Arnitra,
Great. When students are in motion, that will nearly always bring them together and back on task.
Barry Westling
I usually switch places with the student. I have them teach a topic and I sit in the audience.
You can have group discussions, projects, presentations. You can have them play games, re-arrange the desks in the class or have the students present certain course material.
Tracy,
These sound like good activities, especially considering your audience and the time of day for the class.
Barry Westling
I teach at night and some of my students work in the day or are stay at home parents so after a couple of hours I start to lose them. I do games and exercises that require them to come to get out of their seats. We also have discussions or I break them into groups.
Carolyn,
Great. This sounds like a variation of "real-time case study". what's good is students usually have to apply some type of critical thinking, and I've found case studies are among the effective ways to practice this necessary skill, especially for health or medical related programs.
Barry Westling
With health care instruction, I like to stop and "pretend" an emergency case has just come in for medical attention. I assign the quickly students various emergency tasks or procedures to act out that hopefully relate to the lecture. The physical activity breaks monotony while giving opportunity for practical application.
Jodi,
Good ideas. When students are interested, they'll pay attention.
Barry Westling
You can try doing mini-lectures or throw in an activity that will spark interest.
Brian,
I tell new teachers to always keep in mind that they are in charge, it's their classroom, and class expectations are aligned with what the instructor thinks is best. Of course, student's challenge this all the time, but my point is even with challenges, we set the standards that students have to obey. How we go about reinforcing that can occur different ways, but there needs to be a plumb line for the instructor to reference things against.
Barry Westling
I have this problem a lot. Most of the time, I make creating games their assignment for the whole day and count on their team mates to keep them focused. If this doesn't work, I try to talk with them personally. They don't usually like getting talked to though. They are very nervous about having the talk even though I try to assure them that I'm just talking to them to help them.
Terrell,
Great. There are always different challenges with different cohorts of students. Using these strategies, or ones similar can only help.
Barry Westling
That is a really good stategy. I several students that "stay one step ahead of me" as I like to call it. They are constantsly moving to the next topic before I have a chance to introduce it. I am going to try this and see if it solves my problem of my very quick students.
Anita,
I do simple first, before changing to another activity. For instance, the stop and wait method, standing next to chatty students, asking pointed questions to select students. Most will eventually get the message. But if its the whole class that seems detached, then a change up to a different activity may be in order.
Barry Westling
Engaging off-task students is really challenging and it is hard to keep everyone on task. The way that I usually do it is playing a game and getting everyone's participation.
Joseph,
Great. When students can internalize information, it's more likely to be remembered, and applied to personal situations and the work setting.
Barry Westling
When I have students get off-tasked I bring them back in with direct questions which are related to them and how the information will be useful for them once the course is over. By using this method I make the course about them and now they own the outcomes of the course.
Jennifer,
Some reengagement is simple, such as asking questions to redirect students. But, as you say, when many students seem to be distracted, it's probably time to move to an alternate assignment.
Barry Westling
Change what the class is doing. I've found that usually it's not just one student getting off task but a few and so changing it up can help keep everyone involved and engaged.
Peter,
I believe students will generally live up to the level of expectations I give them, so if I need to do some gentle reminding, or calling attention to unwanted behavior, students soon learn learn what the threshold of acceptable level of tolerence is. A key part of this strategy is consistency. When students see that the same level of "guidence" is given to all students, all the time, that also reinforces my expectations.
Barry Westling
