TIPS TO KEEP STUDENTS MOTIVATED AND ENGAGED

Page 1

SOME IDEAS TO KEEP STUDENTS MOTIVATED AND ENGAGED Not an easy thing. I like this quote, it’S food for thought, isn’t it? “If we love what we teach, that enthusiasm is catching. So if you want motivated students, look first to yourself.” Rachael Roberts. I like to compare keeping students ‘motivation with keeping up a successful marriage. Motivation, as well as passion, easily fades away if you don’t feed it every day. If you show a passion for teaching, they might show a passion for learning. It takes time, effort and energy, but it is certainly worthwhile. Some things I have used effectively in class. 1. Setting clear attainable goals for every lesson. I want my students to leave my class, thinking it was worth their while so I always start my lessons by writing down my lesson plan on the corner of the whiteboard so that my students know what they are going to learn.( It's also good for students who are late, because they know what they have missed and they can always catch up later) . With this lesson plan on the board, at the end of the class my students know what they have accomplished. It's important for them to see where they are and where you are going to take them. 2. Giving very clear instructions when setting a task. This is very important to students. They need to have a very clear idea of what they need to do and have enough time to prepare for the task and ask questions. There is nothing more frustrating for them than not being able to perform well just because they didn't understand the task. The feeling of Yeahh I did it! The aha feeling is also very important. This sense of improvement students get when they have performed a task or done a difficult exercise, this feeling of relief they get when they have accomplished a task is a boost to their motivation. 3. Create a friendly atmosphere. I have about 30 students per class and I teach adults and this means that most of them don't know anybody in the class. Encourage an open atmosphere where students can share their opinions and don't forget this is not the time to overcorrect their mistakes. 4. Varying the dynamics is also important. That means working in pairs or in threes or in groups. I always encourage my students to change partners. I tell them that it's better for them and for their English if they do not always sit in the same place and talk to the same people. One of the techniques that works really well is using the speed dating technique , which I very often use in class and that my students love. I teach intensive courses , ie, my students are in class for almost two hours twice a week so it's important to vary the activities to keep them engaged and motivated. Another activity I very often do is ask them to stand up and mingle or maybe if it's a speaking activity I stick slips of paper or post- it notes on the walls of the class and students need to stand up next to them and talk using them and after that, to move clockwise to the next slip of paper . In the middle of the allowed time I ask them to change partners. 5. Include movement. I teach two-hour lessons and I like to include movement in my classes. I very often set tasks where students will need to get up or maybe change partners. An activity that I very often use in my classes and with great success is the speed-dating technique, especially to practice speaking. There are plenty of meaningful group activities that involve movement and that the students certainly enjoy but obviously I don't do them all the time, as with most things the element of surprise is important and I try to vary the type of exercises I do. 6. Get them into the right mood .At the beginning of the lesson I always do a short oral activity, normally to revise something from the previous class where students will have to take an active role and his helps me get them into the right mood and use English from minute 1.An activity I often do is to ask them to stand up and individually give students a synonym or a brief definition of the word I want to revise. If they do not know it, they have to sit down and if they know it they remain standing. If at the end of the first round you have a lot of students standing start being fussy about pronunciation. I give a sweet to the winner. They love it! 7. Don't teach from behind your desk. I am also moving all the time. I can't teach from behind my desk. I don’t know! I feel I am not reaching them. So my class is in a U-shape and when I am not writing something on the whiteboard I am in the middle of the U. 8. Use the board. Write on it. It's important for the students to feel confident that what you have just explained is what they have understood. 9. Make learning fun. Use games and competitions in class. Everybody loves competitions and it offers students a nice opportunity to interact with other, have fun and learn at the same time. Most important is the fact that it creates the friendly atmosphere the student needs to boost his confidence. 10. Use technology and I'm not referring to the digital books, if you're so lucky as to have them. There are plenty of sites that offer quizzes, or games or videos with questions...etc. It is up to us to seek out the resources that may benefit our classes but certainly bringing technology into our lessons is a great way to motivate students. 11. Don't give up on weak students. They can feel it. Believe they can do it, so that they believe they will do it. I have found that there is a natural tendency for weak students to sit at the back and on their own. It’s very easy for a teacher to spot these students who feel the rest of the class are better than them, when most probably they are not. I've found that if I don't want these students to give up, I need to bring them into the classroom as soon as possible, so that they feel they belong to the group and don't give up with a lame excuse 12. In terms of homework I would suggest variety. if you always give students the same kind of homework , ie, exercise 7 page 17 of your workbooks, you're going to find that some of your students don't do homework, but maybe if you give them different activities to do , then they are more likely to find the time to do it; like for example listening to a song and trying to understand the lyrics or maybe watching a video to discuss later in class, maybe playing a word game, or doing a small presentation on the topic we are discussing in class, doing a bit of group work, or maybe asking them to do some shadow reading on this or that webpage.