Breaking Down Elements of an Engaging Classroom

Dr. Wendy Ghiora – Posting #20 – July 18, 2009.

In blog posting #17 of June 27, I listed the 11 most frequently used techniques to create an engaging classroom. I have discussed the first four in my postings these past two weeks. Today, we will look at numbers five and six.

Engagement is stimulated when teachers:
5.-Encourage and reward student achievement and learning efforts continuously.
6.-Use many and varied activities including groups and pairs where students are required to manipulate information physically and mentally.

5.-Encourage and reward student achievement and learning efforts continuously.
The key to stimulating motivation is to recognize student accomplishments daily. Students put forth more effort when they realize that teachers are showing great interest in their academic progress.

Teachers, mentors, and coaches can become very influential in building a student's self-respect. Even if there seems to be a lack of support at home, the connection with one significant adult at school can give that student hope. Teachers should enter the classroom as the one individual that's going to be the change element that will improve the self-respect of the entire class by demonstrating concern and love for their students. Teachers must build rapport with their students by becoming genuinely interested in them. Teachers should acknowledge hard work and progress made by students. Even the smallest improvement, when recognized, can lead to motivation. Rewards can vary from simply encouraging students as they progress through targets and goals, to weekly classroom recognition assemblies. When students perceive that teachers genuinely care about their success and are willing to give every effort to help them become successful, students make an internal commitment to give just as much and even more.

6.-Use many and varied activities including groups and pairs where students are required to manipulate information physically and mentally.
When a homemaker plans a week of dinner menus, she is not likely to decide to prepare identical meals on seven consecutive nights. Even when her budget is so limited that she has to prepare pasta every night, she soon learns that there are many ways to serve pasta. It is the same with teaching. Using the same lesson plan and teaching technique day after day, will get old real soon. Doing the same drills eventually cause students to focus on the drill and lose interest in the real purpose for the learning. Variety, keeps the mind fresh and, when you present the same information, in a different way, the brain connects and processes it in new ways.
Please see my Blog Posting at http://teaching4achange.blogspot.com/. Scroll down to # 16-June 20, 2009 Creatively “Tweaking” Your Teaching to Engage Students. This will give you some simple ways to vary classroom activities you can use right away.

Other techniques to add variety to your teaching repertoire include:
1.-Practicals (group projects)
2.-Student as teacher
3.-Role Playing
4.-Cooperative Learning
5.-Partner, Pair-Share
6.-Learning through games
7.-Reader’s Theatre
8.-Learning through song, rhyme or rap
9.-Classroom Simulations
10. Project-based learning

Professional teaching practice is not constrained by a belief that there is one best way. Teachers should be invited to extend their range of instructional approaches in a secure, risk-taking environment.

Every teaching strategy has its advantages and disadvantages, so each teacher must decide which strategy is most appropriate for their teaching practice; for a component within a course, or an individual lesson. Effective instruction results from a blend of the art and the science of teaching. The science of instruction, which has predominated in the past, needs to achieve a balance with the artistry and creativity involved in the successful act of teaching.

Look for more engaging news next weekend.