SDAIE Strategy

One SDAIE strategy that I have used in my class thus far was a vocabulary exercise.  We wanted to introduce our students in English 12 to various schools of literary criticism so my CT recommended a strategy in which each critical lens is printed on a sheet of paper (new historicism, Marxist theory, feminist theory, etc.), that sheet is held up in front of the class, the class repeats the name in unison, then a hand gesture is assigned to each as the definition is described.  Students then repeat the name, hand gesture and definition as a class.  At first, I thought this was a bit silly, especially for a class of seniors.  However, during the next class session when we reviewed the terms, I was blown away at how many students remembered the terms, hand gestures and, most importantly, the definitions.  There were even some students who had the term and definition on the tip of their tongues but as soon as they soon they saw the hand gesture, they immediately blurted out the term and what it meant.  They established connections with the movements.  I was impressed at how they retained the information and found it fun to try and remember the gestures along with the meanings.