To be considered a competent educator, there are almost 2000 strategies, concepts, and terms that you must know. However, since teachers wear so many hats, who has the time to learn them all? Don’t worry; we have you covered. In this series, we will discuss all the teaching and learning strategies, concepts, and terms that you need to know to be considered an effective educator. There are over 70 articles in this series, so pace yourself. We recommend reading one piece per weekday, which will allow you to complete the series in three to four months. We hope you enjoy it.

Click here to read all the articles in this series.

Strange Situation Procedure An experiment designed by Ainsworth and her colleagues to study separation anxiety in children when their mothers leave the room. The mother brings her baby into a controlled setting and allows the child to explore the room. In a few moments, a new and unfamiliar adult enters the room and the mother leaves the baby alone with this new adult. After a few more moments, the mother returns and the new adult leaves the room. The mother spends a few moments with the baby alone. Meanwhile, researchers and clinicians videotape the experiment so that the child’s reactions can be analyzed and recorded.

Streaming Creating student groups based on abilities to allow their education to be focused on a certain “track” over time rather than for short-term assignments.

Strengths-based Assessment An assessment that that requires the planning of intervention based on the student’s capabilities.

Stress Emphasis placed on specific syllables or words in speech.

Structural Analysis Understanding how to analyze a word’s structure using prefixes, roots, and suffixes. This structural analysis helps students to understand the definition of a word and determine the definition of unknown words when reading.

Structural Assimilation Integration of groups until they share primary relationships, marry one another, and are equal with the dominant group.

Structured Comprehension A reading comprehension strategy that moves from focusing on sentences to paragraphs. This framework provides students with proper contextual information, corrects any incorrect cues in the sentences, answers any questions students might have about the sentence and asks students questions to clarify the material further.

Structured Interview An interview where a teacher pre-prepares questions to ask a student.

Structured Note Taking An informal writing technique which provides a visual framework or organizer to guide students in their note-taking. The visual framework resembles the layout of the page, and some focus only on the text while others include illustrations, charts, and graphs.

Structured Overview A learning strategy for the introduction of new vocabulary and overall organization of a selection by representing key terms visually. The following steps are usually involved: listing the key terms; arranging the terms to highlight relationships between ideas; adding words familiar to the student in order to develop the identified relationships; evaluating the diagram; presenting the diagram and providing reasons for the arrangement therein; and continuing the process of connecting information as the selection is read.

Structured Performance A performance structured in advance by the teacher but executed by a student.

Structured Practice A method in which students practice what the teacher has demonstrated while the teacher remains involved.

Student Outcomes Are declarations that denote what students will know or be able to accomplish once they complete a course or program of study.

Student Portfolios Instructors ask students to prepare a collection of class assignments and submit them for assessment. Since portfolios contain a collection of student work and can contain a range from the academic period under assessment, they offer a more accurate picture of a student’s achievement than a single test or project could.

Student Self-Selection An approach to vocabulary where students select meaningful and challenging words they would like to learn in order to promote discussion.

Student Teaching Journal Is a daily log of events. Journal entries are unstructured and open-ended.

Student Teaching The most extensive and in-depth field experience is student teaching. You are required to perform this exercise to obtain your teaching degree. Typically lasting from at least five weeks to 2 semesters, student teaching places you for an extended period shadowing the same mentoring teacher, with a consistent daily schedule, and servicing the same students. In essence, you do everything your mentoring teacher does.

Student-Authored Electronic Informational Books A teaching idea in which students write books to represent their thoughts as opposed to through a traditional report format. For example, the students explore a substantive aspect of their current studies and report their learning in an alternative form—through authoring a book.

Student-Centered Curriculum Is a nonauthoritative, participation-focused curriculum model. In this curriculum structure, students have opportunities and increased responsibility to identify their own learning needs: to find, choose, and incorporate resources, and to construct their own knowledge based on their needs and interests. The student-centered curriculum encourages students to find their passions and paths in education and follow them, resulting in students’ gaining their structures of knowledge rather than simply being carriers of a standard, identical knowledge base imparted to all students. Students are not encouraged to just memorize information but are led to work with and use the information they are given, both individually and with other members of the class.

Student-Centered Philosophies Focus more on training individual students. These philosophies place more emphasis on the individuality of students and helping them to realize their potential. A student-centered classroom may be less rigid or structured, less concerned about past teaching practices and drilling academics, and more focused on training students for success in an ever-changing world. Students and teachers typically decide together what should be learned, as well as how this can best be achieved.

Student-Centered Philosophies Refer to philosophies that focus more on educating students individually. They place more emphasis on the individuality of the students and helping them to realize their potential.

Student-Created Electronic Picture Books A teaching idea in which students combine knowledge and creativity to represent their thoughts and content area research through non-traditional formats such as Electronic Alphabet Books and Student-Authored Electronic Informational Books.

Student-Led Conference Is a type of parent-teacher conference in which the student gives their parents updates on what they have been learning, what their goals are, and provides insights into what type of learner they are.

Student-Level Data Is any information that school officials or states collect on students who are enrolled in public schools in their jurisdiction.

Students of Color Students who are not considered to be white.

Study Guides A form of rewritten text which provides teachers or students with methods that help English language learners with reading comprehension, including the use of simple language, essential vocabulary, simple sentences, and meaningful questions.

Study Skills Tools, abilities, and strategies for reading that allow readers to expand upon and develop their knowledge base through literacy.

Stuttering A speech impediment with a neurological basis.

Style Shifting The adjustment of oral and written language to meet the needs of or appeal to particular listeners and readers.