Effective student engagement in the classroom is one of the primary ways that teachers can enhance their student's learning experiences and improve their overall effectiveness as educators. Engaged students tend to be more active learners, and they also have a greater chance of seeing positive outcomes from their educational endeavors, such as higher test scores or higher grades. Engaging students isn’t always easy, but it doesn’t have to be rocket science either; by following these eight amazing strategies for student engagement in the classroom, you can make your classroom a more exciting place to learn.
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1) Set High Expectations
Engaging students is one of the best ways to improve student achievement. But how do you create an engaging learning environment? First, set high expectations and communicate them clearly with students and parents. Then, provide engaging activities that are tailored to each student's academic level.
Finally, monitor progress and celebrate success! Use data to identify which strategies work best for your students and adjust accordingly.
The following student engagement activities are successful: Brain Breaks (at least 10 minutes per day), Technology/Computer Games (e.g., Scratch), Cooperative Learning Activities, Inquiry-Based Learning Activities, Student-Generated Questions, and Responses
2) Give Meaningful Assignments
1. Student-led conferences: student-led conferences give students a chance to discuss their strengths and weaknesses with their teacher, which is empowering and creates a sense of ownership.
2. Modeling: modeling can be done by either having one or more students model an assignment or task, while others watch and listen, or by splitting a class into groups and assigning each group tasks related to the same topic or skill area
3. Breaking up large assignments into manageable chunks: this strategy helps students stay on task as they work on their assignments
4. Partnering with other teachers: when two teachers team up to teach one class, it becomes easier to engage students because they are exposed to two different teaching styles.
3) Engage With Parent Communication
Engaging parents with a communication plan is essential to student success. Communication can be initiated by both parents and teachers but must be done consistently and intentionally. Here are some tips:
1) Set up an email address just for communicating with parents - this will ensure that all correspondence will be sent to one place where parents can easily access it.
2) In your introductory letter, tell parents how they should contact you (i.e., via email or phone), what they should include in their message, and how often they should contact you.
3) Include a blank parent questionnaire on page one of your syllabus - this will allow you to collect information about the student's home life that might impact their ability to do well at school.
4) Allow Time to Practice
Everyone learns best when they have time to practice. Try incorporating some of these student engagement activities into your lesson plans today:
-Give students a chance to demonstrate their understanding through a hands-on activity that involves using items around your classroom (e.g., make a quiz with various objects and ask students to identify what they are)
-Ask students questions about their learning (e.g., What is the main idea of this lesson? or What did you learn from this activity?). This can be done at the end of class or before an assessment
-Allow students time to work together as a team.
5) Share Your Passion
1. Communication is key. Student engagement activities will not work if the students and teachers don't communicate with one another. Teachers need to know what their students like, and students need to know what their teachers like to teach. The most successful student engagement activities are those that are tailored to each student's needs as well as those that best cater to a teacher's teaching style, which is why communication is so important.
2. Be innovative! Get creative! There are a ton of ways you can engage students outside of the traditional lecture-demonstration style of teaching, including group work and hands-on projects or experiments where students solve problems together or learn from mistakes. You may even want to try incorporating some humor into your lessons!
6) Have a Positive Perspective
Many students want to feel engaged in their lessons, but they don't always know how. The best way to create a positive perspective is to use student engagement activities.
Here are some of our favorite ways to engage students:
Bringing up current events and asking students what they think about them
Engaging students with simulations
Encouraging collaboration by having groups of two or three work together on an activity. Introducing games into the lesson plan
7) Embrace Technology
- Use Google Classroom to provide immediate feedback on assignments and quizzes, as well as to share students' work.
- Use online tools like Kahoot or EduClipperz to create interactive review games that can be used across multiple classes and grade levels.
- Bring video games into the classroom, such as Minecraft or Civilization, to enhance game design education.
- Create an online database of your teaching materials that you can share with other teachers (e.g., lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations).
- Require students' use of digital portfolios to store their best work from each project they complete.
8) Communicate Often
When you communicate often with your students, you will be able to notice changes in their moods, behavior, and progress. You can use a variety of tools like a physical classroom or an online forum to stay connected and build relationships with your students. One way is to make sure they know what is expected of them each day by posting an agenda on the board or writing it on a whiteboard where everyone can see it. This way, you are constantly reminding them about what activities are coming up next.
Another important component of staying connected with students is making sure they feel safe and have someone who cares about them at school. Asking questions that get them talking about themselves will help build those connections and foster a sense of belonging.