The Seven Structures of Best Practice Teaching

After reading, The Seven Structures of Best Practice Teaching, by Zemelman, Harvey, and Hyde, I was able to reflect on what I am already doing and what I can do in the future.  Listed below are the best practices that I can incorporate to create a more student centered classroom.

Small-Group Activities:

Currently, I use literacy centers, math stations, Choice Board, and Read-to-Someone.  Next year, I would like to try to do more with writing such as peer editing.  This would give students the opportunity to provide and receive feedback from their peers.

Reading as Thinking:

I use the questioning techniques with students before, during, and after reading.  In the future, I would like to give students post-it notes to write their thinking and connections from reading.  I would also like to try the written conversation after reading technique mentioned.  I think this is something that would be time consuming at first, but very beneficial.

Representing to Learn:

Having students write and record their thoughts in a journal is a way for a teacher to read what students are thinking.  Next year, I would like to incorporate more writing by having the students reflect throughout the day on different lessons.

Classroom Workshop:

At the end of the year, I incorporated a Choice Board in which students were able to make choices about their reading and writing.  Making a choice was very powerful for my students.  This is something I want to continue next year.

Authentic Experiences:

Students need to have “real-world” experiences.  Next year, I want to give my students more opportunities to discover things on their own.

Reflective Assessment:

I would like to do more goal-setting with my students.  I also like the idea of choosing five students per day to write down observations.  These notes will help me when it is time for conferences.

Integrative Units:

Creating units based around a theme would be beneficial.  I would like to work on tying social studies, science, and health into reading. 

By incorporating the seven best practices in my teacher, I will be working toward creating a more student-centered classroom.  I look forward to implementing the above best practices in my classroom next year.