IA's

Instructional Activities (IAs): Quick Explanation

Instructional Activities or IAs - are flexible, research-informed strategies I use to make learning more accessible, equitable, and engaging. These aren’t just “warm-ups” or “fillers” - they’re short, intentional moves that activate thinking, promote discussion, and meet students where they are.

Here are three of my favorites:

📝 Silent Discussion

• Instead of talking, students write their thoughts, questions, or reactions on large chart paper or in shared digital spaces.

• They respond to each other’s comments silently, building a quiet, reflective conversation.

• Why it works: Lowers social pressure, amplifies quieter voices, and builds processing time in—a huge equity move.

⚖️ Decide & Defend

• Students choose between two or more options (e.g., solutions, interpretations, designs) and defend their choice using evidence or reasoning.

• Great for debates, critiques, ethical dilemmas, or design sprints.

• Why it works: Encourages metacognition and argumentation, and allows multiple valid perspectives to coexist.

📖 Three Reads

• Students read the same text (or visual, data set, etc.) three times with a different purpose each time:

• First for gist

• Second for key details

• Third for deeper meaning or connections

• Why it works: Builds comprehension skills and slows things down so all students can access complex material—especially helpful for multilingual learners and students with processing differences.