The five teaching techniques and strategies list are some ways to make your material interesting and engaging. Depending on the needs of your students, you may be able to incorporate more techniques to enable student success:
EXIT TICKETS/ 3-2-1: Ongoing assessment of understanding is critical to ensure students are understanding the content. One way to assess student learning and to allow students to assess their own learning are the exit cards. It’s an anonymous way for students to convey to the teacher what part of the content they might find challenging or did not completely understand. This allows for us as teachers to focus on those areas.
PEER-MENTORING/ STUDY BUDDY SYSTEM: I found this method to be very effective when I have used in class. Students have a partner who may tutor them when they struggle with certain concepts and have a buddy that may motivate them to get through the work. I find that this strategy is effective when the teacher partners stronger students with weaker students. It takes time as it is important to get to know your students first. Further, this strategy is effective for ESL students, by partnering them up with another student who speaks their language, it reinforces their confidence in learning.
STUDENT CONFERENCING: I find one on one student conferencing to be extremely effective. This technique is time consuming and often requires a lot of commitment on the teacher’s part, however, the effects of student conference have always shown to be extremely positive. It shouldn’t be over done and possibly done either during a culminating project timeline or halfway through the course.
LABS/HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES: Our classrooms have all different types of learners and therefore, it is important to engage those learners that are visual and audio learners. Having activities that are more hands-on, for example, virtual labs, simulators and videos etc. all enable the visual learners to succeed. When possible, giving those students the option to hand in assignments in a creative manner further motivates them to learn and is effective in engaging the students.
PASS THE BALL FLASH ROUND: At the end of a lesson, a technique that is often effective at both checking for learning and keeping students engaged is the Pass the Ball Flash Round. One All you need is a soft ball that you would pass to a random student and ask them a question. If the student gets the question right then they can pass the ball to anyone else in the class and you then proceed to ask that student a question. It’s a great technique to keep students attentive and to do a quick review of the day’s lesson. Ongoing assessment of understanding is critical to ensure students are understanding the content. One way to assess student learning and to allow students to assess their own learning are the exit cards. It’s an anonymous way for students to convey to the teacher what part of the content they might find challenging or did not completely understand. This allows for us as teachers to focus on those areas.
EXIT TICKETS/ 3-2-1: Ongoing assessment of understanding is critical to ensure students are understanding the content. One way to assess student learning and to allow students to assess their own learning are the exit cards. It’s an anonymous way for students to convey to the teacher what part of the content they might find challenging or did not completely understand. This allows for us as teachers to focus on those areas.
PEER-MENTORING/ STUDY BUDDY SYSTEM: I found this method to be very effective when I have used in class. Students have a partner who may tutor them when they struggle with certain concepts and have a buddy that may motivate them to get through the work. I find that this strategy is effective when the teacher partners stronger students with weaker students. It takes time as it is important to get to know your students first. Further, this strategy is effective for ESL students, by partnering them up with another student who speaks their language, it reinforces their confidence in learning.
STUDENT CONFERENCING: I find one on one student conferencing to be extremely effective. This technique is time consuming and often requires a lot of commitment on the teacher’s part, however, the effects of student conference have always shown to be extremely positive. It shouldn’t be over done and possibly done either during a culminating project timeline or halfway through the course.
LABS/HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES: Our classrooms have all different types of learners and therefore, it is important to engage those learners that are visual and audio learners. Having activities that are more hands-on, for example, virtual labs, simulators and videos etc. all enable the visual learners to succeed. When possible, giving those students the option to hand in assignments in a creative manner further motivates them to learn and is effective in engaging the students.
PASS THE BALL FLASH ROUND: At the end of a lesson, a technique that is often effective at both checking for learning and keeping students engaged is the Pass the Ball Flash Round. One All you need is a soft ball that you would pass to a random student and ask them a question. If the student gets the question right then they can pass the ball to anyone else in the class and you then proceed to ask that student a question. It’s a great technique to keep students attentive and to do a quick review of the day’s lesson. Ongoing assessment of understanding is critical to ensure students are understanding the content. One way to assess student learning and to allow students to assess their own learning are the exit cards. It’s an anonymous way for students to convey to the teacher what part of the content they might find challenging or did not completely understand. This allows for us as teachers to focus on those areas.