Online Student Engagement
What a crazy school year 2020 has been. Many of us teachers have been turned to distant learning. Whether that is teaching online to your students or creating work to be sent home, I want to share my tips for online student engagement to help during this transition time for teachers and students.
Student Engagement Strategies for the Online Learning Environment
Online Student Engagement Tip 1: Give Students Choice
When giving assignments, give choices. Not every student has the same resources at home or the same access to computers or internet. So if you give choices, it allows every student to be successful. Not only that, but giving choices automatically increases students’ engagement. Students will choose which assignment will be most appealing to them. They will be more likely to want to do it. And because of that, it will increase student engagement. By giving choices, you are letting students be in more control of their learning, and they love it!
I sent home a simple choice board with my second grade students. There is a column for reading activities, writing activities, and math activities. They pick one reading, writing, and math activity to do each day. As I have followed up with parents seeing how this is going with students, they have loved how simple it is to follow. I have made this resource free and want to share it with you if you think it will benefit your students. Find it here. It is editable. So change any of the assignments to fit your grade level or students’ needs.
Online Student Engagement Tip 2: Share Stories
Children love stories. And so do adults! I once attended a professional development session where the speaker painted pictures and told stories. That is literally all he did, and it was great! No zoning out. No falling asleep. I was completely interested and invested in each one of his stories. If you are making videos with content and sending it out to your students, then this online student engagement strategy is for you. Add in stories to supplement your content.
I am planning on making some videos to send out to my students. As students see my home in the background, I am planning on telling a story. “As you boys and girls can now see, I do not live at the school. I do have a home! I know some of you thought that. But let me tell you something… I had a teacher in high school that my friends and I legitimately thought lived at the school. He had a sleeping bag behind his desk. He made his breakfast on a hot plate each morning. We even saw inside his closet. The shelves that should have been filled with science supplies, were actually stacked with his clothes!”
Adding in stories help break up the content and allow students to refocus.
Online Student Engagement Tip 3: Bring in the Familiar
Online learning is probably new to most of your students. They are probably a little nervous or anxious about it. So bring in the familiar. Just having a video where you show your face is going to be familiar to them. Or give a lesson that is formatted that same that you usually give it in class. Or bring in materials from your classroom.
I plan to make videos where lesson formats are the same as they would have been in the classroom. I’m going to make a video where I teach our regular phonics lesson. I will introduce the pattern, have students help me count out the sounds, and then spell the words. Students will then try by themselves to spell the words. Then, we will make a chart with different words that match the spelling patterns. Not only is it engaging to students because it has them doing something while watching the video, but it is a great online student engagement strategy because it eases students’ nerves.
Online Student Engagement Tip 4: Highlight Student Work
Students love to share their work with their classmates. If they work hard on something, they naturally want to share. As you highlight student work, more students will want to share and interact with each other in the online space. So after giving an assignment, have students send you a picture of their work if they would like to share. Then you can put it on the platform you are using for the whole class to see. Or make a slideshow video of your students’ work for the class to see.
I love to bring student engagement into the classroom. But what if the classroom is online? Well, there are still simple strategies you can implement to increase student engagement online. I hope these tips will help serve you and your students well.
Looking for more student engagement ideas and tips? Download this free workbook all about creating an engaged classroom.
Have you seen my blog post about Three Easy to Make Math Fact Games? Check it out here.
