5 Ways to Keep Your Students Engaged and Learning in the Classroom

As a teacher, it's important to find ways to keep your students engaged and learning. If they become bored or distracted, it can be difficult to get them back on track. In this blog post, we will discuss five ways to keep your students interested in class and motivated to learn!

How long can pupils focus for?

It is widely accepted that the average attention span of a human being is 20 minutes. However, this can vary depending on age, with children generally having shorter attention spans than adults. Studies have shown that classroom performance and attentiveness begins to drop off after around 20 minutes of teaching. This is why it is important to find ways to break up classroom teaching, so that pupils stay focused throughout the lesson.

Off-task behaviour is a common challenge among classroom teaching. Research has shown that primary school students spend between 25% and 50% of instructional time off-task! (Karweit & Slavin, 1981). This significantly limits students' learning opportunities as they spend less time learning classroom content.

Here's our 5 top tips:

1) Get creative with learning

One way to keep your students engaged is to get creative with your teaching methods. Use a variety of techniques to deliver the same information, so that it is more interesting for them. For example, if you are teaching a history lesson, try incorporating role-play or drama into the lesson. This will help bring the subject matter to life and make it more enjoyable for pupils.

2) Encourage active listening

Active listening is a skill that is important for both teachers and students. When you are actively listening, you are not just hearing the words that someone is saying, but you are also paying attention to their body language and trying to understand the meaning behind their words. This can be difficult to do, especially in a classroom setting where there are many distractions. However, it is important to promote active listening in the classroom so that students can engage with the material more deeply. There are a few ways that you can promote active listening, such as:

• Asking questions throughout the lesson to check for understanding

• Encouraging students to repeat back what they have heard in their own words

• Modelling active listening yourself by paying attention to the students and showing that you are interested in what they are saying

• Have talking partners to encourage discussion during classroom teaching and encourage frequent discussion, providing opportunities wherever possible.

3) Use brain breaks

Brain breaks are activities that can be used to help increase focus in the classroom. Check out our blog on Brain Breaks here to find out more about this magic classroom tool! They can last for any length of time, from a few seconds to a few minutes, and can be used throughout the lesson to keep students engaged. There are many different types of brain break activities that you can use, such as:

• Taking a few deep breaths

• Doing some stretches

• Playing a quick game

• Listening to music

We've designed a range of Brain Break videos from chair-based and partner workouts to mindfulness exercises and stretching. So whether your pupils need to re-focus after the playground or warm up the body and brain before a content-heavy lesson, there's a video for you.

4) Use engaging learning activities

In addition to using brain breaks, it is also important to use activity to break up classroom teaching. This can help to keep students engaged and interested in what you are saying. There are many different ways that you can do this, such as:

• Asking questions and getting students to discuss the answers in small groups

• Getting students to work on an activity or project for part of the lesson

• Using multimedia resources such as videos, games or websites during the lesson

• Having students do a hands-on activity related to the topic of the lesson

5) Use technology wisely

Technology can be a great tool for classroom teaching, but it is important to use it wisely. If you rely too heavily on technology, students can quickly become bored or distracted. However, if you use it sparingly and only when it is truly necessary, it can be a great way to keep students engaged and interested in the lesson. There are a few ways that you can use technology wisely in the classroom, such as:

• Using multimedia resources such as videos, games or websites during the lesson

• Having students do a hands-on activity related to the topic of the lesson

• Using technology to create an engaging and interactive presentation

• Providing comments or feedback via email or online learning platforms

When using technology, make sure to choose resources that are high-quality and relevant to the topic of the lesson. This will help to keep students interested and engaged in what you are saying.

There we have it! By using these strategies, you can help your students to learn more effectively and retain more information from the lesson. Let us know in the comments if you try any of these strategies and share some of your tips for improving student engagement in the classroom!