Increase Classroom Engagement

27 June 2017

Short, fun activities are key in your classroom to keep your students happy and engaged. It may come as no surprise but research already shows that teachers who spend more time delivering instructions by talking have less engaged students which, in turn, can lead to poor quality of work or a reduced intake of knowlegde by the class. 

Here are a few simple strategies to keep your class alert and have a little fun at the same time. An engaged class is a happy class. 

Stand up sit down 

You can use this 'game' to differentiate between any two categories. For example if you have young students, you could say a sentence and tell them to stand up if they hear an alien word or stay sitting down if they don't. Not only is this a little bit of fun, it also keeps them listening. 

Find your match

This activity again gets your students moving and the blood flowing keeping their energy levels up, thus keeping them more engaged. Hand out a card to each student in the class and have them get up to find their match. 

You can use this across various age groups simply by changing the subject matter. For young school children you can match the word to the picture/colour and for older students you can match a problem with a solution or antonyms/synonyms.

Thumbs up thumbs down 

A quick fire way to see who's paying attention and get answers whilst still keeping all students involved is by playing thumbs up, thumbs down. Instruct your class to put their thumbs up if they agree with an answer/statement and down if they don't. 

Music

Playing music during certain times of the day when students can become distracted and drift off into their own world can pep them up and make laborious tasks, like register and tidy up time, a little more interesting. 

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