Engaging Learners

I find it interesting how the teacher in my service learning placement engages the students in meaningful ways. I also never realized how important it is to engage the students while teaching, and how much the teacher really uses engagement. For my first example how my cooperating teacher engages students in a meaningful way is when the teacher asks a question and then waits. She gives the students plenty of time to think about the question. This gets their attention because they know she will call on any of them, so they should be ready with an answer. This gets the students focused and ready for participation. My second example is when the teacher engaged the students with a game. It is a version of "Go Fish" using plural nouns. First the teacher reviews the rules of plural nouns, divides the students into groups of three, and then she has them play "Go Fish" matching the plural nouns such as "goose" matches with the plural noun "geese". The students really enjoyed this engaging activity and it helped them learn about plural nouns as they were having fun. They are focused and participating in an engaging activity. For my third example of engaged learning the teacher has a morning meeting. She will call the students to the back of the classroom to sit on a rug. There she has written a story or a letter to the students. There are many mistakes and she asks the students to find them. She will ask one student at a time to come up and correct one of the mistakes they see. This gets the students stimulated while participating in finding the mistakes and correcting them. Plus they are curiously engaged in what the teacher has written for them.

I have observed in another classroom where the teacher had six worksheets he wanted the students to complete. At first the students worked quietly, but as the students moved on to the next few worksheets the students became overwhelmed and restless. I felt the teacher could have made this more engaging by creating centers, where they rotate to different activities on the topic covered. The teacher could incorporate one worksheet each day in one of the centers. This way they wouldn't become restless and overwhelmed trying to complete the six worksheets all at once. They would become engaged in the activities in the centers that would keep them focused and participating. This would help them retain the information they were learning about.

Letter from teacher