10 Quick and Easy Strategies for Student Engagement

1. Using Brain-Based Research to Energize the Classroom 10 Quick and Easy Strategies for Student Engagement Jim Kelch Jim.kelch@sreb.org

2. Session Objectives: ALL participants will learn: • Key facts from brain-based research to enhance teaching and learning. • School-wide and individual strategies to increase engagement and achievement.

4. What Can We Learn from Brain-Based Research? • The short-term memory can handle only a few items at once. • Young adults can handle 6-9 new ideas/concepts at one time. • The first 20 minutes of the lesson should contain the most important/newest material. • Physical activities & games (like warm-ups) are best placed in down-time when students are easily distracted and need a change of pace. • Chunking lessons into smaller ‘episodes’ (ideally of 20 minutes) is more productive than one continuous block.

5. Strategies to Enhance Engagement… 10 Quick and Easy Strategies for Any Content Area

6. #1 GREATREADERS at Piedra Vista High Always… • …have a specific purpose for reading. • …think about what they already know as they are reading. • …make sure they understand what they just finished reading. • …look at and study the pictures. • …predict what will happen next. • …paint ‘mental pictures’ in their minds. • …form opinions based on reading. • …draw conclusions about their reading. • …try to figure out the meaning of new words before looking them up. • …practice reading out loud to themselves every now and then.

7. Roll Call Activity #2 • Verbally done • Can be used to begin or end class • All students are required to respond • Use a secret word

8. #3 Compare and Contrast Thinking “Glasses”

9. Compare and Contrast Thinking “Glasses” Differences Similarities Differences Romeo Juliet

10. #4 Exit Slip/Ticket Out the Door What did you LEARN Today? Your Name:__________________

11. #5 Unit Planner—Example A

12. Unit Planner—Example B

13. #6 Character/Concept Map Key: Character Subject Trait Characteristic Evidence Example

14. Character/Concept Map

15. #7 Three-Square Reflection Strategy

16. #8 MIX and MATCH Sodium Na X + 17 = -20 Hound Dog -37 The Old Man and The Sea E. Hemingway Elvis Presley

17. #9 Four Corners (15-20 Minutes) This is an especially effective activity in social studies, language arts or science courses, where students encounter controversial issues. State a situation or dilemma, then ask students to go to one of four corners of the room, marked Strongly Agree, Agree, Strongly Disagree and Disagree. There, students exchange their opinions or reasoning and summarize their reasoning for presentations to the other three corners. ***May be Modified to Advanced Four Corners… Source: Fleming and Fleming—How to Manage Instruction in the Block (Prentice Hall)

18. #10 Jumbled Summary (5-10 Minutes) Write key words or phrases from an explanation or introduction in random order on a page to be photocopied. Following the presentation, ask pairs to “unscramble” the terms and reorder them in logical sequence as a knowledge check. Write down in logical, linear sequence key words or phrases related to some concept you have taught recently or will be teaching. Now scramble them to create a list your students can reorder in proper sequence. Source: Fleming and Fleming—How to Manage Instruction in the Block (Prentice Hall)

19. Lagniappe… A few more…

20. Prediction Pairs (5-10 Minutes) Divide the class into pairs and have students work in pairs as they listen to a short story you are reading aloud. Read a short passage, then pause to ask the prediction pairs to state “What will happen next?” and “What are your reasons for this prediction based on the story so far?” List some short stories, brief passages or narrative that you can read aloud in segments, pausing to ask students for their predictions. Source: Fleming and Fleming—How to Manage Instruction in the Block (Prentice Hall)

21. K-W-L Trio (15 Minutes) Before a film, lecture or reading, have students work in teams of three to write down what they already know about the subject and what they want to learn about the subject. Then show the film, deliver the lecture, or engage the group in the reading. Have each trio: • Circle the “known” information that was covered • Put asterisks next to the questions that were answered on their list • Add other things that they learned Source: Fleming and Fleming—How to Manage Instruction in the Block (Prentice Hall)

22. The Big Six Literacy Strategies Any Teacher Can and Should Use Summarizing Paraphrasing Categorizing Inferring Predicting Recognizing Academic/Technical vocabulary

23. Cooperative learning Project-based learning Socratic method Anticipation guides Videos Readings Demonstrations Technology integration Graphing calculators Excel Blogs TeacherTube Literacy Strategies Use of manipulatives Multi-intelligences approach Other Engaging Instructional Strategies

24. Session Objectives: ALL participants will learn: • Key facts from brain-based research to enhance teaching and learning. • School-wide and individual strategies to increase engagement and achievement.

25. Thank you!!! Jim Kelch Jim.kelch@sreb.org