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We all know how distracted elementerary students can get. What are some strategies/ tips in we can keep students engaged during the lessons?
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It is definitely helpful to keep them moving! I am very much a proponent of moving while learning. As someone mentioned already, play is a good way for students to learn and move at the same time. Also, I think having specific hand signals for students incorporated throughout the lesson is a good way to keep them focused on what the teacher is saying (ex. certain motions for words, as in using their arm to 'draw' a circle in the air if you are teaching about earth cycles). Incorporating bits of music is one way I personally learn well, and I think it both catches students' attention and helps them remember what is being taught better.
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I think a good way to engage students is by using more hands-on activitiers. This usually gets kids more excited than worksheets or lectures. Relating the lesson to thier everyday life is another way that they can be engaged.
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It might be challenging to keep elementary students interested throughout the lesson. Finding out what the students took away from a class is something I would advise; keep in mind that this knowledge is essential for enhancing your education. That also applies to how well they maintain children's interest.
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Variety and interesting lessons can make learning fun. Use a variety of educational materials, games, casuistic situations and practical tasks...
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Hello!
Personally, I think it's important to build classroom routines that set everyone up for success and in the long term can maximize science time and minimalize distractions. Also, being enthusiastic about the work sets the tone for the class, especially a busy classroom. I suggest trying to include an opening activity that connects to the learning goal for the day and keeps students focused on the topic you will be discussing. The first five minutes of class can be the time to review the day's objective. Ask students what they 'know' about the topic and what they 'want' to learn about it. It is important to have time within the lesson to discuss ideas and share as a whole class, similar to scientists. You can create a scientist 'circle' a have students gather to discuss and share ideas. Here, you can have students connect and build on each others ideas and teach them how to engage in professional dialogue as well as model how to show agreement or dissent. Another way to engage students is to show them their accomplishments. Post a progress tracker so students can see what good work they have done. The progress tracker can focus on topics such as questions that have been asked, and questions that have been answered. Another idea is anchor charts. Think about themes that carry on through multiple units such as safety practices. Have students write ideas on an anchor chart and post them throughout your room. Throughout the lessons, you can refer back to those resources to help students learn new material. This will also teach students how to become independent learners and look to find answers themselves before asking for help.
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Some things that I have learned as I have been in quite a few classrooms now, is that students love to get up and do stuff. The more they are able to get up or work with a partner the better. They enjoy interacting with other students and they love sharing their ideas with teachers. Allowing some freedom in your lesson also is going to allow the students to explore what they are interested in. Giving students a general topic and allowing them to choose something that falls under that topic is going to keep them more engaged because it is something they chose.
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Keeping students engaged can be challenging. What I have found is the more they are hands on the more they seem to be engaged with the learning. Create the lesson to be engaging either whole group or individual. The engagement can come from slides that will get them up and moving to having materials to use at their desk. Keep the lesson moving, don't have moments where nothing is happening because thats a time engagement could begin to fade. Another way to keep students engaed is to have engaging vidoes or read alouds. Students like bright colors, a beat that get's their body moving and a story that will keep their eyes watching. Playing a game, working with peers or a whole group experiement will also keep students engaged with learning. Engaging students with things you know they like and will catch their attention is a way to know how to plan out your lesson, you as the teacher know your students better than anyone.
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Hello,
I agree that elementary students can get easily distracted but there are several tools we can use to keep them engaged. In my school the students really benefit from movement breaks. This can mean they either go for a walk outside of the classroom, or go to the movement room which we provide for our students. They need these short breaks to get out some energy through physical activity. This helps so they don't get bored and distracted in the classroom for a long period of time. I would also recommend involving technology into your lessons, which is very important in this day and age. These online resources can help captivate the students. You can also use technology to get students to work together and collaborate, where they can contribute equally. Allowing students to interact with online games would be beneficial as well, this is a fun way for the students to answer questions and you can keep track of their progress in real time.
