Hi Marcia,
Super! Sharing experiences, whether from the teacher or students, is a great way to catch everyone's attention, as you've already discovered. Students like to hear stories, and personal situations and perceptions about a given work setting can be remarkable in retaining focus and attention.
Barry Westling
My students go to different areas in the hospital, such as the cath lab, or GI lab, ER, etc. One way that I keep other students engaged is to have that student report in post conference, on what they have done in each area to the rest of the class. The student shows how exciting it was and discusses all they saw and did. The other students can't wait until they have a chance to go there too.
Hi Juan:
Great! This checking for understanding (CFU) method is cool because in theory, a teacher can go only so far before they "CFU", and determine if more time is needed or if they can move on to the next point. It's a bit more time consuming, but not that much, and the benefit is to the student who will come away more informed and ready for further assessment or ready for the workplace.
Regards, Barry
One way that I keep students engaged is by checking for understanding as I'm demonstrating the lesson. By asking individual students questions as I lecture I keep their attention and I can assess whether or not they are getting it.
Hi Niurka:
When engaged, students are at their optimal learning capacity. Keeping them engaged is the trick. Getting them involved, conducting classes that are interesting, and finding course material that reinforces "what's in it for the" are sure methods to assist engagement.
Regards, Barry
Keeping students engaged is a demostration of a good class's preparation.
Hi Fran:
I think you're right. One downside I've experienced is keeping small groups stay on track or topic. The temptation for the time to turn into a social interaction vs. a discussion group is real. That said, the upside is improve particiaption, which as you state, is a great way to facilitate student engagement.
Regards, Barry
I agree deviding the class into groups is a good idea some times students won't share in a large group but get them into small groups allows them to share good ideas.
Hi Kathryn:
Popsicle sticks, a deck of cards, almost anything can be used to give the sense of random questioning. For weaker students, I may put the same student name on multiple cards so the chance that name is going to come up more frequently is greater. An alternative, is if student get used to you pulling a name at random, you can pull a stick and read anyname you wish, and put the stick back into the cup - the class may never know what name was really present.
Regards, Barry
I try to keep students engaged through group work and through popsicle sticks. I have all their names written on a stick and they never know when I will call on them for and opinion.
Hi Ellen:
Good ideas for engagement. For course material, I think if students feel there is something in it for them, they'll be naturally more interested, involved, and willing to put effort into participating in the activities.
Regards, Barry
Hi Hilary:
I think this is good, and at it's root is discussion. That's an active learning tool that requires the student to be alert, engaed, participating. When you can get that, learning the material is very likely.
Regards, Barry
The best way I have found to keep students engaged in the content of my lessons is to always discuss the relevance of the content. I will often break the class into groups based upon their specific fields of study. The groups will then apply our discussion/skill learned to an activity that they could potentially use in their future careers. I teach General Education courses, so this is a method that is crucial to keeping a "mixed group" of students engaged in my curriculum.
