My instruction is scaffolded  to support learning when my students are first introduced to a new concept or topic. 

These strategies occur all during, before and sometimes even after a particular lesson.

Here are a few of the strategies I find myself using the most often:activating prior knowledge with pre-assessment tools 

• offering a motivational context to pique student interest or curiosity in the subject at hand- I find this particularly  powerful during science
• breaking a complex task into easier, more "doable" steps to facilitate student achievement
• showing students an example of the desired outcome before they complete the task

• teaching students chants or mnemonic devices to ease memorization of key facts or procedures
• using graphic organizers to offer a visual framework for assimilating new information- we employ this most often in our brainstorming for Writer's Workshop
  
• asking questions while reading to encourage deeper investigation of concepts
• suggesting possible strategies for the students to use during independent practice
• modeling an activity for the students before they are asked to complete the same or similar activity

These are examples of silly sentences that my students made as mnemonic devices. 

They were learning the 7 levels of classification.

We have word doors

After studying words, we write them on index cards and display them for easy reference. 





I love reminding students of how many words we have learned as the days go by.

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_I just thought of a few more commonly used strategies of my classroom.

• teaching students chants or mnemonic devices to ease memorization of key facts or procedures
• using graphic organizers to offer a visual framework for assimilating new information- we employ this most often in our brainstorming for Writer's Workshop
  
• asking questions while reading to encourage deeper investigation of concepts
• suggesting possible strategies for the students to use during independent practice
• modeling an activity for the students before they are asked to complete the same or similar activity