Responses to Increase Student Interaction:

Gradual Release Model

o Goal of Strategy: The goal of this model is to gradually release the
responsibility of learning to students. By gradually releasing
responsibility, the teacher will enable students to develop skills and ways
of thinking more independently. Over time, students will assume more
responsibility in their learning with less support from the teacher.
o Description: This strategy is a model that explains where the
responsibility of learning should fall throughout a lesson. Initially the
responsibility is on the teacher as they teach a focused lesson. The
focused lesson is when the teacher introduces a new topic. During the
lesson, the teacher will model the skill the students will be learning,
showing the students how I do it. After modeling, the teacher will offer
guided instruction to the students for them to practice the skill with the
teacher. This guided practice involves the students and teacher working
together to complete the skill, thus demonstrating how we do it.
Responsibility is then gradually released to the students as, after the
guided practice, students take part in collaborative practice with peers as
the teacher says you do it together. In collaborative practice, groups of
students work together, or work as a class, to accomplish the task that is
being requested of them. If need be the teacher can offer help or guidance.
Finally, students do work on their own to individually demonstrate their
mastery of the learning or skill. Here the student does it alone with
support as needed (Fisher, 2008, p. 1 4). A diagram of the model is
below to better illustrate the gradual release of responsibility.

To the right is another picture of the Gradual

Release Model. The students responsibility is on
top in the light gray and the teachers responsibility
is on bottom in the dark gray. As shown, the
teachers responsibility starts off accounting for a
majority of the learning and gets smaller as the
students responsibility starts off small and grows.
The table below shows the Gradual Release Model
in another way. First we have the think aloud
stage, which is where the teacher expresses their
thinking aloud by modeling the skill. Next is the
think along stage, which is where the responsibility of learning is shared. The teacher
directly instructs the students on how to complete the same skill or task the teacher just
modeled. Then comes the think together stage, where the responsibility begins to
further shift to the students, but the learning is still interactive. This means that the
students can collaboratively work together as a class or in groups to practice the skill,
asking each other for help or guidance as needed with the teacher supervising and helping
as need be. Finally comes the think on my own stage, which is where the responsibility
is completely shifted to the student. Now that the student has seen the skill modeled,
been directly instructed on how to do it, given the opportunity to practice it in a group

setting, they are ready to complete the skill independently.

Its important to note that this process of moving the responsibility of learning
from the teacher to the student can take various amounts of time depending on the skill
being taught. For example, learning how to write the letter A may be modeled, directly
instructed, practiced as a group on the board, and then practiced individually in the
students notebooks all in one day. However, teaching a lesson about sorting word
families may take much longer. The teacher might have to model how to recognize word
families and identify the familiar chunks in each family for multiple days before students
are ready to try the skill on their own.

Think, Pair, Share

o Goal of Strategy: This strategy fosters better understanding and
independent thinking among students by allowing them to process
what they are being taught individually and then with a partner
before sharing as a group. The strategy allows students to connect
on a more personal level with the content learned, helping them
process and remember the information better.
o Description: This strategy can be used before or after a lesson. If students

have prior knowledge on a topic before a lesson, the teacher can pose a
question to the class to get the kids thinking about the topic. After a
lesson, the teacher can give the students a review question. Once the
question has been given, students will be given time to think on their own
about how they would respond to the question. Then after having time to
think individually, they will pair with a partner. Both children will share
their thoughts with each other and then together develop a more complete
response to the question. Finally, some pairs can share their ideas with
the whole class. By allowing students to first think on their own and then
discuss with one other person, everyone gets a chance to develop their
thoughts on the topic fully before coming together and sharing answers as
a class (Reading Rockets, 2015).

Foldables
o Goal of Strategy: Foldables offer different ways in which to fold and cut
paper to better present information, helping organize main ideas in a topic.
By intentionally organizing the information on a handmade paper
organizer, students will more fully process the information, helping them
understand the material better and be able to recall it easier. Foldables are
extremely easy, effective, and fun all that is required is paper and
scissors, and sometimes glue or staples.
o Description: A list of foldables, how to make them, and what they can be
used for can be found in Appendix A (Zike, 2005).

