Learning and succeeding in school requires active engagement. The core principles that underlie engagement are applicable to all schools-whether they are in urban, suburban, or rural communities. Engaging adolescents, including those who have become disengaged and alienated from school, is not an easy task. Academic motivation decreases steadily from the early grades of elementary school into high school. Furthermore, adolescents are too old and too independent to follow teachers’ demands out of obedience, and many are too young, inexperienced, or uninformed to fully appreciate the value of succeeding in school.National Academy of Science’s Research Council
Motivation is a prominent concern in all schools. While our focus is on students, many discussions of motivation have applications to all facets of school improvement. As teachers, we must also think about engaging and re-engaging of parents and staff. Student engagement happens as a result of a teacher’s careful planning and execution of research-based strategies. It is an essential ingredient in effective schools. However, it is tricky how to define engagement; it often involves elements of motivation, engagement, attention, interest, effort, enthusiasm, participation, and involvement.
Here is a list of some tips to help you increase students participation in class. Use these ideas to help you create a welcoming environment, where your students fell comfortable engaging in classroom discussions.
Here is a list of some tips to help you increase students participation in class. Use these ideas to help you create a welcoming environment, where your students fell comfortable engaging in classroom discussions.
1. Show Enthusiasm
If you walk down the hall and look into a classroom and see twenty students doodling on their papers and the teacher texting on their phone, you might think to yourself, these kids are bored out of their mind! If teachers aren't enthusiastic about what they are teaching, then how are the students going to learn? You should interact with your class and show the students how interesting and fun learning can be. Create hands-on activities that engage students in learning. Once the students see that you are excited to teach them, then they will be excited to learn.
2. Keep Students Focused with Visual Aids
Use visual aids such as Smart-boards, iPads, overhead projectors or Power Point presentations to keep them focused. Did you ever notice that you have to repeat yourself ten times when teaching a lesson using no visual aid? This is because you are not stimulating them, their eyes can wander while you are talking. When you use a teaching aid to help get your point across, you will see that students will have something for their eyes to focus on.
3. Mix it Up and Change Your Routine
Have you ever gotten bored from your daily routine? The alarm goes off at 7 am, take a shower, make coffee, blah, blah, blah. The same routine everyday. If you change your routine by just doing something a little different, it changes the monotony of things. This goes for your students too. If every morning you ask the students to come in and do the same morning work each day, they will eventually get sick of doing it and be less likely to participate. Try changing your routine every few months. This will keep your students on their toes and you will see they will be more willing to participate in the lesson.
4. Get Students Up and Moving
If you are sitting at a desk all day, you tend to get tired and bored and are less likely to participate in class discussions. Try using activity sticks to break up the day and get your students up and moving. Write different, 1 minute activities on colorful Pop-cycle sticks and every few hours choose an activity for the students to complete. Ideas for 1 minute Activities:
- Dance party
- Switch seats
- Jumping jacks
- Sign Language Alphabet
- Follow the Leader
- Copy Cat
5. Use the Multiple Intelligences
Howard Gardner is widely known for the term multiple intelligences. He says that every child learns differently and has different learning styles. These styles he is referring to, can improve student performance and participation in class.
These seven learning styles are:
- Interpersonal
- Intrapersonal
- Spatial
- Musical
- Bodily-Kinesthetic
- Logical-mathematical
- Linguistic
Use the multiple intelligence theory to find out what each students' learning style is. This will help you plan lessons and activities that will motivate each learner, and in turn you will see students wanting to participate in class discussions and activities.
A great movie to watch and see the determination of one teacher that never knew what obstacles are and went too far to help students succeed is "The Ron Clark Story". A teacher with a big heart where his creativity and motivation to students inside and outside the classroom inspired them to engage in activities and classroom discussions. The Ron Clark Academy was established after him and became a model school with a vision to transform classrooms around the world by demonstrating transformative methods and techniques to help both teachers and students.
