With so many standards we have to implement in our curriculum, I feel like sometimes we can fall into the trap of just teaching. We can forget to make our lessons exciting and hands on. I felt like I started to fall into that trap a little bit and I wanted to really take some time and re-vamp the lessons that I had and make them more intesting to my students.
As a Reading teacher we always talk to the kids about how authors use exciting and bold beginnings to get the readers excited and make them want to keep reading. So I asked myself...what can I do in my classes ( my mini-lessons) to get my kids excited and engaged so that they want to keep going with the lesson?
I have had some exciting lessons that get the kids excited and I wanted to know.....What have you done in your class that you are proud of? What got your kids excited and "pulled" into the lesson??
I agree, especially in the middle of a unit, that it is easy to fall into this trap. The hook of the lesson is easy to overlook when it is so difficult to fit everything else in.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I always try to make the best use of my smartboard as a way to engage students. Students start their classes by touching boxes to reveal the objectives rather than simply reading them. When teaching works cited page. I have them find the information by circling it on the smartboard and then coming up to the front of the room to arrange the information in order.
Other than that, when introducing relevant details, I created topics and then had students move to one side of the room or the other based on whether my examples were relevant or irrelevant to the topic.
I always enjoy class more when students are hooked on a topic. I just wish there was a little more time in the day to add it in every day. :)
We also wrote predictions with post-its as we read--and that worked better for some students to keep them engaged--but a couple of them peaked to see what happens next and that kind of defeats the purpose.
ReplyDeleteIn order to ensure they wrote thoughtful predictions, i had them stick them all to a piece of paper at the end and get graded--then I had better comments. I also had them do descriptions on post-its and make connections. We could also share and discuss our post-its.
They can draw their favorite scene and then present it to the class--that worked well for a folk tale we worked on.
You could have them write a very shorted version of a similar story but change part of the plot.
Have fun!
Recently we have been going over some grammar concepts before we start our next unit. My co-teacher came up with some great ideas about turning the mini-lesson into a game for students. I couldn't believe how excited they were...especially about grammar!!!! Yesterday, I did a competition between boys and girls, and some students who are the hardest to motivate were engaged!
ReplyDeleteI see students on a individual or small group basis for speech language services. Usually I see students in my room. One day, I decided to take our lesson to the halls. The student was working on perspective taking and picking up nonverbal social cues. We used white boards to write messages on what we thought others were thinking and became 'social detectives.' It is often difficult to get carryover of skills learned in therapy to everyday or immediate situations outside the speech room and I felt like this might aide in carryover. The student really seemed to enjoy this activity.
ReplyDeleteOne simple thing I have done to get students engaged is have them write on the desks with a white board marker (obviously has to be a desk with the shiny, laminate surface). I will have them write down the top 8 vocabulary words of the unit on their desk and then make it a competition...I am still amazed how excited they get when they can write on the desk. :)
ReplyDelete