Keeping Students Engaged in the Home Stretch
Written by: Sandy Goehring
Are you looking for ways to keep students actively engaged in the “ninth inning” of the school year? Do you need some “homerun” ideas to liven up your instruction? During a recent episode of Keep Indiana Chatting, the all-star team of digital learning coaches Tim, Dianna, Melissa, and myself shared creative ideas at different levels of complexity, preparation, and level of engagement. Let’s take a look at the different “bases” and see if we can hit a “grand slam” for the win! Be sure to check out the full episode on the Keep Indiana Learning YouTube page.
First Base Ideas: We’re starting out with the first batter hitting a single. Check out our single hits below!
🧢 Communication Cascade and Flow: Dianna shared with the team how to use Communication Cascade and Flow to get students engaged in question and answer response. Students break up in two groups and ask questions back and forth then cascade around the room. 🧢 Fun Google Slides Templates: Tim utilizes Google Slides to make pretend Instagram, Snapchat, Netflix profiles, and even Yelp Reviews to engage students in creative ways and to assess students’ progression to mastery at the end of a lesson. 🧢 Meme Challenge: Melissa reminded us how much students (and teachers) love memes! Students can create a meme about the content like a vocabulary word or a piece of text. Then students can share these on a slide deck or even Flipgrid! 🧢 Math Problem of the Day Celebrity Problems: Try out using the Celebrity Math Problems of the Day found at mathproblemoftheday.com. Kid-friendly celebrities, athletes, and musicians share fun math problems at different levels.
Second Base Ideas: We rounded first for our double classroom hits!
🧢 How Things are Made Videos for Kids: A simple double idea is using how things are made videos to engage students in discussions about different topics, launch a new unit, or develop writing topics! 🧢 Sketch-noting: Melissa hit a double with sketch-noting. It’s a great way to create visual notes, and to increase comprehension and memory. 🧢 Virtual Field Trips and Mystery Skype: Using NearPod virtual field trips is one of Tim’s favorites to re-engage students. Try out Mystery Skypes, as well, for a fun way to practice questioning and discover new places. 🧢 Canva Templates!: Dianna didn’t strike out when she shared using Canva templates to refresh your traditional graphic organizers. Let the students pick a bright, fun document to compare and contrast two pieces of text!
Third Base Ideas: The team really had some great hits with these ideas!
🧢 Storyline Online: If your students enjoyed hearing celebrities share math problems, try having them listen to even more famous faces reading their favorite stories! 🧢 Impromptu Speeches: Dianna likes the idea of using impromptu speeches as a fun way to ignite your learners’ creativity! This is the perfect time to come up with some out of the box topics! 🧢 Gallery Walks: Melissa loves the idea of using Gallery Walks as a way to get students to share their thoughts and ideas while getting them moving! Gallery Walks create a safe place for all learners. 🧢 Human Tic-Tac-Toe: Tim’s human tic-tac-toe is rounding the base to home! Students work in teams to answer questions correctly and claim one of the chairs in the tic-tac-toe board! This is an engaging way to easily gamify your lesson!
Homerun: These ideas will knock your classroom out of the park!
🧢 Escape Room (Breakout Edu): Melissa wants you to try out Escape Rooms. There are two options: digital and physical. Your students will be working collaboratively, developing their soft skills, and building their problem-solving skills in no time! 🧢 Classroom Celebrations: This may sound simple, but you will be scoring points with your students in no time. Incorporate individual celebrations to acknowledge your learners such as the roller coaster or the tunnel run. For an extra fun twist, let your students create their own celebration. 🧢 Dice Activities: Using dice will liven up your classroom! Dianna likes to use them for vocabulary review. You can even use them for Dicebreakers and to debrief at the end of the lesson! 🧢 Mozart Hook: Tim likes using music to engage students. Try letting the students create a school-appropriate playlist for here comes the “Academic” Boom. Do you have a student with musical talent? Let the class create a song on a topic. Be sure to check out MrBettsClass on Youtube!
Now it’s your turn at bat. Try one or two of the ideas above and you won’t “strike-out” with your students during the seventh-inning stretch. You’re sure to hit a grand slam!
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