The last couple of years have been crazy, to say the least in the education world. Some teachers were online, in person, or both at the same time.
Now that things are starting to go back to normal, it can be hard to keep your students engaged during the school day.
Student engagement can feel daunting because it can take a lot of time, and that all of your students like to do different things in the classroom.
Or maybe you tried something you thought would be “fun” in class but your students didn’t find it as engaging as you had hoped.
If this sounds like you, then you are not alone.
Transitioning back to in-person learning after online learning was hard, especially while trying to figure out how to keep my students engaged.
That’s why today we are going to talk about 5 Essential Student Engagement Strategies for In-Person Learning for the Primary Classroom.
Today we are going to cover:
- What is student engagement?
- Why is student engagement important?
- 5 Essential Student Engagement Strategies for In Personal Learning For Primary Students.
So put your feet up, grab a cup of coffee and let’s get started!
(This post may contain affiliate or external links. Meaning I get a commission if you purchase anything through my links at no cost to you. Read full disclosure here.)
What is Student Engagement?
Alright, so the first thing you might be thinking is “what is student engagement?”
According to Ed Glossary, “student engagement is the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show while learning.”
In other words, it’s how “into” the lesson your students are.
And I don’t just mean keeping their eyes on you. In fact, there are three kinds of student engagement.
They are:
- Behavioral Engagement
- Emotional Engagement
- Cognitive or Intellectual Engagement
All of these play a crucial role when it comes to your relationship with your students.
If you have good student engagement in the classroom then you will most likely have a positive relationship with them. And vice versa.
If you want to learn more about what student engagement is, check out this post called “The Ultimate Guide of Student Engagement Strategies.” You can find it by clicking here.
Why is Student Engagement Important?
There are several reasons why student engagement is so important.
As I mentioned at the beginning, students only have a couple of minutes where they are attentive due to their attention span.
That’s why it is so important to make what time you do have their attention count.
Student engagement is important because:
- It leads to higher grades
- Students perform better in school
- Their attendance might be better
- It might lead to students liking school
- Students will be more excited about your lesson.
5 Student Engagement Strategies for in Person Learning
Now that we know what student engagement is and why it’s important, let’s talk about some student engagement strategies for in-person learning.
Morning Work
One of the best student engagement strategies for in-person learning that you can incorporate into the primary classroom is morning work.
As a first-year teacher, I often heard how I needed to have something for my students to do as soon as they entered the classroom.
After trying worksheets, and other activities I decided to incorporate the question of the day.
Question of the day is a great activity to have your students start their mornings with because they have an opportunity to give their opinion and explain it.
For those of you that may not know, the question of the day is an activity where you put a question on the board like “If you could have any superhero power, what would it be and why?”
This is a great student engagement strategy for in-person learning because students are writing and explaining their answers.
Students can share their answers with their groups while you go around and check in with your students and take attendance.
My students loved doing the question of the day because they felt like their opinions were validated and of value in the classroom.
Related:
- Amazing Student Engagement Strategies for Hybrid Learning
- 3 Student Engagement Strategies to Transform Online Learning
- The Ultimate Guide of Student Engagement Strategies In 5 Minutes or Less
Choice Board
In the classroom, it can feel like you have a diverse group of students who all learn differently.
This can make incorporating student engagement feel impossible to implement in a way that all students will benefit.
That’s why one of the best student engagement strategies for in-person learning that you can incorporate in the classroom is a choice board.
Choice Boards are amazing for several reasons.
First off, they are fantastic for allowing students to have a say in their education and how they want to show what they know.
They are also spectacular tools because it’s a great way to incorporate modifications or differentiate instruction.
Students can have several choices about how they learn something, or how they present mastery of a skill for a grade.
Book Based Activities
Book based activities are great student engagement strategies for in-person learning because it brings books to life.
If your class enjoys a specific book or character, you can always incorporate activities throughout your day that revolve around that character.
Primary students who particularly love read aloud are ecstatic when books are brought to life.
If you want to learn more about how to bring books to life, read this post called “How to Get Students Excited About Reading.”
In this post, I take a deep dive into how to bring books to life in the classroom without extra work. You can read it by clicking here.
White Boards
White Boards are easily one of the most underrated student engagement strategies for in-person learning in the world of education.
There are so many fun and amazing games that you can play with a whiteboard that your students will love!
One game you can play is “One, Two, Three, Flip!”
This activity is something I played with my online and in-person students.
Basically, you give students a problem.
For example, “2 + 5 = ?”
Then you have students write the answer on their whiteboards without showing their peers.
Then you count to 3 and say “flip.”
All students flip over their whiteboards to reveal their answer when you say “flip.”
If you want even more whiteboard activities, download the “Ultimate Student Engagement Guide For Primary Students.”
This guide is amazing because it has over 30 student engagement activities that you can do with your students in just 5 minutes or less. You can download it for free by clicking here.
Share with a Friend
If you are a fan of Kagan or Cooperative Learning, then you have probably already used this strategy before.
Sharing with a friend is another great student engagement strategy for in-person learning because it allows your students to share their answers with a partner before sharing them with the class.
Sharing with a friend is also amazing because it helps students build relationships and work on their social communication skills.
Simply have students turn to a partner or group to discuss the answer before sharing the answer out loud.
Overview
All in all, I hope you found this article helpful.
In this post we talked about:
- What student engagement is
- Why student engagement is important
- 5 Essential Student Engagement Strategies for In Personal Learning For Primary Students.
Now that you have an idea of some engagement strategies for in-person learning, I want to give you this free download of even more student engagement strategies.
You see I have tons of ideas (30 to be exact) and couldn’t fit them all in a blog post.
So if you are a busy teacher who needs a new strategy, download this “Ultimate Student Engagement Guide” for student engagement strategies that you can use in 5 minutes or less.
You can download it by clicking here.
That’s all for now, until next time!
Happy Teaching!
