Hunter Warner

Journal 1
C&T 100
27 January 2015
Instructional Strategies
After looking through the instructional strategies handout, I decided the three that popped
out to me the most where anticipatory set, metacognition, and SDAIE (Specifically Designed
Academic Instruction in English).
First of all, I discovered that an anticipatory set is a strategy that uses exciting material to
capture the attention of students at the beginning of a lesson. I can recall my highschool
teachers having used this method; however, I never knew that it was an intentional
instruction strategy. I could use this in my own teaching as a highschool ESOL teacher by
showing a video in English or telling them a joke that applies to the current topic. This will
both get my students active and expose them to the English language.
Next, metacognition is actually a group of strategies in itself that teach learners how to
learn. Many students don't actually reflect on what is effective learning for them, and
metacognition strategies help. One example is to provide access to mentors. I thought this
one was great because in a class where I am teaching basic English skills, I could ask a
person who is a more advanced ESOL learner to come into the class or make a time in the
evening in which they could demonstrate their skills and how they achieved them. This
allows the students on a lower level to observe the skills that the should obtain and learn
how their mentors achieved it. On a more daily basis, I could also use the metacognitive
strategy of fostering self-reflection by asking my students to journal about their learning
experiences.
The final strategy I picked from the list, SDAIE, especially intrigued me since I want to be an
English teacher. SDAIE is the approach of using English to teach various subjects, such as
science and literature, while students are still learning English. This method teaches children
both content and language in a challenging environment. This could be useful for me in an
intermediate to advanced ESOL class because I could give the students lessons on
American/English history, culture, literature, etc. while also still teaching English. Some key
components to making it work are slower speech rate, graphic organizers, audo-visual
materials, and appropriate pacing. I think it's important for language learners to have an
understanding of the places where the language is spoken, and the SDAIE strategy could
help me with that while still helping my students to increase their English skills.
It was definitely interesting to learn about some new teaching strategies. Hopefully someday
soon I'll find myself actually using the strategies above to engage students in my own
classroom.