Funny you should post this - just this week we had a quickie PD session (instead of staff meeting). Grade level teams were given a hypothetical student profile, for which we were to come up with a lesson plan. "Strategies" and "activities" were blurred - we were all over the place. I'm interested to see what people say here. Thanks for posting this because you really have me thinking!
I'm a new follower! To me a strategy is for example using I do, We do, You do to teach a lesson and the activity is what the students actually do! Brian http://hopkinshoppinblog.blogspot.com/
I agree with Brian. A strategy would be *how* you get your students to work. An activity would be *what* your students are doing to work on that strategy.
This was a topic of discussion as our district began implementing "Data Teams". This is how we viewed the two... Strategies are the tools we introduce and provide the students with during our direct and guided instruction. Strategies are able to be used across the content areas.
Where as, activities are generally content specific. They are the tasks that we have the students complete, so that we can monitor their mastery of certain skills or content standards while implementing the strategies.
Great answers from everyone above! I would add that strategies are taught and can be used across different topics and skills, as well as different content areas {for example...test-taking strategies}. Activities are what students do to show their comprehension of the topic at hand using any and all strategies they know {for example...how to solve a word problem}.
Funny you should post this - just this week we had a quickie PD session (instead of staff meeting). Grade level teams were given a hypothetical student profile, for which we were to come up with a lesson plan. "Strategies" and "activities" were blurred - we were all over the place. I'm interested to see what people say here. Thanks for posting this because you really have me thinking!
ReplyDeleteI'm a new follower! To me a strategy is for example using I do, We do, You do to teach a lesson and the activity is what the students actually do!
ReplyDeleteBrian
http://hopkinshoppinblog.blogspot.com/
I agree with Brian. A strategy would be *how* you get your students to work. An activity would be *what* your students are doing to work on that strategy.
ReplyDelete~Stephanie
Teaching in Room 6
This was a topic of discussion as our district began implementing "Data Teams". This is how we viewed the two...
ReplyDeleteStrategies are the tools we introduce and provide the students with during our direct and guided instruction. Strategies are able to be used across the content areas.
Where as, activities are generally content specific. They are the tasks that we have the students complete, so that we can monitor their mastery of certain skills or content standards while implementing the strategies.
Great answers from everyone above! I would add that strategies are taught and can be used across different topics and skills, as well as different content areas {for example...test-taking strategies}. Activities are what students do to show their comprehension of the topic at hand using any and all strategies they know {for example...how to solve a word problem}.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great, thought-provoking question!
~Michelle
Making It As A Middle School Teacher