How To Keep Students Engaged In Class

blog-20-student-engagement-strategies-captivating-classroom

When student date is going downhill, nosotros often find ourselves reaching for the prop box.

We pull out random videos, fourth dimension-sucking resources, overly complex activities… anything to get and keep attention.

But even these can't compete with our students' pen tricks, doodling, and discussions of what happened at recess. And there's a unproblematic reason why:

Our students aren't engaged by things. They're engaged by us .

That's why the best (and easiest) ways to increment student appointment come up from you lot.

We've compiled 20 essential strategies that generate lasting appointment, without the flashy props and hours of post-schoolhouse prep.

Connect learning to the real world

We've all heard it before: "When am I always going to apply this?" Answer this question and you'll appoint students with content that they know is relevant to life across school. Use anecdotes, case studies, and real-life examples from outside the classroom to root your teaching in "the real world".

Engage with your students' interests

Discover out what already engages your students and build it into the learning process. Using mathematics as an example, you could have students chart their performance in a video game over the week. You might even get your budding social media influencers to summate a projected number of Instagram followers.

Learning what excites your students does more than merely engage them. You'll build strong relationships and rapport, likewise.

Fill "expressionless fourth dimension"

"Dead time" is any point in a lesson where students are left without something to exercise. You might be handing out a worksheet, getting a presentation prepare, or waiting interminably for a YouTube video to load. These are brief windows that leave just plenty time for students to tune out, after which time it tin can be very difficult to get them dorsum.

Fill these blank spaces with low-society activities to concur students' attending. These should be quick, easy, and require minimal follow-up. For case:

Think Pair Share: students reflect on something, talk over with a partner, and and then share with the rest of the form once everyone is ready
Quickwrite: write down three questions or points that accept been raised by the lesson and so far
What I know already: if you're simply near to swoop into new content, ask students to identify three things they already know nearly the subject and jot them down every bit bullet points.

Employ group work and collaboration

Collaborating with modest groups gives students a welcome break from solo bookwork. They'll benefit from each other'due south perspectives and the ability to verbalize their ideas.

Use your judgment and knowledge of who works well together when organizing group work. Technology the groups might avoid troublesome partnerships, while assuasive students to work with friends might generate the buzz you need for more productive activity.

Encourage students to present and share work regularly

Giving students a regular opportunity to share their thoughts and demonstrate learning in forepart of their peers drives appointment in two ways:

information technology makes students accountable
it lets them hear from someone other than their teacher.

If your students quiver in fear at the thought of speaking in front end of the grade, combine presentations with grouping work. A few ideas:

Accept students present in groups afterward a group task.
Permit students share each other's work inside smaller groups before request them to choose one piece to share with the rest of the class.
Let students read or nowadays their work while sitting downwards. It avoids the force per unit area of having to "stand up and deliver".
Ask for one contribution from each group after discussion, with each group nominating a "spokesperson".

Above all else, make presenting and sharing a regular function of form activeness. Your class will become an equitable and engaging infinite that echoes with the vocalization of every student, not just your ain!

Give your students a say

If you don't know how to engage your students, let them tell you lot! Give your students a say in classroom activity by:

providing a option of different activities (e.k. grouping work or solo)
seeking educatee input for assessment blueprint (e.g. students can cull a final production, provided it meets the criteria)
periodic check-ins to monitor the pace of delivery (e.yard. "practise nosotros need to get over this a bit more slowly or are we feeling pretty confident?").

Giving students a option also fosters their sense of ownership over their learning. They'll move from passive consumers to active learners with a stake in classroom activity.

Get your students moving

If your students struggle to sit still for an entire lesson, go them moving. All that pent-up energy can be channeled into a learning action that puts them on their feet. Attempt the following.

Have students come to the front end and brainstorm together on the whiteboard.
Take students rotate through dissimilar stations around the room over the course of an activity.
Have students split up into groups or arrange themselves in different areas of the room.
Take a stand up: have students move to a detail area of the room to indicate their thoughts on an issue (eastward.k. "everyone who thinks x, move to the right side of the room; if you think y, stand on the left").

Motility works equally well to engage sluggish or weary students. A quick chip of concrete activity will leave them more than alert for the next phase of learning.

Get the printable engagement booster pack

Read the room

If you're steadily losing students to doodling, off-topic chatter, and the pervasive "need to tear and brawl up little pieces of newspaper", it's fourth dimension to shake things up.

Cut the activeness short if it's dragging, clarify instructions if at that place's confusion, or switch to a more educatee-centered activity for greater engagement.

Remember: it's incommunicable to have every pupil engaged 100% of the time. The next best thing nosotros tin do is to discover disengagement and respond to it quickly.

