Technique

Almost every lesson involved some degree of facilitating discussion. Some examples include:

While we read about the Walking Purchase we discussed the events that transpired and how students felt about them.
We also used discussion in rewriting a paragraph from Sandra Cisnero's House on Mango Street into a poem.
After a simulation on the effects of DDT, the students discussed and debated the material in a large group.
Discussion also occurred many times during math lessons, one example being a discussion the students had about different types of angles.

Often, short lecture played a role in the lessons. Here are some examples:

Throughout the geometry unit, there were times where I would lecture for a couple of minutes about a topic.
During the Rachel Carson unit, I sometimes stoped to give students mini-lectures about the historical background of the times that Carson lived in.

During a unit on Rachel Carson, I did a simulation with my students to give them sense of the devastating effects of DDT on different animals in a food chain.

During a lesson of Colonial Pennsylvania, I had students perform skits about the Walking Purchase.

Students often worked small groups or in pairs. Some examples include:

Students worked in groups during several math lessons: in pairs during a lesson on symmetry, in small groups at the computer during the same lesson.
When students worked on skits about the Walking Purchase, I had students working in cooperative groups of five or six students.
In the Rachel Carson unit, students worked in pairs to make timelines.

Of course, the elementary teacher is always transitioning from subject to subject throughout the day. During lessons though, I also usually transitioned between several different activities. Here are a few lessons that demonstrate this:

During a lesson on Rachel Carson, I transitioned between doing a simulation, having a discussion and reading aloud to the students.
During a math lesson on triangles, I transitioned between group work and two different independent activities.
During a lesson on the Walking Purchase, I transitioned from reading aloud to discussion to group work to performing skits to debriefing the skits.

Almost every lesson/unit that I did had some sort of introduction and conclusion.

I introduced several units, including the unit on Rachel Carson and the Environment, in which I read the students the Lorax; and the unit on Geometry in which we discussed a definition of geometry.

Some examples of conclusions include:
The last Rachel Carson lesson, in which students watch a movie that ties together everything they had learned.
The conclusion to a lesson on the Walking Purchase, in which the class discusses the skits they have performed.

During many math lessons, including the one on area, I used demonstrations to help my students understand a concept.
During the unit on Rachel Carson and the environment, I had a lesson in which I demonstrated eye-catching poster design.