help smooth the transition to remote learning.
    Nora Fleming

  • Innovative Ways to Make Coronavirus a Teachable Moment

    When the world feels dangerous, harnessing learning can provide some measure of clarity and perspective.
    Sarah Gonser

  • What Doesn’t Work: Literacy Practices We Should Abandon

    The number one concern that I hear from educators is lack of time, particularly lack of instructional time with students. Although we can't entirely solve the time problem, we can mitigate it by carefully analyzing our use of class time.
    Nell K. Duke

  • Talk Less So Students Learn More

    Productive struggle is important for students to retain what they learn.
    Shannon McGrath

  • Supporting Students With Dysgraphia

    While there's not a lot of research on dysgraphia yet, there are a few signs you should look out for, and some evidence-based tactics to help kids with the writing condition.

  • A Handy Strategy for Teaching Theme

    Analyzing the themes in a literary work can be tricky for students, but a simple formula can scaffold the process.
    Zach Wright

  • Borrowing a Literacy Strategy From Band Class

    A band teacher explains how a process he uses to train budding musicians’ inner voice can be used to help struggling readers improve.
    Brian Campbell

  • Inviting Participation With Thumbs-Up Responses

    A quick assessment strategy replaces raised hands, encouraging more students to contribute by accommodating their different processing needs.

  • A Deceptively Simple Strategy for Promoting Critical Thinking

    Using giant whiteboards is an easy way to encourage teamwork, differentiate, and foster deep engagement with content.
    Christine Boatman