Effective Classroom Management: Engaging Learning Activities & Strategies

Busy Work vs. Engaging Learning Activities

BUSY WORK:

Tasks JUST to keep students entertained.

Not thinking nor learning.

ENGAGING LEARNING ACTIVITIES:

Activities that get the student involved in his learning and foment cognitive learning.  We are actually learning something.

Misbehavior: Examples & How to Deal

• Examples of Misbehavior:
  • Class disruption
  • Not following the rules
  • Talk out of context
• How to Deal:
  • Give responsibility
  • Give clear instructions
  • Be firm, not rude
  • Reprimand privately
  • Give reinforcers

Classroom Layout & Seating Arrangements

Classroom layout and seating arrangements can affect learning in several ways:

• Affects interaction
• Affects eye-to-eye contact
• Affects board access
• Affects the teacher's attention to students
• Affects teacher's supervision

Common Seating Arrangements:

1. Traditional seating
2. Horseshoe seating
3. Class-group seating
4. Group seating

Improving Board Usage

Here are some ways to improve board usage:

• Divide the board
• Have a clean board
• Erase words instead of crossing them out
• Classify language items
• Use colors

Visual Aids in the Classroom

Visual aids are helpful in the classroom because they:

• Attract students' attention
• Are quicker than explaining with words
• Are easy to make and reusable
• Can be used for more than one purpose

Cooperative Learning Grouping

Here are two examples of cooperative learning grouping:

Example 1: Prepa en Línea SEP // Creating a topic in a forum asking about previous experiences in the module to encourage students to participate at least three times answering the ignition question and replying to other students' comments; this demonstrates equal participation. // Then, once a week, a video-session is held among the teacher and the students, talking about the week's progress of the topic, which exemplifies simultaneous interaction.

Example 2: Having a group of 4 and assigning a research paper. The students have to investigate a specific part of the task, demonstrating individual accountability. Then, students will answer a specific question related to the research; this will be positive interdependence because the others will depend on each other's learning.