Marzano's Research Based Instructional Practices and Collaborative Professional Development Plans

Video Transcription

A major focus of any collaborative professional growth or development plan should be improving instructional strategies in order to increase student achievement. Marzano's high-yield instructional strategies can be used by collaborative teacher teams as a lens that will help them to focus on the areas of need in their collaborative professional development and growth. So in this tutorial, we'll take a look at all nine of these high-yield instructional strategies including identifying similarities and differences, summarizing and note taking, reinforcing and providing recognition, homework and practice, nonlinguistic representations, cooperative learning, setting objectives and providing feedback, generating and testing hypotheses, and questions, cues, and advance organizers. Let's get started.

The first of Marzano's nine high-yield instructional strategies is identifying similarities and differences. This might include having students compare and classify using charts and graphic organizers and Venn diagrams or examining similarities and differences through the use of metaphors and analogies. Overall, a best practice in this strategy is helping students to understand complicated problems by looking at those problems and evaluating them with a method that is perhaps easier to understand or that just makes it easier again to identify the similarities and differences among the various parts.

In my geometry lesson where I introduce polygons, I use a two-column chart with one column labeled polygons and the other column labeled not polygons. Students sort geometric diagrams into the appropriate columns, and this chart then provide students with a really nice visual representation of these geometric figures that helps them to identify the similarities and differences among the varying shapes.

The next high-yield instructional strategy is summarizing and note taking. A best practice and the strategy is to help students prioritize the important elements in the overall information that is being presented. This really encourages efficient analysis of that information. You can help this happen by providing clear guidelines for students when they're summarizing and by providing an outline or structure for note taking.

One example of this is when a teacher provides a skeleton version of the notes with keywords and certain elements left blank. Students are then expected to follow along with this outline throughout the lesson and fill in the missing pieces.

The next high-yield instructional strategy is reinforcing effort and providing recognition. A best practice here is to reinforce the connection between hard work and successful performance and also to underscore the importance of effort and flexibility. This can help to emphasize to students how important it is to put in that extra hard work which results in that higher performance. This process can be made even more effective if you consider making recognition dependent upon varying levels of achievement. A great example of this is a game of five classroom where students can earn badges and other types of recognition based upon the activities that they complete.

The next high-yield instructional strategy is homework and practice. A best practice here is to extend learning and practice beyond the walls of the classroom. An effective approach is to differentiate the homework and practice so that each student is working at his or her own independent level. It's important to understand that homework does not tend to work if it's just a one size fits all approach.

Also note that research tells us that we should be giving students about 10 minutes of homework per grade per night. An example of this strategy in action would be using tiered homework assignments to help students practice and reinforce the information learned in a lesson.

The next high-yield instructional strategy is using nonlinguistic representations. A best practice in this strategy is to help students to make connections by demonstrating relationships among ideas using symbols and visual representations along with words. You might show these connections using models as well including mathematical models. An example of this strategy in action would be a teacher having students draw pictures or diagrams to represent new vocabulary words.

The next high-yield instructional strategy is cooperative learning. A best practice and this strategy is to take the time to teach students the importance of working as a member of a group. Make sure students understand the expectations and the various roles that each of them are going to play within the group. You'll be helping students to develop their collaborative group skills and effective social skills.

Cooperative learning groups should be established based on the desired outcomes, and group membership should vary based on the needs and the strengths of the individual students. An example of using this strategy would be thoughtfully and carefully grouping students together in order to complete an end of unit or end of semester project.

The next high-yield instructional strategy is setting objectives and providing feedback. Best practices here include clearly communicating objectives and direction to students and providing feedback as students are working towards those goals and objectives. When you establish a goal for the whole group, you may consider letting individual students personalize that goal based on their unique areas of interest.

Be sure to set specific criteria for the achievement of goals and objectives, provide feedback as students progress towards those goals and objectives, and then also be sure to celebrate success. A great example of this strategy and action is when a teacher has implemented elements of competency based education. In this type of environment, each student is working towards his or her own unique learning goals at his or her own pace.

The next of Marzano's high-yield instructional strategies is generating and testing hypotheses. A best practice here is to use objective research based methods of inquiry with your students. You can help students to make predictions by using prompts that will guide them in the right direction. And you may consider using some scientific investigation strategies in your lessons as well. Though obviously this strategy is a very natural fit in science classrooms, it can be applied in other disciplines as well.

An example might be in a sociology classroom. Students could develop a survey that they will administer to their peers, but before they administer the survey, students could be asked to predict what the results are going to be. And then after they have gathered and analyzed their results, they could be asked to provide explanations either as to why their predictions were correct or why things turned out differently than they thought they would.

The ninth high-yield instructional strategy is questions, cues, and advance organizers. A best practice for using this strategy is to help students realize how new information connects to prior knowledge and prior experiences. Be sure to provide ample wait time when you are questioning and also consider helping students to build a toolbox of advance organizers that they can then pull from for individual lessons or based on the purpose for which they are looking for an organizer. An example of this strategy in action might be beginning a lesson with an activity that will help students to bridge from the previous lessons material into today's new material.

So how do these high-yield instructional strategies connect to our professional development? Here are some examples. You could implement co-operative learning into your professional learning community. Developing these cooperative learning skills within the context of your PLC can not only help that PLC to run more effectively but also can give you insight into how to incorporate cooperative learning into your classroom.

If peer-to-peer observations are part of your collaborative professional development, setting clear objectives and providing feedback can help to guide that observation process. And finally, when it's your turn to present any type of information to your colleagues within the context of your collaborative professional development, you can use techniques from the questions and cues and advance organizers strategy to help present that information more clearly and to help your colleagues get the most out of it.

So now it's your tread to stop and reflect. Think about Marzano's high-yield instructional strategies not just in terms of the way that they can impact your instruction in the classroom but also in terms of how they can impact your collaborative professional development. To dive a little deeper and learn how to apply this information, be sure to check out the additional resources section associated with this video. This is where you'll find links targeted toward helping you discover more ways to apply this course material.

Thanks for watching. Have a great day.