Brain Breaks
o Goal of Strategy: Brain breaks are simple 1 2 minute challenges for the
body and mind. They are a great way to help students refocus in class
when they are losing attention. Many of these breaks engage both
hemispheres of your brain, which promotes neural pathways. Taking
these short 1 2 minute breaks may take some time out of instruction, but
the breaks make up for the lost instruction time by increasing students
attention and learning efficiency.
o Description: Below are some brain breaks for teachers to have their
students stand up and try in class when they are getting tired or lose
attention. Hopefully these brain breaks can limit the amount of students
who fall asleep or become disengaged in class.
Moving Hands: 1. Stand up. 2. Move your right hand in front of
you left to right. Face your palm away from you while keeping
your fingers pointing up. 3. Now stop that hand and move your
left hand in front of you up and down. 4. Now practice moving
your hands at the same time. Dont move your hands diagonally.
5. Now switch your right hand to move up and down and your left
to move left to right. To make it more difficult, move your hands
faster and switch your hand directions more often. 6. Lastly, to
increase the difficulty, cross your arms and then do it.
Exercise Breaks:

50 jumping jacks
Crab walk around the room
Hop on one foot all the way around the room. Then switch
and hop around the room on the other foot.
Do a class dance.
Have the kids line up and march around the room.
Have a class congo line.
Stretch as a class.
Mirror-Mirror: Have one student come to the front of the
class and do an action. Everyone else must copy the
persons action.
Snap Wink: 1. Stand up. 2. Wink with your left eye and snap with
your right hand at the same time. 3. Then wink with your right eye
and snap with your left hand at the same time. 4. Switch back and
forth as fast as you can.
Ear and Nose Switch: 1. Stand up. 2. Grab your left ear with your
right hand. 3. Now take your left hand and touch your nose. 4.
Uncross your arms and move your left hand to your right ear and
your right hand to your nose. Your left arm should now be closest
to your body. 5. Switch back and forth as fast as you can.
Forward and Backward Circles: 1. Raise your arms straight
above your head like you are trying to touch the ceiling. 2. While
keeping your elbow straight, move your right arm forward creating
a large circle. Continue rotating your arm making forward circles.
Now do the same with your left arm, but move your arm in a circle
backwards. Continue with both arms at the same time. Make sure
you have this pattern working before going on to the next step. 3.
While both arms are moving, lift your right foot off the ground.
Bend and raise your right knee until its at a ninety-degree angle in
front of you. Hold this pose for a few seconds while still moving
your arms. 4. Now extend your right leg out straight so that your
leg is parallel to the ground and hold it for a few seconds. 5. Stop.
6. Repeat the same process with your left leg.
Airplane: 1. Raise your arms straight above your head like you are
trying to touch the ceiling. 2. Lift your right leg and put it behind
you, trying to keep your knee straight. 3. Lean forward with your
body. Try to make your body, arms, and right leg form a straight
line, parallel to the ground. Hold for 10 seconds. 4. Now try it
with your left leg behind you.
Dont Fall: 1. Raise your arms straight above your head like you
are trying to touch the ceiling. 2. Lift your right leg out to the side
of your body while trying to keep your leg straight. 3. Lean your
head away from your leg and try to raise your leg and lower your
head so that your body is in a straight line, parallel with the
ground. Hold for 15 seconds. 4. Now try it with your left leg out to
the side.

Handshake: Have students pair up with another peer and create

their own 30 second handshake. They can clap, snap, twirl, sing,
chant, dance, or do anything they want.
Sing: Have the class sing a song they all know together.
(The Colorado Education Initiative, 2014, p. 14-25)

