I keep my students engaged by finding videos that are interesting. This is helpful by breaking up the normal daily routine and capturing the students interests again.
I am lucky to have a hands on lab in addition to lecture. My students get to have lab at least once a week. Their lab is all hands on and really helps put thing together with the lectures. You can always see the "lights" going off when they just made the connection.
I like to get students moving - whether it's brainstorming, playing team building games, or taking turns writing on the board. I've found if their blood is moving around, so are their brains.
Kathryn,
Good way to creating variety in the flow of your class. I am sure your students appreciate how you are helping them to stay focused by offering different learning strategies throughout the class session.
Gary
Mary,
Good way to involve the students and help them to clarify their understanding of what has just been covered.
Gary
It is very important to develop engagement exercises that encourage all learners to participate. If you establish clear objectives at the beginning of the course and make them aware of the cooperation learning environment you will find that even normally non-participatory students will participate daily based on the culture of the course.
Allowing students to participate in how the class period is scheduled. Something as simple as allowing them to determine their breaks is engaging. If you break up the class with Lecture, Discussion, Break, Question and Answers and One on One Time with Instructor students will feel ownership, measure the class time and remain engaged because their is a consistent schedule and class format.
Some strategies for keeping students engaged throughout the class is to vary our delivery of content. I try to lecture for about 15 min. or less and than get the student engaged in a hands on activity. Then I might lecture some more and have them complete a group activity. I try to change my content delivery to keep the class exciting and interesting.
Allowing students to do some teaching themselves helps to overcome some of their fears of talking in front of others and builds confidence.
We are using 14x14 white boards in the class so that all students engage when questions are asked. They can think and record their own answer which also helps me to determine who might be having difficulty on a certain topic.
Then, others clarify answers, therefore it brings more students into discussions.
I like to have them look topics up on the internet then discuss them in class. I show movies, have guest speakers and we do a lot of classroom discussion.
I found that getting the students to share their thoughts/questions on a subjects keeps them tuned in to the lecture and makes them become part of the lecture
I teach an Early Childhood Education course. I like to bring in manipulative that can be used to demonstrate how to think of/learn a topic or just to give them a visual. For example, if we are talking about preparing a healthy menu for a daycare setting I would bring in pretend food. The students appear to enjoy actually preparing a menu around the item instead of just using pencil and paper to formulate an answer. I also like to use videos when I can find them. Games like Jeopardy are a big hit too! Who says learning can't be fun!
-Beth
Vary the presentation - practical demo, lecture, show and tell, personal experience, application in the industry.
Coleen,
For the record I love that movie. Good strategy to follow. I know your students will appreciate the way you lay out the course in a way that is logical and easy to follow.
Gary
My strategy is kind of like Dori from the movie Nemo. Her plan was "just keep swimming." Mine is "just keep moving." Begin with a plan of movement throughout the content. Each day begin with an agenda, and check it off as you move through it, from the introductory activity to the lecture to the supplemental activity that supports the content, to the "big finish" summary that ties it all together.
I feel that hands on demonstrations keep the students engaged in learning activities because it allows the student to be up and moving around.
Kathleen,
Good plan to follow. This way you can gain some experience while figuring out your instructional style. Then you can start placing the value of the different deliveries on how they impact the learning of your students. I wish you much teaching success.
Gary
I read the different ways to keeping the students engaged but because I have never lectured or taught before. I am not very creative yet. I want to be and understand the need for video's, field trips and demonstatration. I just need to find my way through the course content one time and then I can get creative
Ann,
Sounds like a great course for your students. Your offering of different learning options and variety I am sure kept them engaged and focused on the content.
Gary
Throughout the course, I try to create a theme throughout the course. I teach composition, so it can be a bit dry to discuss the writing process. Also, the students need a focus to understand the power of language. Every term, I propose a complex question that is problematic in our language. For example, last term the students had to research the Holocaust. We spent the week learning about it, talking about it, and then at the end of the week I had a Holocaust survivor come in as a guest speaker. I generally try to let my resources guide what I want the student to focus on. The class that had this opportunity was the most responsive class I had ever had.
On a day-to-day level, I try to keep the students motivated by calling on them to answer questions. I teach one hour classes, so I often look at it in fragments. I lecture for about twenty minutes and then do an activity at the end of class. The activity could be watching a speech, discussing the required reading, a group activity, or a journal entry.
