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Keep 'em Hooked

More Important Than Attendance

Keep 'emHookedMore Important Than Attendance

What is Student Engagment?

The degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education.

How to Increase Student Engagement

Classroom activities should address student fears about learning


  1. Ask open-ended questions.
  2. Ask students what they know about a topic before instruction.
  3. Use more ungraded or credit-upon-completion assignments.
  4. Incorporate student discussion time into activities.
  5. Have students model or explain to other students.
  6. Build peer review into open-ended assignments
  7. Offer multiple versions of activities or assignments
  8. Encourage students to reflect upon the learning process
  9. Emphasize the importance of course objectives in assignments

Stanford University | Teaching Commons

Why Use Collaborative Learning?

Research shows that educational experiences that are active, social, contextual, engaging, and student-owned lead to deeper learning. The benefits of collaborative learning include: Development of higher-level thinking, oral communication, self-management, and leadership skills.

Cornell University

Student Discussion Types

  • Turn and Talk
  • Fishbowl
  • Gallery Walk
  • Chalk Talk
  • Action Questions
  • Conversation Starters
  • Hot Seat
  • Snowball Discussion

Think - WRITE - Pair - Share

Quick participation structures that can be used over and over to get all students actively engaged and contributing academically and socially to the classroom community.

Reading Apprenticeship

Split-Room Debate

Which would you rather? This or that? Have the students move to a side of the room to represent their position and then formulate their argument.

Video

Inside/Outside Circles

This discussion technique gives students the opportunity to respond to questions and/or discuss information with a variety of peers in a structured manner. Students form two concentric circles and exchange information with a partner until the teacher signals the outer circle to move in one direction, giving each student a new peer to talk to.

The Teacher Toolkit

Teacher Toolkit: Inside Outside Circles (Elementary)
Pear ELAR
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