It's a constant struggle to engage students in a way that makes them want to learn. Part of the problem is that each teacher only has so much creativity and so much time. It's hard to hit a roadblock when trying to design an engaging lesson or activity to use in the classroom.
What I've got: With extremely low test scores in math, I felt that I needed to cover some often forgotten concepts before TCAP this year. I knew the students would probably be doing similar reviews in other classes and wouldn't be looking forward to it. I decided the best way to get students engaged (and actually learn something) was to have stations for students. This would allow students to work at their own pace and cover as much material as possible. I tried to make each station cover a different concept in a different way.
- 3 Memory game stations (3D shapes, 2D shapes, and angles)
- 2 "Order the Numbers" stations where numbers were put on cups and students had to put the cups in order from least to greatest (Comparing radicals, scientific notation)
- 1 Connection station where students connected graphs with their equations using markers (graphing inequalities)
- 2 worksheet stations (Pythagorean's Theorem, Finding Area of Complex Shapes)
There may have been too many stations in too short of a time, but the students genuinely seemed to enjoy themselves. It would have helped to have a bit more room because it was hard for students to find all of the stations. Overall, I would say it was a success though!
What have you done in your classroom that worked really well to engage students? Did you try something that didn't work? Have you seen something that you haven't tried, but want to?
I really love your stations idea. I know my friend who teaches kindergarten lives or dies by her stations and I think they can definitely be used no matter the age. That same friend uses musical chairs as a review game. I stole her idea and did it with my kids. I printed up the musical symbols we covered in class and put each one on a chair. The music would play and when it stopped they would stop and pick up their card. I gave them about five seconds to read it, then I would pick a student at random and go over, look at their card for myself and ask them a question about it. I think the kids had fun with it and I used candy as an incentive to really understand and think about what was on their card so they could answer my question correctly and get their candy. I think their are lots of variations that can be made on musical chairs and used for review purposes. I think my kids enjoyed it and it was fairly easy to do. I've also done a matching game where I have a pile of cards with terms and a pile of cards with the corresponding symbols or note values etc. I break students up into two teams, one team gets terms the other gets symbols and they have to find their match. I've had them do it in silence and I've also had them do it outside where they got to run across the parking lot to find their match and they could discuss their cards. Both seemed to work well and I think they had fun with it. With this game as well I have given winning teams candy as incentive.
ReplyDeleteMusical chairs sounds awesome! It's a great way to get kids moving and thinking at the same time. I'm going to try that in my math class sometime!
ReplyDeleteEngaging ideas that have worked for me:
ReplyDelete*I sometimes put post its under their desks when they walk in and then at the start of class ask them, "check if you have a post it." Those students with the post its have a chance to answer a questions correctly for a raffle ticket. I usually pull raffle tickets at the end of the week.
*when they read aloud, they have to use their best British, Australian, Irish accent. :)
*I do a lot of raffle tickets and the kids seem to love them. If they offer to read aloud, they get one at the end of class.
*We did a debate once in the cafeteria where I asked a question and they stood in the strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, or strongly agree sections. They had to support their stance and then I selected a winning group.
*they had to pantomime the reading one day when I read aloud...they were all laughing and getting more into the text.
Thanks for doing this blog; it's a great way to get some new ideas!
I have found that simulations tend to work very well. Economics is particularly well suited for simulations that illustrate certain variables or phenomenon that we are studying in class. Kids are inherently competitive and the simulations give them a very tangible experience that we can tap into when we start discussing more abstract concepts. On the government side, simulations also work very well. We run a mock election, hear cases in a mock supreme court, re-write the Constitution in an extended convention simulation, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe post-its thing seems like an awesome idea. I want to try that out in my classes soon!
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