Get Your Students Hired
What some ways you can get off-task students reengaged in the class?
I'll switch gears and take a few into the lab and assign them a hands on project. It gets the others wondering and gets the others interested.
Jean,
Getting students involved is a very good way to get them engaged.
Barry Westling
Meri,
Yep, getting students involved in doing, such as discussion or lab helps make learning memorable.
Barry Westling
Hi Tim,
I find the biggest distraction for students is their cell phones, not the course material. This is not a problem for the majority of my current students, however, there is one that no matter what I do he is trying to sneak on his phone. I finally got in his face and told him to put his phone away or he would be sent to the program director...He is getting a bit better.
When I see the class start to glaze over, I tend to start reviewing to have the class start answering questions as to what they just learned. Seems to work pretty well.
Carole Ray
Asking a lot of questions and moving around the room during lecture sometimes works in my classroom.
I like to play jeopardy type games. I have the students make up the questions in one type of game. That way they are learning while making up the questions as well as answering. They really get involved and no one falls asleep.
Prof. Westling,
One way I use to reengage students is to have open discussion of the topic, get their feedback and ideas. This brings them all back on topic, another way is to take them to the lab and demonstrate what we were discussing in class. Students love to practice what they have learned in class, using their hands to demonstrate the skills they learned.
I integrate activities that show the relevance of the material to real life situations. This helps keep the students engaged.
To Re-engage my students, I will change the plan from strict to more personable, to see if they can relate better.
Like many have stated, students get off task for many reasons. In my situation it is usually personal reasons. I tend not to "call them out" directly during class, but if they are on the internet during lecture, I will walk over and just turn off the monitor, if texting on a cell phone, stand closer to them during the lecture. Something subtle enough that the rest of the class doesn't know, but strong enough that the student gets my point. I will then discuss in private with the student about their actions and behaviors in class. If they are all out rude, I ask them to leave.
Margaret,
Physical activity nearly always works for me too. "Break the funk to get back on track".
Barry Westling
I like to use the quick quiz or have them get up, move around, or take a short break. Also, I have some kinesthetic activities they can participate in when students are off-task.
Brandi,
This can be an effective method to reengage. I've learned that sharing a brief story about some interesting, unusual, or "hard to believe" situation from the work setting has the same effect on students.
Barry Westling
While there are several ways you can get off-task students reengaged in the class, I find that a comedy break works best in my class. I often come across cute, funny, or interesting clips from the internet that I feel would interest my students. I keep a file of them on the desktop of my class computer (all appropriate for class). When I see that the students seem to be drifting off or everyone is "having one of those days", I'll stop what we are doing and show one of the videos. It lightens the mood and often starts a class conversation that reengages all the students. After the comedy break, the students are reenergized and ready to get back on task. The key is not spending too much time on this distraction but also allowing enough time for discussion afterwards to get everyone reengaged.
While lecturing if I notice a student or students seem disengaged, I will go to the whiteboard and draw a diagram of the content being discussed. I also pass around a component regarding the topic.
Juan,
I like this approach. By adding variety and frequent change ups, students tend to stay interested, participating, and engaged.
Barry Westling
You can get off-task students to reengage by varying your delivery method. Start the lesson off with an amusing story, then add a PowerPoint presentation, give them a writing assignment, then show a video. By them never knowing what's next up your sleeve they are forced to pay attention.