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How to Use a Student-Centered Virtual Classroom to Engage Kids
It occurs to every instructor at some point. You’re standing in front of a class, giving a lesson, and you see that almost none of your classmates are paying attention. Some people are peering out the windows, while others are scribbling in their notebooks and conversing in whispers. Any classroom has a hurdle when it comes to student participation. In the virtual classroom, this problem is amplified. When compared to studying in a typical classroom, learning from home has many more distractions. Because of the current rise in distant learning as a result of the epidemic, engagement tactics are more vital than ever. In 2022, knowing how to engage students will be a required and important ability for all teachers. Continue reading for a collection of engagement ideas and strategies.
The key to keeping students interested, whether in a virtual or traditional classroom, is to establish a student-centered environment. Here are a few strategies to make sure your classroom is set up to encourage student participation.
Engage Students’ Passions:
Connecting teachings to something that already piques students’ attention is the simplest method to do so. While you won’t be able to relate every lesson to Fortnite, you may still discover activities and assignments that reference or include students’ outside-of-classroom interests.
Students might be encouraged to calculate statistics in sports or video games using maths skills. They can create essays about the people they follow on social media. They can use TikTok to produce films that provide short visual explanations of subjects from their curriculum.
When students are left to their own devices, find methods to include the themes, activities, and technologies that they gravitate toward. Including these features in learning opportunities is a certain method to keep students engaged in the subject.
Allow Students to Speak Up:
Giving students a voice in activities, projects, and even topic matter is a great approach to get them involved in the classroom. This method works best when you give students a few alternatives and let them choose which one they want to pursue as a class.
Students may pick whether to work alone or in groups; they can choose from a list of writing subjects; and they can decide whether to create a written essay, a video project, or an in-class presentation.
Giving students a sense of control over their classroom experience while retaining authority and keeping the class on track and productive is the key here.
Students Should Show their Work:
Long blocks of lecture followed by isolated, individual writing activity are the most efficient ways to send students to sleep. During the class hour, it is critical to provide students with as much attention as possible.
Giving students the opportunity to present their work in front of the class serves a number of purposes. For starters, it has a built-in aspect of accountability for the assignment. Students are more likely to stay on track until the assignment is done in an acceptable manner if they know they will be required to share their work with the class.
Second, this strategy prevents the audience’s attention from staying on the instructor for long periods of time while he or she is providing material. Changing speakers on a regular basis help students stay focused for longer lengths of time.
Acquire the ability to “Read the Room”:
Scanning the room (or screen) and picking up on body language signs that students are confused or having difficulty grasping the topics being taught is a talent that every teacher should have.
A student’s facial expressions and postures reveal that he or she is lost. With more classroom experience, these become simpler to notice. Meanwhile, it’s a good idea to “check-in” with students on a frequent basis. Stop and double-check that everyone is on the same page. Check to see whether you need to slow down or review any of the topics you’ve learned thus far.
While some students may be hesitant to raise a question or request clarification at this time, if you pause and give them the opportunity to do so, they may feel more at ease.
How to Use a Virtual Classroom to Engage Kids
Classroom style is another facet of the virtual classroom to consider in terms of student engagement. Even in brick-and-mortar colleges, a standard lecture-and-worksheet approach to the classroom can be unproductive; it would undoubtedly fail in a virtual one.
Instead, you should look for methods to make your virtual classroom more dynamic in order to keep your students engaged and focused.
Collaborate and Work in Groups:
Breaking students into groups to go through concepts and content as much as possible is a good approach. On this front, the transition to a virtual classroom might bring obstacles. Even so, most distance learning software includes a chat room or video conference capability to help with group work.
Students gain from hearing from a variety of perspectives, engaging in constructive debate and discussion on academic matters with their peers, and having the opportunity to present and defend their views in a group environment.
It is also good to expose students to different points of view, not simply the teacher’s, in order to expand their grasp of a topic. Setting up a classroom environment that stresses collaborative work enriches students’ learning and keeps them engaged.
Create a Multimedia Learning Environment:
Virtual learning has the benefit of making it simple to include varied media into your sessions. Because kids learn in a variety of ways – visual, aural, and hands-on – employing a variety of media helps to engage all types of learners.
Instead of depending entirely on lectures to demonstrate topics, consider using videos. Where audio recordings and music are suitable, use them. Encourage kids to make graphs and charts to help them understand what they’re studying.
Assignments and presenting information may be done through a variety of mediums. Use course information to inspire students to produce movies, podcasts, and interactive websites.
Laugh a little:
The use of humour in the classroom is something that many teachers overlook. Students respond to things that make them laugh, and they remember them. Although teachers should not aspire to be stand-up comedians, delivering knowledge in a way that makes students laugh might help them stay focused.
It is also feasible for students to relate to their instructor if they are open to comedy in the classroom. It can also help to relieve tension, which is important in a pandemic-prone environment.
FAQs
Question 1: What factors contribute to low student engagement?
Answer 1: There are a variety of reasons why students aren’t engaged in the classroom. These are frequently unrelated to school. For instance, not getting enough sleep, spending too much time with peers or on devices, participating in too many extracurricular activities, having ‘problems’ at home, or simply being ‘lazy.’
Question 2: What happens if students aren’t interested in learning?
Answer 2: To blend in with their peers, some kids who are disengaged or lack drive may disguise learning disabilities or giftedness. Students who are disengaged are not always uninspired to succeed in all disciplines. They may be uninterested in a single class or in a number of disciplines.
Question 3: Why is it necessary for students to be engaged in the classroom?
Answer 3: Engaging students in the learning process has been shown to improve their attention and focus, inspire them to exercise higher-level critical thinking abilities, and foster meaningful learning experiences.