Educational Games with Movement

o Toss the Ball
This is a fun, engaging way to get students actively moving and
thinking. Bring a ball to class and then have all the students sit on
top of their desks. No one can get off their desk or talk once the
game starts. The teacher picks a topic and then throws the ball to a
student who then has to catch it, say a word in the topic the teacher
assigned, and then gently toss the ball to someone else. That
person then catches the ball, says a different word in the topic, and
then throws the ball to someone else. Play continues like this until
the topic has been exhausted and then a new topic can be chosen.
If need be students are allowed to get out of their seats to get the
ball if it drops, but then they have to get right back on their desks.
If a student drops the ball when its thrown to them or talks when
they dont have the ball they are out, and must sit back down in
their chair and wait until the next game to join again. This game
could be a great way to review and practice building up students
English vocabulary. The teacher could give the students a
vocabulary theme that has already been discussed in class, such as
going to school, getting ready for bed, or food, and then students
have to state a word in English that falls under that theme.
Teachers could also start by stating a word chunk that has been
taught and then students have to say a word in the word family
when the ball is passed their way. Once students have developed
their phonological awareness, the teacher could make the game
even harder by stating a letter and then have students say words
that all start with that specific letter. This is a great activity to do
in between lessons to give students a break, or to do at the
beginning or end of the day for review.
o Fly Swatter Game
The Fly Swatter Game is a great game to help students practice
identifying letters, words, or sounds. In order to play, the teacher
must first determine the words they want the students to practice
identifying. The teacher writes the words all over the whiteboard
in no particular order. Then call two students up to the board.
Give them each a fly swatter. If fly swatters are not available, their
hands will work just fine as well. Call out one of the words on the
board. Students will race to find and then hit the word with the fly
swatter or their hand. Whichever student properly identifies the
word first, wins. The teacher can choose to let the two students

stay at the board to race and identify a couple more words or the
teacher can have the students sit down and call another pair up.
Extensions:
Instead of writing words up on the board, the teacher could
write different letters. Then the teacher could call out
either the name of the letter for students to identify or the
sound the letter makes.
The game can be played in teams as well. The teacher can
divide the class into two equal teams and then call one
student from Team 1 and one student from Team 2 up to
the board. One point will be awarded to each team each
time their team member is the first one to accurately
identify the given word. The teacher will keep score and
the team with the most points at the end will win.

o Four Corners Game

This game is a great way to quickly assess children and how well
they have understood a lesson. This game requires the teacher to
ask the children a question and then offer four answers. The
teacher will point to a different corner in the room as they read
each potential answer, designating each corner to represent an
answer. Students will then go to the corner that corresponds to the
answer they want. To practice identifying words in word families
the teacher could give the students a word family chunk and then
state four words, only one of which contains that chunk. The
teacher can then ask the students to go to the corner that has the
word that belongs in the stated word family. This game can also
get students to practice identifying sounds. The teacher could give
the class four words, three of which start with the same sound and
one that starts with a different sound. An example of words might
be goat, girl, God, and book. Then the students have to
go to the corner of the word that doesnt start with the same sound
as the other three words.
o BINGO
This is a good activity to connect oral and printed language and
strengthen students sound-symbol associations. Bingo can be
played with sounds (the beginning or ending sounds of a word or
vowels), word families, or rhyming words. The Bingo board
should be based on words all in a thematic topic or word family
that has been learned. The sounds or words are then written on the
board, one sound or word going in each square and a free space in
the middle, as pictured below. Each student needs their own
board. Each board should have the same sounds or words on it,
just in different places on the board. Then the teacher reads a clue

that describes each word or sound. For example, if there were

words on the board, the teacher could say the definition of the
word and then the students have to identify and mark what word
the teacher described. Or, if there were sounds on the board, the
teacher could say a word and have students mark the box of the
sound that the word started with. The students will mark the boxes
with a chip or rock. The teacher continues reading clues and the
students keep marking the appropriate boxes until someone has 5
boxes marked in a row. The 5 boxes can be connected diagonally,
vertically, or horizontally. The red lines on the picture below are
examples of a bingo. The first student to have 5 chips in a row
yells bingo! The teacher makes sure the student marked the proper
boxes and if they did, they win. The free space in the middle of
the board also gets a chip at the start of each game.

Conclusion
Through the collaboration with the teachers at Hovde House to identify areas in
which students need more support, I have worked to present activities and strategies in
this project that address these areas. Its our hope that through the implementation of
these activities and strategies, teachers can provide new ways to present material to the
students that will promote their exposure to text, their development of phonological
knowledge, and their level of interaction in the classroom. By presenting material in new
ways, our goal is to offer a strong foundation for the students at Hovde House to
understand the English language. This foundation in turn will enable students to read and
write with greater ease and offer them transferable skills that they can apply in their
everyday living.