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As regular readers of this blog and my books know, I’m a big fan – and user – of inductive learning strategies (see The Best Resources About Inductive Learning & Teaching).

3 Strategies for Promoting Deep Learning Virtually is a new ASCD piece by Matthew Perini, Harvey Silver, and Jay McTighe, and the first idea they discuss is a great inductive strategy that is new to me.

You definitely want to read their full description but, in summary, the teacher puts together a list of unit-related words (some that students will know already and some they won’t) prior to begin its study; students categorize them; then they make predictions about the content they will study; and, then, they determine if their predictions were correct or unit as they get into the unit.

Yes, many of us have probably introduced a few sentences from a book prior to reading it and then have students make predictions, but I think the strategy they suggest is much more versatile and intellectually rigorous.

Plus, it offers another way to introduce academic vocabulary, particularly to ELLs.

I’ll definitely be using it – both in distance learning and when we return to the physical classroom.