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I have found that the best way to keep students engaged is to relate lessons to something they enjoy or are familiar with, and make it hands on. Students often disengage when they can't make a connection to what they are learning or don't see the relevance of learning it. Project based learning and competition based activities have yielded great results in my classroom.
You should also make sure to establish a good relationship with them. When students trust you and feel comfortable taking academic risks, they engage and participate more and it makes for a fun lesson to teach.
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Dear Monica
I think play method will be effective for eleementary students.
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Goodr information which is useful in my career with education and I have learned a lot from here.
Best Regards,
- John Miller
https://shudhindia.com/
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Some strategies that I found were useful when I was in Elementary was when the teachers would ask questions and have us in groups. Allowing the students to do group discussions or groupwork kept all the students in engage. During lessons, talk to the students as much as possible and include them in your lesson plan by allowing them to voice their opinions and to be able to ask questions free of judgement.
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Hello, answering to your question/concern as to how to keep students entertained. I belive the first step is to give a lesson that is engaging. Students will often do well when they are doing something they like. When it is done so like that it is more likely for the students to stay on task and even lose track of time because they are so engaged with the assignment. Another thing that I believe can help is giving them group time. As we all know students love to chat and by allowing group time where they can communicate with one another can also cause them to not want to lose focus when the teacher is talking since they already had time to express themselves during group time.
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Use computers, interactive whiteboards, and other technology tools to make lessons more interactive and fun. This made me very happy before, for example. I studied to be a surgeon and, in principle, they always showed us something. Sometimes I found nursing help and used https://ca.edubirdie.com/nursing-help for this. It is important to understand each student personally. Know his interests and everything he is interested in.
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I think the best tool a teacher can have to keep their students engaged is knowing your students and classroom and how dynamics work. It is important to have engaging activities, hands-on activities, and activities that you can move around but the hardest moments are lessons that are not exciting, and they need to be taught and there is not so much 'fun' you can do with them. I think here is where you need to know your classroom and figure out how they would listen and be engaged. I always like the idea of just changing the setting, going outside, and sitting in a circle if it’s a nice day, going to a different spot of the school if it is available. I also think switching the teaching from teacher to student to peer to peer is a great way to make them excited about what is being taught. Making small groups where students help and talk to each other as the teacher goes around and enjoys the conversations the students are having and can help/guide them to the correct answer or what they need to do. I think keeping students engaged is hard because as you mention they get distracted easily but having them do different things or even taking a 5 min brain break of dancing or yoga can help a lot in a classroom.
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In my experience, the most important factor in keeping students engaged is connection with the students. I remember hearing the phrase once, 'they don't know care how much you know until they know how much you care'. It takes time to build that connection. However I believe when we show interest in our students lives, their interests, their abilities and find common ground, we have the ability to relate material to keep them interested. Granted, I understand that teaching math, science etc is still challenging even with this connection, however I believe the connection lays the foundation for questions, dialogue and trust. Second, I think activity is very important. I try to keep my students moving around the room with hands on activities to keep their interest and engagment. In two weeks I'm looking forward to teaching a lesson about water formation with a hands on activity in a 2nd grade classroom. Leading up to this lesson (It's an internship lesson in a classroom I don't work in), I have been trying to spend time with these students getting to know their names and connect with them. In this lesson, we will use videos, a fun activity and dialogue. I'm hoping all goes well.
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I don't have a ton of experience in the classroom, so learnig how to keep students engaged has been a learning process. I work in a Learnin for Life class and it is very easy for the students to get distracted and go off task. Throughout the forum I read many different ways to engage the students and I have tried most of them and they all work well. My favorite is the hands on and movement activities. If there is any way I can incorporate a game into the lesson plan I will and using movement breaks or mindful videos also help. Most recently when working with the groups I have been very animated, sort of like a game show host. I have been positive when they answer correctly and added some sort of sound effect, like Boom! or Ding! Ding! and follow it up with you're right, awesome. That strategy has been working and the students seem to love it.
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