Scaffold tasks with checkpoints

If you dump all your instructions on students at the start of a lesson before turning them loose with an activity, confusion and disengagement volition probable follow.

That's why it's important to scaffold larger tasks past breaking them into doable steps. Each of these tin exist separated past brief "checkpoints" of teaching reorienting students and reminding them of what needs to be washed side by side. They also serve as a periodic call to attention when students are liable to go off track.

Emphasize discovery and inquiry

Sometimes the best thing you lot can practice for appointment is to go out of your students' way.

Let them discover learning for themselves without being spoon-fed. They'll exercise critical and creative thinking, and pursue the lines of inquiry that interest them.

This doesn't mean you should retreat behind the teacher's desk. Observe your students, listen to them, and talk to them about what they're thinking. Be their guide as opposed to their instructor.

Ask practiced questions

Inquire skillful questions of your students and you'll bulldoze rich, engaging discussions that are open to anybody.

Good questions should be:

open up-ended: to avoid "yes/no" answers
equitable: open up to answers of varying depth and complexity
legitimate: asked because you desire to hear students' thoughts and opinions, not considering you're fishing for a correct reply.

When students answer a question, engage with their response. Even if it'south incorrect or misinformed, recognize their attempt and use it to refine the question further (eastward.g. "y'all're on the right track, but could we also think about…").

Allow for think fourth dimension

It's gratifying to see easily shoot up as soon as you inquire a question, but letting your students recollect information technology over has ii benefits. It leads to more than considered responses that drive engaging discussions, and it also makes the conversation accessible to those who don't have an instant respond.

After you ask a question, insist on a twenty-second interruption and give students an opportunity to extend their standard responses further. For example, you might ask "Run across if you tin explain how you came to your answer, also". You'll receive better answers and start to find some new hands going up.

Shake things up

Predictability is safe, just information technology can go boring. Mix up your staple educational activity strategies with new and novel activities from time to fourth dimension. Talk to other teachers for ideas. In addition to engagement, you lot'll also exist giving your students an example of what it ways to take a risk and try something new.

Experimenting with some new parts of the teacher toolkit likewise makes it easier to differentiate your pedagogy. A new action or commitment method might be the trick to engaging that pupil who has been a tough nut to cleft all yr.

Give brain breaks

Periodically give students a breather with brain breaks. These are short activities that allow students to stretch their legs before returning to work feeling focused. Yous tin observe a list of xx brain breaks at Mind Flower.

Be personable

Relationships and rapport are pillars of lasting appointment, and you can't take either without beingness personable. This means getting to know your students and letting them get to know y'all.

While enthusiasm for the learning content might ebb and menses, your smile, laughter, and conversation will engage students every time they walk through your classroom door.

Encourage friendly competition

Use in-class games, quizzes, or gamified learning programs to engage students with friendly competition. For example, Alive Mathletics allows students to test their mathematical skills against peers in their class or around the world in existent time.

"Friendly" is the keyword here. Make certain competitive activities are depression stakes and put the emphasis on learning instead of winning.

Start lessons with introductory hooks

Appoint students from the outset of your lesson with an introductory hook. This could be anything that piques interest, establishes relevance, or inspires marvel in the subject of the lesson, for example:

a personal anecdote connected to the bailiwick
a brain teaser or challenge question
a historical example
a multimedia source.

Proceed your hooks brusque and segue them direct into an overview of the learning goal. It'southward an constructive opening that engages while setting students up for the main instructional component.

Laugh together

Weaving humor throughout your lesson lightens the mood and makes for a more fun experience. Laugh with your students, and don't be afraid to let them laugh at you from time to time!

Use mixed media

Present learning content in a diverseness of mediums, including video, audio, and digital resources. Using such tech-rich resources is engaging for two reasons. It's a welcome modify from the stacks of paper our students are commonly saddled with, and it establishes a direct and relevant connection with the digital world they inhabit.

Gamify learning

Games are the near powerful source of engagement for students outside of form, and they're equally effective at driving engagement in learning. Transform activities into games by including levels of difficulty, rewards, and competitive elements. You tin read more than about gamifying learning here.

You don't have to invest hours in creating rules and cartoon up game boards, either. Gamified learning programs can do the work for you. The learning programs in the 3P suite, for example, provide a host of pupil-friendly games for mathematics, literacy, and scientific discipline. All you have to exercise is select the advisable curriculum and grant your students admission.

Appoint your students similar never before with our online learning programs

Explore programs

Source: https://www.3plearning.com/blog/20-student-engagement-strategies-captivating-classroom/

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