Tips and Ideas on Engaging Students in the Classroom

Every teacher wants to have an engaging classroom. It is our ultimate goal to get students engaged by the activities and lessons we design for them. What does it mean, though, to have an engaging classroom? How do you achieve it? Are there things that prevent you from getting one?

As each student has their own interests and attention spans, one of our many challenges is to keep everyone eager to listen to our lessons and participate actively in the activities. Let’s take a look at what it means to have and keep an engaging classroom.

What is an engaging classroom?

“Engaging” is defined by Merriam-Webster as “tending to draw favorable attention or interest.” In the classroom setting, this involves allowing individual students to participate in various class activities and class discussions. Students need to feel like they belong at school. That they are part of the larger whole. It is important to have student participate actively within the school, from classroom activities to extra-curriculars. A part of having engaged students start with them feeling like they belong.

Student Participation is Key to Engagement

Various studies have shown the effect of keeping students engaged throughout their school life. Faculty Focus (2017) found out that 70% of their respondents felt that they had a positive relationship between learning and participating. Such as:

become more engaged in classroom participation
students can remember information better during the learning process
reconfirm what students have learned and their personal experience
have deeper understanding with the subject

Another student engagement study done in Germany (ProcessImLabs, 2019) pointed out that students experiencing boredom in the classroom can disengage from it. In the U.S., more than half of the students who drop out cite this as their reason (ProcessImLabs, 2019). Educators should lower their student response rate to boredom not through entertainment but through engagement.

Students need to participate to feel engaged

Tips on how to create an engaged classroom

Let’s take a look at what it takes to have an engaging classroom. As each student has their own interests and attention spans, one of our many challenges is to keep everyone eager to listen to our lessons and participate actively in the activities.

Here are some ways you can get everyone engaged in your class and ensure active learners:

Create more collaborative activities

One sure fire way to keep your students engagement in learning is to let them collaborate! Whether it is a game done in pairs or a group project, make sure to let everyone in the classroom have fun while enjoying learning with their classmates. For example, you can hold your own virtual trip to the zoo or do hands-on activities like make wearable watches.

Have a vocal and written response system

How do you make sure that your students enjoyed their time in school? Let them express themselves by saying or writing how they feel of course! On each activity reflection, make sure to let them answer the question “Did I enjoy the activity? Why or why not?” Accepting answers in both writing and speaking give your students the option to respond in a way that is comfortable to them. It will also help them communicate better and you still get the feedback you need to judge engagement.

Involve students in reflection after each lesson

As I’ve mentioned in the previous tip, it is better to have verbal and written feedback from your students after activities in the classroom. Doing this involves allocating a few minutes to let your students share their experiences during the activity. This will also help them calm themselves down and keep themselves level-headed. Articulating your learning is also a good metacognitive activity and a great skill to develop.

Allow them to ask questions

Students questions and their feedback is important, so entertaining questions from your students is a great first step to help them be heard and feel like a valuable member of your class. They might ask questions that might be too difficult to answer now or ask very obvious ones that can easily be answered. They might even ask questions that don’t seem appropriate at the time they are asked. Whichever question it is, make sure to give them respect for asking the question and you can respond one of three ways. First you can either answer the question. Second, you can guide the student to find the answer themselves. Third, you can have a classroom question parking lot to “park” questions to come back to them later. If you do use the parking lot, remember it is a powerful tool in guiding and encouraging learning. Remember to review the questions during the week to either add them into your instruction or help students answer them!

Celebrate successes

Ensuring student learning comes with fulfilling not only the lesson objectives but also celebrating each student’s effort throughout the school day. For example, if you are teaching division to your students and one of them has their a-ha moment dividing by 3s, that’s something celebrate to with them. For those who are still struggling at the end, ask them what they understood so far and celebrate that too. Pointing out how far they have learned will increase their eagerness to keep persisting and helps with a growth mindset.

Creating and keeping a classroom environment where students are eager to listen to their lessons is challenging but necessary. The secret lies in maintaining an engaged environment that not only the teacher will be in control of, but also the students themselves. This can be achieved through various instructional practices, classroom strategies and techniques that include self-management, engaged learning, and lots of fun.

Remember that learning is about giving your students a lesson that they can remember even after they have left school!