I find with my adult learners they do well when we mix up the learning styles. Lecture, group excersises, review games, etc. This never allows the class to get stale. Its always moving and stimulating.
Jacqueline,
I would suggest you might want to use games like Family Feud and Jeopardy to help your students review and retain terms that require memorization. My students really like playing them plus they are good learning tools.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
yes my students are the same way ... i try to have everything planned out and have new activities for them to do
I will try the mini-lecture this quarter. I am teaching a course that requires mostly memorization . Medical Terminology. Can anyone give me some help to make this course more dynamic
Beth,
They need this variety to keep them engaged.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I find that stopping lecture after 10-15 minutes and discussing something fun related to the subject matter usually does the trick.
Kiofa,
I think you will like the results you get from trying this strategy.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
This seems like something very interesting I would like to try. I think I will incorporate this this semester.
Michele,
So do I as I teach evening classes as well. My students have worked all day and are worn out but are in school because they are trying to create a better future for themselves and their families. So I work hard at keeping them engaged through variety, activities and change of pace throughout each evening I teach.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I find it helpful, especially in those evening classes, to mix up the lecture with some hands on activities and kinesthetic learning when their heads start to nod. This helps to get the blood flow up to their brains instead of stagnating in their gluteal muscles!
Darrell,
I teach from 4 pm until 10 pm so I understand what you are saying about students wearing down later in the evening. Your plan gets them moving, engaged and focused which is critical if you are going to be able to hold their attention throughout the duration of the course.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I teach a night class that starts at 6:00 pm until 11:00 pm at around 9:30 to 10:00 I start losing the students attention so we pick a topic as a class and search youtube for a couple videos, last night we searched funny dog tricks, this livens up the class a wakes everyone up and gets us through the next hour of class.
Zach,
You sentences in caps says it all in terms of what an instructor needs to do to keep students engaged. It takes a lot of effort and planning to do everything but the pay off is great when you see your students learning and growing.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
When I notice my students are getting bored, I break out my cross-word puzzles or word-finds for any particular chapter and it's a fun way to get them to participate and study at the same time.
keeping your students focused is important,once they become bored,its hard to get them back on track,its going back to the most important phase of the firsdt day you and your students meet.its called first impressions,your topics, subjects,lab activities have to be clear so students can understand and learn,if your not clear with your presentations and make them exciting,you will loose the focus of your class.you have to ENTERTAIN THEM!MAKE THEM WANT TO ALWAYS COME TO CLASS AND STAY FOCUSED! ITS NOT ONLY BEING A TEACHER,YOU HAVE TO ENTERTAIN,BE A CHEERLEADER,JUDGE/JUROR ENERTAINER,KEEP YOUR CLASS INVOLVED WITH YOU.THIS WORKS FOR ME,I ALWAYS WORK TO GAIN THE TRUST FROM MY STUDENTS AT THE BEGINING.mr.zach bernal
Aaron,
This is a very good strategy to employ. This works really well when the students don't raise questions yet the material needs to be discussion. These prepared question can get the discussion started and the students involved.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I like to have a scripted bank of discussion provoking questions ready (especial if using a power point presentation ), some based off of prior class discussions. Seems to keep students ready to keep track of minor segues in the discussion and looking for opportunities to contribute their personal experiences to the group discussion.
