Students of all ages are more likely to participate in and remember lessons when teachers make learning fun.
Most people remember elementary school with some fondness because of the freedom they were allowed to have during recess and field trips. Teachers and parents are pushing youngsters to achieve greater learning requirements. However, make sure you don’t forget that it’s fun to learn!
How to Increase Student Learning
School should be fun, so think through how you can make school more exciting for kids and adults alike. Add some diversity and fun to the lessons to keep students engaged and motivated. Here are a few specific ideas to help you get started:
1. Break Up Lessons
Lecture-style lessons don’t work for every age group. You can’t expect small children to sit still and listen for long. Breaking the lesson up into pieces, especially when presenting on a new topic or concept, helps keep your audience engaged.
To help keep them engaged and to increase student learning, introduce the topic and then complete an activity. After an activity that lasts about 5-10 minutes, return to the topic of discussion. Then perform another group activity. Perhaps you could finish with a debate.
A half minute break every six minutes helps both children and adults feel better while learning. Therefore, vary your lesson plans and teaching styles daily. Trying new activities and learning something new and exciting can help everyone pay attention.
2. Give Options
Whether in the classroom or at home, children get to make very few decisions for themselves throughout the day. However, they want the option of voicing their opinion. Giving students choices in their learning environment increases engagement and buy-in. Let them choose an activity or homework project for that night. Encouraging students to make decisions will make learning more enjoyable.
3. Include Games
Games will often instantly engage students. From review to memorization drills, they make learning interesting. If you’re in need of ideas, educational games are available for free online and many of them don’t require much prep time or money.
4. Plan Group Time
Students may retain more information when they are placed together and allowed to work as a group. Cooperation promotes critical thinking and communication. This time together as a team adds another active element to their day, making their consumption of information more fun.
5. Get People Moving
Students, especially young ones, dislike long periods of inactivity, so get moving.
Give your pupils a quiet break or include movement in your lesson to increase student learning. A couple of minutes’ break can open up new ideas. In addition, it helps people feel more comfortable. Make sure there is plenty of room to move. Students will be more likely to engage in the lesson and have more fun when they know a break will happen.
6. Use Hands-on Learning
Help the students to be involved in the lesson through ands-on activities. These make lessons more entertaining and engaging. These exercises work for just about any kind of lesson. Students will remember a lesson better if it is action-oriented.
7. It’s Fun to be Creative and Open to New Things
It make be tempting to re-use a lesson plan from a previous year with your new students, but is that the right choice? You may be hesitant to attempt anything new after you have something that works. Each year you have a fresh, diverse group of students. You have another opportunity to be creative with lesson plans. Adding variety and imagination keeps learning exciting and fun!
In addition, be receptive to students’s ideas. Allow your class to make adjust assignments and class projects. Of course, they should consult you beforehand. Aside from being more significant, students who share their ideas gain confidence in the classroom and feel more empowered to make decisions.
8. Plan Field Trips
Field trips outside of the classroom help students engage with the rest of the world and what they’re studying. You can even try a virtual field trip if there are not good options near you. Whatever you do, make it fun!
9. Use More Technology in Your Lesson
Make learning familiar, fun, and accessible through using technology available in your classroom. If possible, equip the classroom with educational iPads. In addition, you can show them a clip from YouTube or make your own movie. Technology can help meet the needs of your students by increasing student learning.
10. Take the Learning Outside
Preparing for recess and other outdoor activities might make class time more enjoyable. Getting outside, socializing, and playing, prepares their minds for learning.
When allowed, taking your class outside can help increase student learning and improve grades. Children and adults can learn more and use their critical thinking abilities when there is outdoor stimulation. Further, it can increase their chances of acing tests and homework. Finally, it helps relieve stress. Therefore, whenever you can, relax and unwind outside.
Image credit: Andrea Piacquadio; Pexels
