What Do I Do with the Rest of the Class?: The Nature of Teaching-Learning Activities

With system-wide mandates of explicit and systematic literacy instructions requiring work with small groups, teachers are continually on the lookout for ways that keep the rest of their class actively engaged in learning activities. But what features constitute “successful” teaching-learning activities?” In his research, Brian Cambourne, NCTE’s outstanding educator of the year, finds that effective learning activities are contextual to other classroom activities and explicitly instructed; allow for social interaction and employ various modes of language and subsystems of languages; offer flexibility in student response; and are cost efficient and developmentally appropriate. Further, effective teaching-learning activities are contingent upon the nature of the classroom culture as well as teacher professional knowledge and skill.