Wednesday, April 4, 2018

How to Engage Uninterested Students




Get off the stage!!
Students like to be hands on learners.  I notice this in teaching all of the time.  I even notice it with my nine year old daughter.  Whenever I am teaching her something, or telling her a story, she immediately wants to give her own insight or act it out.  What I realized is that, teachers need to make as much time in their lesson for students to demonstrate as possible.  Although you are the teacher, that does not mean that you should do all of the talking and acting out.  Give your students a chance to talk and demonstrate too.

Teacher Helpers
Give those uninterested students a job.  They can be in charge of passing out papers or collecting homework.  With technology being used more often in class, you can make a student a computer helper.  They can be in charge of changing slides during a powerpoint presentation.
During group work, you can allow a struggling student to be a “facilitator”.  You can give this student the answer to a difficult question that also includes the steps to get to the answer.  Then, they can help the other students arrive to the answer (without actually giving them the answer of course).  This can help a student become engaged, and also give them more confidence during the lesson.



Turn and Talk
This is a great method for students who are nervous about answering questions out loud.  It is also a good way to bring in students who tune out during lectures. 
Instead of asking the entire class to raise their hands to tell how to complete a difficult math problem, or explain the cause and effect of a historical incident, have students answer the question with a small group of 2 – 4 people.  The students may not want to share with the class because they are afraid to be wrong.  But in a small group, they may be more willing to share, or admit what they don’t know.  While students turn and talk, the teacher walks around to make sure that students are on task, but also gathers insight on how well students understand.

Think, Pair, Share
A follow up to the Turn and Talk method, is “Think, Pair, Share”.  After asking a question and having students discuss in partners or small groups, have the students share the answer with the class.  With students being in pairs or groups, now you can have a designated speaker.  Also, now that the students have had an opportunity to go over the answer with a partner, they may have more confidence to share with the class.


Brain Breaks
Brain breaks are a great way to turn students’ attention away from work, while still keeping them engaged in learning.  Most brain break activities involve movement.    A teacher can go to YouTube and find a fun video with dance moves and instructions that students can follow along with (Brain Break Video).    Sometimes, doing physical education exercises can also become a fun activity to take students minds off of work.  Fitness Bingo can be used to give students different exercise options that they can perform.
Some brain break activities don’t require dance or exercise, but still give students a chance to be off task.  I have recognized that older students don’t like to exercise and dance in front of their classmates as much as younger students.  Using a quiz game is a great way to get students thinking and moving, while not exerting too much energy (or embarrassing them in front of their cool friends).  Ask the whole class a multiple choice question, then, have students move to a certain area of the class based on their answer.  You can label areas of the class with letters or colors and have students move to a specific location (Fun Quiz Games). 
Brain breaks work best when the activity is age appropriate and the setting of the activity is taken into consideration.  Plan out the amount of space that you will need so that the students have enough room to move!

Student Presentations
I notice that students who are often disengaged from daily assignments, such as note taking, lectures, and worksheets, usually give more effort when it comes to projects and presentations.
Student presentations are a great way to keep students motivated and engaged.  This works even better when students are given a choice of what they will present.  Of course, there will be rules and guidelines.  As a social studies teacher, I tend to use countries or biographies as topics.
When students know that they will have to speak in front of class, or display their work, they tend to take better care of the final product.  Sometimes, they are more invested.  Also, although they may work alone on the assignment, they will enlist the help of others, or even the teacher, to come up with the best way to complete the assignment.

Conclusion
The most important way to keep students engaged is to have a variety of tools at your disposal.  Depending on the grade that you teach, many students have seen the tricks that teachers have and have lost interest or are turned off by them.  None of these ideas can be used all of the time.  They should be used at different times based on students’ age, ability and overall interest.  The school day will not always be fun, but it should never be boring.  As long as you are able to be innovative and look for ideas that encourage students to be hands on in their learning, you will be able to keep students engaged.   Good luck!

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