Keeping Your Classroom C.R.I.S.P.

As we are nearing the end of another school year many teachers may be wondering how to keep students focused in the classroom until the last day of class. Let me highlight an article I recently read entitled Keeping Your Classroom C.R.I.S.P.

Here are five things teachers can do to promote learning – Contextualize, Review, Iterate, Summarize and Preview. Let’s look at each one.

Contextualize
Instead of beginning class with “Today we’re going to,” think about ways to provide a focal point from the lesson “Today we’re going to 1), 2), and how students will accomplish the lesson. From this opening statement teachers could provide additional information on the concept to be taught, or engage students in a mini-lecture. The idea is to help students build a knowledge base and transferable skills in that subject.

Review
Once students have grasp the new knowledge begin linking the lesson to previous lessons to help students build a broader knowledge base in a subject. Students learn and retain more when those knowledge connections are made and then expanded.

Iterate
During the lesson teachers should continually emphasize the fundamental concepts the lesson is built around. By asking students to reiterate the lesson, or the steps within the lesson, students will build deeper learning experience. It’s also helpful for teachers to design assessments to reflect this approach instead of just multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank type tests.

Summarize
Teachers need to stop within the lesson to allow time for students to summarize the main points of the lesson. Taking time to summarize during the lesson helps students to see how each point of the lesson builds the overall concept being taught.

Preview
Before ending the lesson for the day teachers should take time to preview what students will learn the following day guiding students to read ahead to look for specific points that will be covered the next day. This continues to help students bridge previous learned material with the lesson for the next day.

The C.R.I.S.P. approach will provide better organization, unity and flow to the lesson. This approach also helps students have a better grasp on how each part of the lesson becomes part of the whole concept begin taught by providing better understanding and retention.

To read the entire article please go to:
http://www3.humboldt.edu/celt/tips/keeping_your_classroom_c.r.i.s.p/