A CTE Teacher Shares 8 Strategies to Increase Student Engagement

This article originally appeared on the iCEV blog and is republished here with permission.

As classroom teachers, one of the many challenges we face is student engagement. With the changing landscape of education, how do we keep students focused and provide them with a foundation to learn our various subject areas?

There are many ways to approach this question and no right answer. But in my experience, I have found that these Eight strategies can help maximize student engagement in the classroom:

1. Plan and teach with enthusiasm.
2. Build and maintain relationships
3. Optimize your classroom setup
4. Promote active learning
5. Develop your students' ability to complete tasks
6. Capture their attention from the beginning
7. Make your lessons as relevant and fun as possible
8. Review and renew

After reading this post, you will be able to implement measures that can immediately impact your ability to engage students, assist teachers with student engagement, and see an overall positive impact within CTE. curriculum areas.

What is student participation?

Before we begin, let's define student participation. According to Merriam-Webster, commitment is defined as the act of committing oneself, which involves attracting favorable attention or interest.

For our purposes, let's say that student participation It is the ability of a teacher to attract the attention or interest of students in order to learn.

So how do you do that? Let's take a closer look at eight steps you can take to keep your students engaged!

1. Plan and teach with enthusiasm

The first step is to start with yourself. As teachers, we set the tone of the educational experience that our students are going to have.

We can compare this to a spark and a fire. It only takes a small spark to light a fire. We must be the spark that ignites their passion for learning.

This starts with how we plan. You must believe in your ability as a teacher to create or find interesting lessons. You must also believe that students will enjoy the lessons and be able to do the required work. If you don't think the lesson is good or effective, your students won't be either.

The students feed off their enthusiasm. This enthusiasm will come through in your planning, but it should really take off in how you implement the lesson.

Does this mean you have to put on a dog and pony show? No, not necessarily. But it does mean that your authentic joy and happiness will shine through your teaching.

Again, if you don't believe in the lesson, your students won't either. The lesson could benefit them in their learning now or in the future. Either way, hook them with your enthusiasm.

2. Build and maintain relationships

Relationships are the key to everything we do in education. They form the foundation on which all the rest of the work is built.

John Maxwell and Theodore Roosevelt are credited with the quote: “Students don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

This feeling is very true. Students should know that you care about them as individuals and that you are trying to help them achieve their dreams and goals, even beyond what they can see now. As a result, they will put in the effort and energy to match it.

This process starts with something as simple as remember students' names and how they are pronounced. It is said that the name is the most important thing for a person. It encompasses everything you are. The same goes for students.

Beyond that, it's critical to know who your students are, including their abilities, their interests, their dreams, and their goals. Incorporating these things into lessons and activities is one way to help them stay interested. Checking on them frequently and attending their extracurricular activities, such as sporting events, choir concerts, or award ceremonies, can go a long way in showing that you care.

3. Optimizing your classroom setup

As simple as it may seem, the way your classroom is set up can hinder or help classroom participation. Student desks and workstations can be arranged to facilitate learning.

This can be as simple as organize tables for member activities like Think, Pair, Share. Or you can opt for a more complex layout and organize students into strategically organized work groups. Desks can even be arranged to allow you to circle the classroom and provide feedback and interaction with students as they work.

Some classrooms do not have the luxury of adjustable settings, so you will have to be creative. For example, there are picture light covers that you will see in certain healthcare and dental facilities. Covering flat ceiling lights with images of galaxies or clouds can provide additional stimuli to help students stay engaged.

4. Promote active learning

Active learning is a simple concept in which the students themselves are participants in the learning process.

Encourage students to actively participate It's important. Part of this is a continuation of building and maintaining relationships, while the rest depends on facilitating learning and instruction.

Students don't always know how the material will help or benefit them. Sometimes you have to remind them of these things.

To further promote active learning, consider incorporating these practices into your instruction:

• Call on students to participate
• Use the skills that students have demonstrated in class.
• Incorporate skills you've noticed students already mastered

For example, students who are always trying to disrupt class, whether by making jokes or constantly talking, can be encouraged to use that energy in a positive way. These students may act as speakers in group activities or may lead a lesson.

Another example is your classroom leaders. If you can encourage them to help you during a lesson, they can help you incorporate the rest of the class.

5. Develop your students' ability to complete tasks

Developing student capacity means that you are developing the ability for them to complete tasks or work on their own within your classroom. They may not have all the answers or know what to do all the time, but developing their capacity means they have the means and resources to seek help, find answers, and complete tasks.

One of those strategies is the “Three before me” concept. Students should consult with three other students to see if they can get answers to their questions before coming to me as their teacher. Before incorporating this activity, model it for your students. Once practiced, it can be very effective in cultivating students' abilities to learn on their own and can be used in virtually all instructional situations.

6. Capture their attention from the beginning

It's been said that you only have seven seconds to catch someone's attention. If this is true, then we should maximize our first few seconds at the beginning of class.

One way to capture students' attention in the classroom is by using bell ringers. Bell ringers are nothing more than activities that students will start working on as soon as they enter your classroom.

Students can answer an essential question or review questions. They can respond to writing prompts, preview ideas for new content, and more. With students working as soon as they enter your classroom, it gives you a launching pad from which to facilitate the rest of the amazing lesson you've designed.

7. Make your lessons as fun and relevant as possible

Relevance is very important to engage students. This isn't easy for every type of content or lesson, so you may have to use some creativity to connect with your students.

If you've been working on your relationship with our students, you'll have an idea of ​​some of the things they're interested in. You can incorporate that into the lessons you create. For example, a marketing promotion lesson could incorporate your students' love of soccer. Students can create a promotional campaign for their favorite soccer team or player. You can use this strategy for both activities and projects.

Also, think about how you can Incorporate learning games into your classroom.. Teachers can use games through platforms like Kahoot, Quizziz, and more. You can also give students the option to create their own games.

Lastly, make sure continually promote lessons informing students about how the lesson will benefit them now and in the future.

8. Review and renewal

Once you have completed a lesson or unit, review that lesson with your students. Receive and accept their input about the lesson. This can be done informally by simply asking questions. Or it can be done through a series of questions like a survey.

Consider questions like:

• What did you like about the lesson?
• What do you think can be improved?
• What would you do about it differently?

Getting student feedback helps build buy-in for future lessons. This is especially true when students can see that their input is being used.

Boost participation in your CTE classroom

There is no miracle solution to remedy student participation. However, there are strategies we can use to help our cause. The eight strategies above will give you a great starting point. They are simple but effective strategies that you can implement no matter what stage of your professional educational journey you are at to increase the level of engagement of our students.

When you're successful, you'll see an increase in more than just engagement. Your program will benefit from better attendance, test scores, and even certification numbers.

Related:
Three key opportunities to address education's biggest challenges
4 key findings about student engagement
To learn more about student engagement, visit eSN's Innovative Teaching Hub