One of the challenges in teaching is to be creative. Students get bored easily and familiarity can get in the way of creative teaching. Abadines (2011) of the filipinoteacher.com enumerated some interesting teaching strategies that can be employed in the classroom to shake things up or just to try something new.
The first is called Erroneous Teaching. This strategy will improve the critical thinking skills of the students. The setup is simple: intentionally insert incorrect information into the story of the lesson. The cool thing about this strategy is that the errors keep the students glued to the facilitator. It serves as a challenge for them. Before starting, make it clear that the teacher plans on “messing” things up. The students can point out the mistakes as teacher goes along or they can write down the errors and there can be a discussion on it afterwards.
Next one is Using Acronyms Creatively. Aside from using acronym as a mnemonic tool, teacher can use it in the following creative manners: Use in the beginning to introduce the topic or theme of the lesson; Used at the end to serve as summary of the lesson.
The third one is Tic-Tac-Toe Quiz Show. The teacher can form 2 teams in small class and quiz them through a Tic-Tac-Toe Quiz Show. Correct answers are rewarded with an X or O on the grid. Tally the points and the points can be traded in for prizes or priveleges.
Lastly, the Scrambled Story. Make a copy of a story where the words are connected. That means no spaces, commas or periods at all. What the students have to do is to separate each word and sentence in the story and provide proper punctuation where necessary. The group will then put the story back into its proper form.
By: Raquel P. Quimson | Teacher III | Nagbalayong High School | Morong, Bataan
