Pre-K – 2nd Grade Marzano’s 9 Strategies at a Glance
By Robert J. Marzano
Instructional Strategies
Definition:
How it looks in the Classroom:
The teacher or student asking
Questions,
cues, and
advance
organizers
Summarizing and
note taking
questions (who, where, why, how).
What is the teacher doing in advance
to see what the students know and
their prior knowledge.
Teachers should use cues and questions
that focus on what is important (rather
than unusual), use ample wait time
before accepting responses, eliciting
inference and analysis. Advance
organizers should focus on what is
important and are more useful with
information that is not well organized.
Recalling the important
information and students putting
information in their own words.
Students should learn to eliminate
unnecessary information, substitute
some information, keep important
information, write / rewrite, and analyze
information.
Pre-K: show and tell-model questions
K: sharing-students asking questions
1st: make up their own questions
2nd: K-W-L chart
Graphic organizers, provide guiding
questions before each lesson, think alouds,
inferencing, predicting, drawing conclusions,
skim chapters to identify key vocabulary,
concepts and skills, foldables, annotating the
text, etc.
Pre-K: retelling, sequencing
K: illustrate to retell
1st: key concepts, main idea, oral and written
2nd: journals
Teacher models summarization techniques,
identify key concepts, bullets, outlines,
clusters, narrative organizers, journal
summaries, break down assignments, create
simple reports, quick writes, graphic
organizers, column notes, affinity diagrams,
etc.
1
Reinforcing
effort and
providing
recognition
Praising a child to motivate and
acknowledge students
participation. It’s important to
tell students that putting forth
effort is worth the success.
Teachers should reward based on
standards of performance; use symbolic
recognition rather than just tangible
rewards.
Pre-K: Skittle
K: marble jar
1st: charts, clips
2nd: computer time
Hold high expectations, display finished
products, praise students’ effort, encourage
students to share ideas and express their
thoughts, honor individual learning styles,
conference individually with students,
authentic portfolios, stress-free
environment, high-fives, Spelling Bee,
Constitution Day, School Newspaper, etc.
Work done during class time and
reinforced during independent
practice. Independent practice
Homework and
practice
should happen when a student
knows the content well enough to
do it independently.
Teachers should vary the amount of
homework based on student grade level
(less at the elementary level, more at
the secondary level), keep parent
involvement in homework to a minimum,
state purpose, and, if assigned, should be
debriefed.
Pre-K: centers, small group
K: independent centers
1st: reading log, independent centers, seat
work
2nd: centers, reading logs, math facts
Retell, recite and review learning for the day
at home, reflective journals, parents are
informed of the goals and objectives, grade
level teams plan together for homework
distribution; teacher email.
2
Nonlinguistic
representations
Visual aids to promote and
reinforce learning including new
learning
Students should create graphic
representations, models, mental pictures,
drawings, pictographs, and participate in
kinesthetic (hands-on) activities in order
to assimilate knowledge.
Cooperative
learning
Students working together to
complete a task and everybody is
involved.
Teachers should limit use of ability
groups, keep groups small, apply strategy
consistently and systematically but not
overuse. Assign roles and responsibilities
in groups.
Pre-K: pictures paired with text or w/o,
whiteboard, manipulatives
K: songs with actions
1st: graphic organizers, writing grid
2nd: illustrating story programs
problem-solution organizers, spider webs,
diagrams, concept maps, drawings, charts,
thinking maps, graphic organizers, sketch to
stretch, storyboards, foldables, act out
content, make physical models, etc.
Pre-K: circle time, centers
K: centers, small groups, pair/share
1st: pair/share, reading groups
2nd: buddy reading, flash cards
Integrate content and language through
group engagement, reader’s theatre, pass the
pencil, circle of friends, cube it, radio
reading, shared reading and writing, plays,
science projects, debates, jigsaw, group
reports, choral reading, affinity diagrams,
Students tackle word problems in groups and
explain their answers, etc.
3
Setting
objectives and
providing
feedback
Generating and
testing
hypothesis
Identifying
similarities and
differences
A skill to be mastered by the
student with appropriate praise.
A direction or path to achieve a
specific objective.
Teachers should create specific but
flexible goals, allowing some student
choice. Teacher feedback should be
corrective, timely, and specific to a
criterion.
Applying the students’
understanding
Students should generate, explain, test
and defend hypotheses using both
inductive and deductive strategies
through problem solving, history
investigation, invention, experimental
inquiry, and decision making.
Describing how things are alike
and different.
Students should compare, classify, and
create metaphors, analogies and nonlinguistic or graphic representations
Pre-K: correcting letter formation
K: essential questions, verbal praise,
correcting
1st: essential questions, rubrics
2nd: AR goals/rewards
Articulating and displaying learning goals,
KWL, contract learning goals, etc. Teacher
can display objectives on the in-focus
projector and follow-up on the mastery of
the objective at the end of the lesson.
Pre-K: hands on (sink/float) predictions
K: verbalize predictions
1st: predictions made on information given
2nd: story starter
Thinking processes, constructivist practices,
investigate, explore, social construction of
knowledge, use of inductive and deductive
reasoning, questioning the author of a book,
finding other ways to solve same math
problem, etc.
Pre-K: sorting objects by attributes
K: listing
1st: comparing two stories
2nd: fiction vs. non-fiction
Thinking Maps, T-charts, Venn diagrams,
classifying, analogies, cause and effect links,
compare and contrast organizers
4