Developing Engaging Lessons for the New School Year
As the school year begins, summer feels like a distant memory, and teachers across Ireland are once again diving into the depths of lesson planning.
This blog will highlight a couple of things that can be incorporated into lessons to make them a bit more engaging for students all while ensuring learning of key material is happening.
Retrieval Practice
One of the most important parts of our lessons is the opening few minutes. It is a time where we should be recapping learning from a previous lesson before moving on to new material. Although starting a lesson with the learning intentions also has its benefits, the importance of reviewing previously learnt material first should be emphasised.
Research suggests that dedicating a short period each lesson to reviewing and evaluating previous academic performance will help students perform better academically. The idea of this essentially relates to the concept of working memory. As our cognitive load is quite small, if we don’t review previous learning, then the effort of trying to remember old information will get in the way of learning new information.
By devoting time to review and evaluate previous learning, students will ultimately perform better. This is because they will develop a more in-depth understanding of syllabus material, make connections between topics, and enhance their critical thinking skills. The issue? Recapping the learning of up to 30 students in one class can be time-consuming. We want it to be quick and engaging for students. This is where Retrieval Practice comes in.
‘Retrieval Practice’ is a pedagogical method that is all about moving knowledge from shortterm to long-term memory. It is the act of recalling learned information from memory (with little or no support) and every time that information is retrieved, or an answer is generated, it changes the original memory to make it stronger.
Retrieval practice is intended to be low-stakes or no-stakes (meaning the results do not need to be recorded or shared), unlike a high-stakes or high-pressure situation like an exam. Research has shown that retrieval practice can also reduce stress and increase confidence both in the classroom and when students undertake exams.
I start all of my lessons with a retrieval practice activity. It takes no more than 5 minutes to complete and in that time every single student in the classroom has recapped on previous learning. Better yet? Students are engaged in the lesson from the second they walk in the door.
I will go through some examples here and provide a bank of templates which can be used in your own classroom.
True/False
Students are given a set of true of false statements. They need to classify them as being either true or false. As an extra challenge, if they get it finished quickly, I encourage them to look at the statements which they marked as false, and try and change them in some way that they would become true.
Challenge Grid
Students are given a series of questions or tasks. Some are based on information from the last lesson, some from a week ago, and others from lessons a few months ago. Each one is worth a certain number of points. They have 5 minutes to complete as many as they can and accumulate as many points as possible.
What’s the keyword?
In this activity, the definition of a keyword is given. Students are given an allocated amount of time to read each definition and try and recall what keyword each is related to.
There are a host of other activities that you can use. You can find them here: Retrieval Pratice – Templates. They are all super easy to use and ensures that not only are students all recapping their learning before moving on to new material in class, but that they are engaged in the lesson from the very beginning.
Experiment Videos (Adobe Express)
One easy way to make lessons for engaging for students is to allow them to create content for themselves. While this example here is science related, the app used can easily be incorporated into lessons across all subjects.
As a science teacher, one of the aspects of science that I find that students find difficult is trying to remember the ins and outs of experiments they complete in class. What chemicals did I use to produce oxygen gas? Was it sodium hydroxide or hydrochloric acid I added to the burette? What happened when I put a glowing splint into the collection jar? The list of questions goes on.
The trouble with experiments is that students normally complete them once, document the steps into a copy, and never actually see the process in action again. This was causing my students difficulty when they were trying to visualise the steps from a series of handwritten notes in their copies. To combat this, we have now started to document experimental procedures using videos instead.
While completing an experiment, students now take pictures and videos as they complete each step. When the experiment is complete, they can compile all of these into a video using Adobe Express. Text can be placed along with each image to annotate the steps involved and the results can be relived again and again instead of just seeing it once. This makes it a lot easier to visualise and remember what was actually done.
These can be then stored on OneDrive, the photo gallery on student devices or even embedded into their OneNote Notebooks. They can also be used to help make their notes copies for interactive which will be explained later.
Interactive Notes Copies (Halo AR)
Within the classroom, we want students to be as active in the learning process as possible. Yes, we may want them to take key information into their copies, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make it engaging for them. This is where we can allow them to make their copies interactive using Halo AR.
Halo AR works by combining a project/video/poster a student has made to a trigger image in their copy. When they scan the trigger image in their copy using the Halo AR app, whatever they have linked to it will automatically pop up on their screen, making it look like it is jumping out of their copy pages.
The example above combines the experiment video we seen earlier with the student notes copy. The diagram drawn in the copy of the apparatus is the trigger image and when scanned, the video created will appear. It doesn’t even have to be an original artefact produced by the students that is linked to it. They can get a diagram they like from online, a nice tutorial video from YouTube, whatever they like!
As you can imagine, this makes their lesson a lot more active and fun when interactive elements like this are built in.
Mind Maps (Coggle)
Mind maps are a favourite of students when it comes to summarising a unit of learning and is a great way to get students engaged in class. A mind map is a drawing of a basic concept, that stretches out into detail through branches and stems, like a plant. There are a few reasons why mind maps are useful:
- Studies have shown that drawing/creating art along with words helps you remember information 6 times better than if you just learnt from words alone.
- By linking and breaking down each idea into smaller ideas, you’re simplifying the topic and making it easier for yourself to understand.
- Studies also show that your long-term memory can improve up to 10% by using mind maps.
The option is there to complete either a physical or digital mind map. I find that digital mind maps are quicker and easier to create then a hand-drawn one, lending more time to revision. One of the best apps to use for this is ‘Coggle’.
Coggle will draw all the branches you need for your mind map, and also allows you to add not only text, but also images to the mind map as well. Once the mind map is created there are options to print it, save it to the photo gallery, embed into OneNote or even store it on OneDrive. An added bonus is that it can easily be shared with everyone in the class. So even if just one student creates one, it could benefit everybody.
An example of a mind map created by one of my students is below here:
Digital Poster Making (Canva)
Another creative and visual way for students to get engaged in lessons is through the production of posters. This, like the mind maps, can be done physically or digitally. One of the benefits of doing it digitally, is the fact that there are numerous templates available for use which makes the designing a whole lot easier, and helps students to organise their thoughts in a more coherent way. One of the best tools for making posters is the app ‘Canva’.
Canva allows students to add images, text and their own drawings to poster. They can design the poster themselves from scratch, or they can use templates to help them with their design. The easy to use interface means even if they have no background in creating posters, they will find this easy to navigate and use. Again, like Coggle, these can be saved or printed and act as a vital revision tool. They can also be used to jazz up the classroom walls with student-created work.
Examples of some of the work produced by my students is here:
Hopefully everyone has enjoyed the summer holidays, and you find some of what is included here beneficial in making lessons engaging for your students.
