Introduction
I am a teacher of paper writing at the University and to make my work more successful and useful for my students I use numerous techniques and strategies in my teaching. I conduct lectures and practical classes, so the strategies differ from class to class but all of them are directed at the educational development of my students. I resort to the use of such strategies as New American Lecture Strategy, the Understanding Model and Concept Attainment Strategy, Mystery Strategy, The Inductive Learning Strategy, The Interpersonal Model and Peer Practice/ reciprocal Learning Strategy and the Jigsaw puzzle. In the following paragraphs I will disclose the essence of these methods and exemplify them with my specific examples.
Main text
The New American Lecture Strategy is a teaching technique that is directed at the usage of all the aspects of students’ activity and of all kinds of the student’s memory. I use this strategy during my lectures, and this allows me to control the attention of my students throughout the lecture.
It works because I address students directly; I try to apply the topic of each lecture to their previous experiences and knowledge. The wide usage of visual aids accompanied by sound reproduction of the material of the lecture influences the skills of my students and they begin to memorize the material better. I also resort to using of blank organizers in which students can put their notes concerning the new information from my lecture.
One of the strategies that I use in practical classes is the Concept Attainment Strategy which presupposes the analysis carried out by students themselves. I give the notion in general, and students try to find out the specific notion asking questions, answering my questions and writing down their ideas and the results of their brainstorming concerning the given point. This strategy is also called Understanding model, as it involves the development of understanding skills and analytical thinking.
Using this strategy, I observe that my students make considerable progress in their study and learn material easier. Another useful strategy that I use in my practical classes is the Mystery Strategy. It implies a kind of game between me and my students, when I give a general description of the notion they have to guess, and they try to find out what is it giving their ideas and sharing the information each of them has. Both these methods help me to increase the interest in study among students and to make my classes more interesting for them.
My practical classes would be incomplete without the Interpersonal Model of Teaching (or Peer Practice) which I use in order to improve the communication skills and relations between my students. I give them assignments and divide the whole class into pairs or small groups of not more than three students. Their task is to practice a certain aspect of the course, like for example, vocabulary, in pairs. One of the students plays the role of “a coach” and asks questions, gives hints or encourages him or her in difficult situations. Another one answers the “coach’s” questions, and thus they both practice the vocabulary and memorize better than if they just read it in a textbook.
Summary
The Jigsaw Strategy is also very important in my teaching as this method helps me to set closer relations between the students, teach them cooperation and respect towards each other. Besides, when students search the information themselves and share ideas, they memorize everything better and learn to work in a team. Divided into several groups my students study certain aspects of a problem and then unite their knowledge to complete the general synthesis project I give them.
Works Cited
Buehl, D. (2001). Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning. International Reading Association; 2 edition.
Gregory, G., Chapman, C. (2006). Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size Doesn’t Fit All. Corwin Press; Second Edition.
Silver, H., Hanson, R., Strong, R., Schwartz, P. (1996). Teaching Styles and Strategies. Silver Strong & Associates; 3rd edition.