How do you keep your students engaged in class?
This is a question that many teachers ask themselves. You can’t simply tell them to pay attention, and they will. It’s essential to make sure that your lessons are engaging, interactive, and fun! In this post, we’ll discuss how to keep your students focused during class so that the lesson sticks with them.
Create A Positive Classroom Culture
The learning environment and the classroom culture within it, work together to create a vibe conducive to support engagement for students. Think about the difference it makes when going out for dinner if the seats, table arrangement, music, welcome from maître d’ and ambience are all not working in tandem and how that affects your experience and overall enjoyment.
6 Ways To Build A Positive Classroom Culture
Using Variety Is Key
Using variety sounds like a no-brainer. It can be so underused as a way to engage students. Yes, there is the pressure of getting through the curriculum, but if the students aren’t absorbing the content, then perhaps we need to add in a few mixups.
Here Marie Amaro lists 14 Ways To Use Variety In Your Classroom to get some ideas to use straight away.
Using Positive Reinforcement Effectively
Enforcers work. Motivating Students Using Positive Reinforcement The skill however is to use them effectively. They can be easily misunderstood and can also require persistence to find what will work with each individual student. Marie Amaro walks through how to use positive reinforement in this video.
How To Listen To Engage Your Students
To be heard and listened to is something we love as humans to be gifted. Your students are no different. To show them you are listening and want to know what they think and how they are will build rapport. This will not be lost on them as you work to engage them in the learning.
Take a closer look at developing the skill of listening to build rapport with your students through these extra resources:
The Importance Of Listening and steps to get there.
Teaching Strategies To Improve Listening Skills
What About The Student Who Still Won’t Engage?
There will always be the students who can’t be reached by the variety of ways we use to engage other students. For these students we need a little extra focus to help them along. That’s ok. There are plenty of simple steps that can be taken with a little more focus and attention. Take a look at these 10 ways to deal with a student who won’ engage. These strategies are practical and easy to implement.
More Quick Tips
Make Students Part Of The Conversation
One of the best ways to keep students engaged during class is to include them in your conversation. If they’re doing all of the talking, then you can be sure that their minds will wander! Also, by including them and asking for their comments on what’s being said or done, then you give the lesson a personal touch. It also makes it more fun when everyone gets involved, so make sure not to leave any student out!
The other advantage here is that by getting students involved with actively participating in lessons, you are helping them learn how to speak properly too, which will benefit them later down the line in life as adults. So don’t forget about this vital skill while trying to get through an hour-long lecture – instead, try engaging every student possible!
Use Visual Aids
Since the dawn of time, humans have used visuals to learn more efficiently. This is why PowerPoint presentations exist! But even without a projector and Microsoft Office installed on your school computer, you can still use visual aids. For example, use word clouds or draw pictures on the board when teaching concepts that are easier explained visually rather than through text alone. Not only will this keep students engaged, but they’ll also be able to understand what’s going on much better, too, if it’s all laid out before them – ultimately resulting in less confusion which leads to greater comprehension overall! It goes without saying that using technology like projectors and smart boards can help engage students further as well!
Create Scenarios To Act Out
One of the best and easiest ways to keep students interested in class is by making them act out scenarios. As mentioned above, this builds on their oral communication skills, but it also allows you to assess how well they understand what’s being taught too! In order for this method to be effective, make sure that your lessons are clear enough such that a student could explain it back if spoken about later on. Have the majority of the class do an activity before splitting into groups, so everyone gets a chance at acting things out. In contrast, others follow along with reading or listening materials – whatever works for each individual lesson!
Have a Quiz Afterward
What better way to keep students engaged during class than by giving them a quiz afterward? These quizzes are especially effective if you’re giving your lessons remotely – with more and more teachers opting for this method with the help of Naomi Soldon, having tools like these can make teaching remotely more effective. This is also one of the best ways teachers can assess how well they’ve absorbed what’s been taught. Not only does this allow you to see whether or not your lessons are effective, but it also gives kids something fun and interactive to do – resulting in greater student engagement overall!
By utilizing the above tips, you’ll be giving lessons that are not only educational but super fun for the students as well, resulting in higher grades and more success for everyone involved!