Teachers are constantly looking for opportunities to engage students in fun ways. However, having multiple classes to prepare for and a mountain of assignments to grade leaves little time for anything other than finishing the task as per the lesson plan. But does no time have to equal NO FUN? What if I say, you need not spend more than two minutes on planning a fun activity anymore? We can take care of it for you.
It’s more important now than ever before to find interactive and creative ways to engage today’s students. We’re living in an era where attention spans have shrunk to less than a minute. Teachers are finding they need to step up the pace in the classroom to maintain student engagement and information retention. What if we can merge knowledge with fun in ways that keep up with the pace of the world and cater to short attention spans? There are plenty of ways to grab a child’s attention, without steering off course with the curriculum.
Here are four examples:
1
Audio Snippets: Rather than reading a poem aloud in class, or having students read it silently, play an audio recording of the poem. Not only is this a break from hearing the teacher’s voice, but it also enables students to learn multiple facets of verbal communication, like diction, pause, flow, and tonality.
2
Comic Strips: With easy access to a variety of pre-designed templates to download, teachers can open up new avenues for learning. For example, they could teach concepts like conversation building by sharing a comic strip template with fill-in-the-blank speech bubbles. This provides a fun way to learn about dialog, actively engages learners in the lesson, and gives even the quietest learners an outlet to work in a zero-pressure environment.
3
Ready-Made Assessments: Teachers have a heavy workload that often reaches a peak when quizzes and tests need to be created or graded. Ever thought of a scenario where you could outsource that task? You can! All you need to do is provide the lesson plan for the year and the rest is done for you. And these are not your regular pen-to-paper assessments, but rather dynamic self-based learning modules, with built-in assessments that not only provide rapid scoring, but also the rationale behind the scoring.
4
Suggested Reading: In the course materials for different grade levels, there is typically a ‘suggested reading’ list. But learners often skip past the list, as they are aware they will not be tested on those books. By including summaries of the suggested materials, the potential for piquing students’ interest is higher. Or try this: assign students different aspects of the text to work on, such as themes, characters, backgrounds, etc. Have them write their answers down on sticky notes, then work together to turn their notes into a collage.
How Bristlecone Can Help …
We can help you create hyper-personalized, intuitive and fun learning experiences, while alleviating undue pressure on educators. Learn more about Bristlecone’s edtech expertise and capabilities here and contact us if you would like to have a conversation with our experts.
ATHIRA TP
Specialist
Bristlecone
