Getting students engaged in classwork in the age of omnipotent and ubiquitous technology is challenging. Learning nowadays happens in diverse learning spaces and leaves different footprints. It takes a combination of interactive activities and learner-centered approaches to create dynamic learning environments, draw students’ interest, and get them committed to their learning tasks.
What follows is a reminder checklist of effective strategies and activities to include in our teaching toolbox. Undoubtedly, the teacher’s checklist is anything but the detailed, clear-cut, step-by-step cross-out list which the pilot and the co-pilot go through before takeoff. But we could borrow from this procedure and pin a list of effective practices on our desk. After all, we teachers have favorite class practices. Most of these reminders circulate in our brains, but jotting down our checklist of effective strategies and frequently enriching it works better. Certainly, we will go for the strategies which are compatible with our preferences.
TEACHER’S CHECKLIST
- THE CURRICULUM IS NOT OUR BIBLE If we are primarily concerned about covering our curriculum, we will overlook the needs of the students and fail to adequately open up the topic matter. The text in our unit serves as a light bulb of learning, but the switch to bring the light on is our instructional strategy. Our strategies should get students to make predictions, inferences, connections, and discussions on the topic. We should not be “policed” or “controlled” by the need to “cover” the curriculum. Otherwise, Dorothy Heathcote’s warning will come true: “The system of Education looks like a conveyor belt and turns teachers into ‘technicians,’ who use their time to deliver the ‘program.’” (Source: “Rolling Role and the National Curriculum,” Tape 12, University of Newcastle, 1993).
Walking in class with predetermined material is reassuring to us. However, following this material blindly means that students have no say in what they learn. Instead, we should add Interest-Based Learning and respond to students’ requests on what to learn. When we tailor the lessons to students’ interests, we make content more engaging and help their social and emotional learning. By serving their needs, not the system’s, we utilize students’ inner potential and give them ownership and purpose in learning.
- WE GET THEM CURIOUS Attention grabbers are not enough to get students curious. We need learning baits. When working on vocabulary, we could ask the odd question. For instance: “Which of the verbs ‘set,’ ‘make,’ ‘run,’ ‘go’ has the most dictionary definitions?” Students have no clue. What we want is for them to consult an actual or online dictionary, do some research, and eventually find out that “set” had the longest entry in the Oxford English Dictionary but was then overtaken by “make.” Then we could ask them to make two spider grams. One will be on combinations of the verb “set” and the other will be on “make” combinations. This way, students try out new approaches, work in groups, have a few laughs, discover collocations they knew but did not think of, and knowledge sticks with them.
- WE BREAK THE ROUTINE Breaking the routine in early levels is easy with hands-on activities, arts, crafts, poster making, drawings, and movement. In later stages, healthy contests of the Spelling Bee type, vocabulary competitions, crosswords, or language-based games like Kahoot, Taboo, Twenty Questions, Pictionary, or Quizlet do the trick. Also, there are gamification options that reward students with point systems when completing tasks. We try them out and adjust them to the age and language level of our students.
Another way to press our students’ initiative buttons to high levels is to give them a pair or group challenge. If our topic is another country, we can assign a project on the traditions of this country. Students will get cultural exposure through research work and then use their English to present their findings. They can devise skits or scenarios for tourists (on shopping, ordering food) and then role-play or act these situations out.
On a different note, routine can be spiced with exposure to natural language through song lyrics, age-appropriate films, or YouTube extracts. Students will be involved in fun ways and improve their listening comprehension skills.
- WE ENCOURAGE CRITICAL THINKING To encourage critical thinking and embrace a growth mindset, we go into the “how” of things with open-ended questions. We hold mini-debates on the “why” of things and design assignments that help students develop alternatives and think out of the box. If we ask students to think about why nations have only one capital, we encourage flexible thinking and turn information into knowledge. There are so many ways to raise critical thinking.
- WE ARE REAL LIFE When we use everyday happenings as discussion topics, students use language effortlessly and naturally. Let us assume we have been to Amsterdam and taken a photo of this building. We can show it to students and ask them what type of building they believe this could be. Most will say that this is an office building. Eventually, students will learn that this is a parking space and that buildings of this type have solved the problem of lack of space in the center of Amsterdam. Learning about a modern city certainly is information that will come in handy one day and which intrigues students because it is real life. So, when choosing our coursebooks and teaching material, one of the main concerns is whether the topic matter is about the real world. If it is, it is bound to draw students’ interest.
- DETECT THE INVISIBLE BACKPACKS WHICH WEIGH DOWN STUDENTS Misbehavior upsets us, but it might hide a story that could break our hearts. Discipline problems could be a cry for help if not caused by out-of-context material or the teacher’s lack of management skills. Can we identify the root problem? Traditional discipline works best with the children who need it the least and least with the children who need it the most. Sometimes punishment creates a bigger divide. Motivating from within with a calm air of authority and catering to students’ emotional needs is the answer. Educational neuroscience has brought together education, science, and psychology to tell us that we need emotion for focused attention. If we cover students’ emotional needs, especially when we see signs of struggle, worry, fear, anxiety, trauma, hopelessness, we basically encourage good behavior.
FURTHER READING
- Student Motivation Made Simple by Rob Plevin
- Succeed with the Noisy Class: The Step-by-Step Method to Deal with Challenging Groups by Rob Plevin
- The 7 Habits of Happy Kids by Sean Covey
- Bartels, N. (2009). Knowledge about language, In: J. Richards & A. Burns (Eds.), Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Egan, K. (1988). Teaching as Storytelling: An Alternative Approach to Teaching and the Curriculum. Routledge.
