Strengths-based Approach
Overview
A strengths-based approach is one where educators intentionally identify, communicate, and harness students' assets, across many aspects of the whole learner, in order to empower them to flourish. Educators should consider all kinds of strengths, not just academic strengths, including for example, strong Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking, problem solving, Communication, and other skills critical for success. This practice can be particularly beneficial for students with learning disabilities whose strengths are often overlooked due to focusing on particular challenges. A strengths-based approach empowers students with disabilities to recognize and harness their talents and abilities, ultimately fostering greater self-determination and improved long-term outcomes. Strengths can be identified through both formal assessments and informal activities, such as reflective prompts or conferences. Educators can provide strengths-based feedback by asking probing questions to determine the skills and knowledge that learners already have. This practice encourages a mindset of leveraging strengths in order to solve problems or overcome challenges.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch as these students tap into their strengths and funds of knowledge about hip hop to make connections between science content and real-world learning as they participate in a regional competition.
Design It into Your Product
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Instructional Approaches Strategies
Flipped learning is when the delivery of traditional content (i.e., lectures, videos) occurs outside of the classroom, allowing class time to be used for more active and application-based activities.
In guided inquiry, teachers scaffold student learning and help students use their own language for constructing knowledge by active listening and questioning.
Multimodal teaching and learning provide opportunities for students to engage with the same content through different sensory modalities, such as visual, auditory and tactile.
Retrieval practice requires students to access information, or get information “out” from Long-term memory in order to support better retention and understanding.
Spaced practice is a learning strategy that deliberately spaces out learning or study sessions over varying periods of time, with the purpose of increasing retention, understanding, and long-term knowledge acquisition.
Supported independent reading, sometimes called Scaffolded Silent Reading, is when teachers scaffold and monitor learners' independent reading time, offering students a choice of accessible texts, and periodic check-in's with individual students to provide guidance and accountability.
Incorporating think-alouds, or verbalizing thinking while reading or working through a new concept, can be a powerful way to help learners explore disciplinary texts, learn new skills, and retain content.
