Tips For Teachers
Practical strategies to enhance student engagement
Through our work with Anne Beninghof, we have learned many creative and practical ideas to use in the classroom. Our goal is to equip you with simple, effective strategies to try with your students. Whether you are able to co-teach or are on your own, many strategies and ideas we will share can be used by everyone. We would love to highlight some of the amazing ideas you use in your classrooms as well, so please share!
Motivator for Student Discussions
Check out this blog post for a quick and easy way to motivate students to participate in small or large group discussions. http://www.ideasforeducators.com/idea-blog/simple-way-to-support-and-motivate-student-discussion
Text Evidence Tracker
Here's an idea created by Anne Beninghof using a text investigation tool. http://www.ideasforeducators.com/idea-blog/what-do-crime-scenes-and-expository-texts-have-in-common
We created something similar but more applicable to our students' needs as fourth graders. How can you take an idea and make it useful in your classroom?
Way to Increase Student Engagement!
We wanted to encourage our reluctant participators to join in in a way that was fun and exciting. We hid pieces of an anchor chart under some students' seats, supply bins, tables, etc. As we asked questions some students would share ideas. When it came time to reveal the correct answer, specific students were asked to look in the various places around the classroom where they could find the responses and contribute to the discussion.
Appointment Calendar
We use this tool to create groupings in our classroom. We chose the groups of four and some partnerships, and left a few spaces open for students to have free choice. This way, we can save time when we need to group kids. (We did some leveled groups, and some groups that work well together.)