Image by Kenny Eliason via Kenny Eliason (@neonbrand) | Unsplash Photo Community
As of 2021 “there were 2.0 million status dropouts between the ages of 16 and 24” (COE - Status Dropout Rates (ed.gov)). In my opinion, this is too many. As a future educator, I would like to ensure that this does not occur with any of my students by doing the one thing that I have the power to do which is teach creatively. I don’t want to stress my students out with pop quizzes or bore them with lectures. The key to succeeding in this pursuit lies in variation. There are many variations in students and how they engage with learning. So why is there usually no variation within their lessons? Listed below are several examples of various lessons that can be incorporated into a secondary English class to make learning more fun and engaging.
1.) Small Group and Whole Group discussions:
Students tend to become more engaged in a lesson when they can explore the content within their peer group. Affording them the opportunity to engage with the content before telling them what to think also allows for creative thinking and exploration within the content. This can be a breath of fresh air compared to the normal lecture method.
Have all students complete a common reading.
Place students within small groups or split the room in half to form two larger groups. -Students will discuss the readings within their small groups noting key takeaways.
Have the class come together as a whole group to discuss the text.
Give each group a chance to discuss, within the whole group, what their small group thought of the text.
As the teacher, you should provide oversight and clarification while both groups present.
Cover anything that the students needed help understanding or bringing up on their own.
2.) Five-photograph Story:
An engaging project that allows students to express what they learned from a text by presenting key concepts within five photographs.
Each student chooses a theme from a class reading to present to the class.
Five photographs must be chosen to represent the theme.
Two presentations are involved
The first presentation is a slow and deliberate showing of all five pictures without text or speech accompanying it. The class will then have to guess which theme the presenter is portraying.
The second presentation is an explanation of the theme and why the five photographs were chosen.
For more information on how five-photograph stories check out this link - 5 Photo Story – Show What You Know with Media (showwithmedia.com)
3.) Blogging or journaling:
Allowing students to maintain a blog or a journal is a great way to foster engagement while reading a novel. It is note-taking but in a creative and self-expressive format. A blog entry per chapter reflecting what the reader found to be important allows for much exploration while also maintaining engagement.
Provide each student with a composition notebook or have students maintain their writings on a Google doc.
For each chapter provide a set of concrete prompts for students.
The additional option to create their own prompt to write about will add to the creativity and self-expression of this assignment.
Collect these journals at regular intervals and grade them as complete or incomplete.
4.) Poetry Walks:
While the weather may not always allow for this activity it is still a good idea to maintain engagement through a change of scenery. Being outside observing nature allows for a much more relaxing and engaging environment than a classroom.
Check with your administrator to ensure that you have permission to take students outside of the building.
Have a particular section of the school grounds in mind before setting off outside.
Have a particular path picked out for students to use to navigate to their intended destination.
Keep an eye out for stragglers or for students who go off course and redirect them
Once at your destination have students observe what they see. Have them create a list of adjectives to use in a nature poem.
Once their word banks are created they can begin writing their poem.
These word banks can be used throughout the week to revise and edit the poem before turning it in.
There are a number of lesson plans involving poetry walks in the following link for those who are interested - Poetry walk | TPT (teacherspayteachers.com)
As an educator, it can be easy to slip into a comfortable setting and push out the same content week to week and year to year. However, I would argue that in doing so we risk losing the engagement of our students. We, as educators, have the ability to positively change the perspective that students have on school and learning by making our lessons engaging.
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