Every successful educator will need a road map to determine the level of student engagement during class time. The more efficient and transparent the plan is, the more you would feel the need to maximize the learning experience of students. Any successful plan has three components may be sketchy at first but will continue to improve as time progresses.
• Plan short/long-term goals for students
What is meant by that is having a proper learning objective for the lesson that is being taught the entire week or even perhaps month in advance. Clearly describe what the main objective to the students, what they’re going to gain out of learning this class and where this can be used down the line in their career path. The table of content sort of to speak. Clearly broken down tasks. The more clear they are the language will be easily understood by students and the more related to the program they will be.
• Add learning activities to lessons
That’s one sure way of getting students engaged. Tag an illustration amid the learning jargons and you will guarantee they’re hooked. Real examples, analogies or scenarios. Whatever it takes or required to tell the story and clearly elaborate the objective of the lesson. Potent visuals will always promote richness in academia among peers.
Used detailed activities to invite learners to contribute or jump in the discussion. This will help you as a teacher to design a better approach for your students and therefore provide higher impact during learning the learning experience curve.
For example, you can use pop quizzes and student presentations to prompt interactions with the content you want them to learn. During lectures students will most likely retain information if the concepts are conveyed with visual aids. You can also try to kick start a game or a simulation session in a controlled classroom, things that will explain real-world relationships very well to them, this will encourage the participation.
• Breaking-down the plan
It’s not enough to just plan the objectives for the lesson, you need to assign assessments, provide great opportunities for students in order for them to demonstrate and practice that knowledge and skills in a very articulated manner. All of that will be very valuable once instructors offer a consolidated feedback telling the students how to delve further to enhance their learning methodologies.
There ought to be a sequence in the lesson presented. Actually, there are a couple steps that demands careful instructions.
Capturing attention: instructors should present a story (with a challenge) to be solved. Introduce breaker actives and materials to spike the interest. Youtube for instance, they work like a charm and they fit the purpose.
Recall prior knowledge: it’s not enough to spew out what was learned, instructors should ask students information about current topics to test their general knowledge of previous events for instance.
Be there to guide: assess the performance, ask the students to reiterate the information that was learned in a more elaborative manner as this will increase the rate of information being ingrained in their minds better.
Rinse and repeat: after providing the above information, tie loose ends if there were any by resolving any misunderstanding of any topics that may just not be understood. Help set the closure curtains by summarizing, reviewing and demonstrating their understanding of the lessons portrayed throughout the class. Previewing upcoming topics while emphasizing key points that will conceptualize the framework on the previously learned material.