Organize Your Teaching
Explore resources designed to improve instruction so that students can better understand, remember and apply what they have learned. 
- View a visual diagram of all four practices
- Watch a topic overview and download planning templates
- Listen to an expert
Explore the subtopics below to learn more about the recommended practices:
To learn more about the research underlying these practices, view the IES Practice Guide, Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning.
Visual Diagram: How to Organize Your Teaching
Organize Your Teaching > Overview & Tools
Organizing teaching and learning experiences so that students both remember and understand has a number of facets. Four research-based practices for improving student learning are represented in...
Resource Type
Visual Diagram
Response Groups: Eliciting Explanations in History
Organize Your Teaching > Higher-Order Questions > See How It Works
History teacher Matt Moorman describes how he uses higher-order questions to engage students in critical thinking about important historical concepts and to help students to internalize the...
Resource Type
School Example
Instructional Strategies at a District Level
Organize Your Teaching > Higher-Order Questions > See How It Works
In this video interview, a district curriculum director shares lessons learned about successfully implementing instructional strategies, like the use of higher-order questions, across many schools...
Resource Type
School Example
Mastery Over Time
Organize Your Teaching > Spacing Learning > See How It Works
Two math teachers describe their department's focus on student mastery of skills and knowledge over time. They have developed a curriculum that creates multiple opportunities for students to learn...
Resource Type
School Example
Quizzing With Clickers
Organize Your Teaching > Spacing Learning > See How It Works
Middle school social studies teacher Patrice Bain explains how she uses "clickers" (remote control devices) to give short, ungraded quizzes to prompt student recall of key course material. View the...
Resource Type
School Example
Bell Ringers, Pyramids, and Big Ideas
Organize Your Teaching > Spacing Learning > See How It Works
Social Studies teacher Bonny Bowen describes how she uses three types of quiz activities to help students master and retain key course material. Related Files: Plainwell Middle School...
Resource Type
School Example
Graphic Organizer for Teaching Vocabulary With Visuals
Organize Your Teaching > Abstract & Concrete > See How It Works
Middle-school teacher Bonnie Bowen uses this graphic organizer in her classroom to incorporate the use of visuals in vocabulary instruction. Related Files: Plainwell Middle School Description...
Resource Type
Sample Material
“I Can” Worksheets: Reviewing Concepts Over Time
Organize Your Teaching > Spacing Learning > See How It Works
View "I Can" sheets used by fifth-grade teacher Deb Wickerham for review purposes. Students fill in these worksheets during a unit and then use them to review and prepare for assessments later in...
Resource Type
Sample Material
Screenshots of Grade Reports Tracking Daily Quiz Results By Topic
Organize Your Teaching > Spacing Learning > See How It Works
View screenshots from an online grading report system, which organizes student quiz scores by the review topics that are cycled through each quarter. The reports highlight areas that need more...
Resource Type
Sample Material
Screenshot of Interactive Whiteboard Pre-Test With Summary of Student Answers
Organize Your Teaching > Spacing Learning > See How It Works
View a screenshot from an interactive whiteboard in Patrice Bain's social studies classroom. See how students' correct and incorrect responses to short, multiple choice quizzes are summarized for...
Resource Type
Sample Material
Student Handout: Order of Operations Homework With Worked Examples
Organize Your Teaching > Examples With Practice > See How It Works
In this sample homework set, both incorrect and correct answers are offered as ways to help students think about the problem-solving steps and strategies involved. Related Media and...
Resource Type
Sample Material
Discuss and Design: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Visual Representations
Organize Your Teaching > Abstract & Concrete > Overview & Tools
Use this tool to guide discussions, in groups, of ways to use graphics to promote learning. Related Media and Files: Using Graphics to Support Learning (Slideshow and Transcript)
Resource Type
Tool
