Week 2: How do I keep my lessons engaging?

Amber Hanson

Ed Tech Leadership

Blog 2

Week 2: Essential Question:  How do we keep our lessons engaging? Does innovation play a part in this?

“Avoid the Void, for they will fill it!” –Anita Archer.

            Unfortunately I’ve experienced this concept first handedly a few more times than I would like to admit. Whether it was due to poor planning, poor preparation, or just lack of enthusiasm on the teachers end, educators everywhere have no doubtedly experienced this lull or ‘dead time’ where students attention begins to dissipate or completely vanish all together.   When we allow for student attention to wander for even a brief amount of time, it takes twice as long to gain their attention back on the task at hand.  In order to help “keep your students from mentally checking out, try to get all administrative activities out of the way before beginning your presentation. If the students will need any materials (their books, paper, pens, etc.), have them get them out before you start.
“ (Burgess, 2012).  In order to eliminate dead time throughout your lesson it’s important to have a series of routine or activities that can help boost engagement and students back on track.  These activities can be “general-purpose activities that apply to various subject areas or styles of teaching, or specific content-oriented activities that allow your students to learn by tapping into multiple intelligences beyond the usual listening and recalling” (Frondevill, 2009).

            In addition to having activities to help maintain engagement, educators should also consider:

§  Using movement to get kids focused.

§  Provide engaging hooks at the beginning of your lessons, as well as throughout

§  Change the direction of your lesson if you see that students attention is weaning.

§  Set Rules from the start

§  Stay consistent

§  Assure all students understand the given instructions.

§  Use a ‘fairness cup’

This is a cup in which a teacher would write students names on Popsicle sticks and use these to call on individual students.  By using the concept of the popsicle sticks, all students are held accountable, as they never know whether they will be called upon to answer a question or not. (

§  Using Signaling to allow for Choral Responses.

§  Mix up your Teaching Styles.

§  Create an Intellectually Safe Classroom

§  Use questioning strategies that make all students think and answer.

In addition to all these concepts it’s important to note that “Much of your success as an educator has to do with your attitude towards teaching and towards kids. The rest of your success is based on your willingness to relentlessly search for what engages students in the classroom and then having the guts to do it.
“ (Burgess, 2012).  It’s when a teacher is “passionate about his or her subject matter, this enthusiasm is often infectious.” (Gazin, Engaging Students).

            Regardless of which techniques you choose to implement within your own classroom, the end goal should be 100% engagement. “Designing a class that empowers students to become life-long learners, avid readers, and voracious seekers of knowledge, will have an impact that reverberates for a lifetime and beyond.
“  (Burgess, 2012).  Although keeping students engaged throughout a lesson wont be easy, it’s a necessity. 

Bibliography

Burgess, D. (2012). Teach like a pirate. San Deigo, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.

Frondeville, T. (2009) How to Keep Kids Engaged in Class. Edutopia.  http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-student-participation-tips. Retrieved on 13 September 2013

Frondeville, T (2009) Ten Steps to Better Student Engagement. Edutopica. http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning-teaching-strategies. Retrieved September 12th 2013.

Gazin, A. Engaging Students: Keep them on the edge of their seats. Scholastic. Retrieved from: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/engaging-students-keep-them-edge-their-seats on September 11th 2013.