Planning for the students to be actively engaged in the lesson.

I have observed with concern that if students aren't absorbed by what's going on in the lesson, they'll find something else that interests them.

So unless we manage to capture and keep students' focused, whether at the beginning of or midway through the lesson, the engine of student learning that we are trying to drive simply isn't even in gear.

So we have to find a way to actively engage students in the learning process. Today’s learners tend to respond best to interactive teaching methods, so we need to  integrated technology into our lesson plans which ASSURE , SAMR and TPACK models stands for.  

Here are ways in which I have successfully engaged students in my classroom.

v   Planning A Lesson Enriched With Activities.

These activities can be general-purpose activities that apply to various subject areas or styles of teaching, or specific content-oriented activities that allow your students to learn by tapping into multiple intelligences beyond the usual listening and recalling.

Some are physical activities that help students unleash pent-up energy, while others create private thinking time that encourages reflection. Or they can be well-managed student-to-student communication to guarantee that they are all thinking about the work.

Developing these activities initially takes time, but the payoff -- in terms of classroom management and overall learning -- is more than worth the effort. By building a storehouse of activities to draw on, I'm rarely at a loss to implement one of them to get my students back on track.

Actually right from the start of the lesson, I plan for a mind warm up activity to get the students interest.

v       I Have Taught My Students How To Collaborate Before Expecting Success.

It is becoming a culture now in my classes as they are getting used to constructivism way of learning which encourages collaboration. So activities are planned and in their groups they do these activities which keeps them so engaged as they will feel they are driving their learning.

v     To Avoid Relaxation I Create Teamwork Tactics That Emphasizes Accountability

By insisting that students "ask your group mate before me," you make it clear that they are expected to seek assistance from all members of their group before they turn to the teacher.

To reinforce this tactic, when a student on a team wants to ask you a question, you, the teacher, always ask another person on the team whether she knows what the question is. If she doesn't, politely walk away, and the team will quickly understand what you expect.

Another way to emphasize accountability might be to say, "When you think your team is done with the task, find me within 1 minute and tell me." This strategy shifts the accountability to the team for being on task.

vBy Mixing Up The Teaching Styles

To keep students involved and on their toes, try to move from teacher-centered learning to student-centered active learning, and vice versa.

By mixing the teaching, each approach tends to catch the students attention in a different way hich will keep them focused on what is going on in the lesson.

v      Use Responsive Technology

Responsive technology can help, allowing the teacher to embed questions into a presentation and enable students to answer using a keypad or smartphone. A good responsive technology solution can enable you to instantly aggregate and display response data in chart form. It’s a great icebreaker, and it can provide incredibly valuable insight by letting you accurately gauge knowledge levels in real time. So by allowing my students use the apps gets them attentive and fully engaged.

By allowing my Students navigate the web, go say to slide share.com they get actively engaged.  

For teachers who are seeking new ways to connect with students, creating an interactive presentation can be the key to achieving a truly engaged classroom. Technology makes it easy to embed questions and gather and analyze audience responses. A focused presentation with clear goals captures learners’ attention, and gauging learner progress with contextual slides that are simple and clutter-free gives the teacher valuable clues about the effectiveness of the session. But most of all, inviting students to participate in a lesson as a two-way conversation enhances the learning process.

In what ways will they be involved in activities you have not previously tried in your classes?

Students will have the computer themselves and will carry out research on different websites. This is a new activity in my classroom for I used to do it as teacher, but now since it is the students themselves, I believe it will help them learn more.

When it comes to using the software, say PowerPoint to present their work, this they had not tried it out but now it will be interesting to see them carry it out themselves.  

Is the ASSURE model   an effective way of planning a technology-enhanced lesson?

Oh yes very much, looking at the steps involved in the ASSURE model they make it an effective way because it puts the learner right at the center of learning. It encourages a planning for a variety of activities, media, materials and how they are to utilized in the class room. And still as I have mentioned it not mainly how the teacher will guide the learners to use the media, materials selected which as a result makes it possible for the teacher to move on with the lesson systemically.

So it helps the teacher to plan, for the media, materials, and methods to use in the lesson and how to use them.

Can I change the process to make it more effective?

The model’s process was well thought of may be as a way of making best use of the model I need at each step to think critically about it to make sure I have fully exhausted what is required at that step. The activities have to be well planned, media and materials have to be appropriate. 

With The ASSURE model you are Assured .

The ASSURE Model is:     
 

•     A procedural guide for planning and delivering  instruction that integrates technology and media into the teaching process.

•     A systematic approach of writing lesson plans.

•     A plan used to help teachers organize instructional procedures.
•      A plan used to help teachers do an authentic assessment of student learning.

The ASSURE model as seen earlier  contains six steps and the letters in ASSURE form an acronym. 

A  - Analyze the learners
S  - State objectives
S  - Select methods, media and materials
U  - Utilize media and materials

R  - Require learner participation
E  - Evaluate and revise

In the earlier post I shared with you about the first two steps that is analyse and state objectives and now let us look at the next two which are Select Methods, Media and Materials and  Utilize media and materials

The teacher first selects a teaching method, followed by materials

and media that are available. He/she also modifies and develops

other materials. 

Once the teacher has selected the right materials, methods and media this will give him a way of delivering the lesson and achieving the intended objectives. 

It is the appropriate materials that will make the lesson interesting and motivational. with the right materials the different learning styles are catered for that is visual , auditory and kinesthetic . 

Then once the right materials , media and methods are chosen, next is knowing how to use them. Therefore it is not only about having the right tools but also how to use them matters a lot.

  It helps to know how , where and when the selected materials, media and methods should be used which leads to systematic flow of the lesson.

THE VALUE OF LEARNER ANALYSIS

We have heard this phrase always: “Know your audience!” If you’re making a speech, you are taught to know your audience. If you’re writing a paper, you are taught to know your reader. If you’re selling a product, you are taught to know your consumer. So if we are designing lesson, we need to know our learners!

In the ASSURE model we call this a learner analysis. It is the process we go through to find out who we are designing the lesson for.

The ASSURE model is a six-step Instructional Systems Design (ISD), intended to help teachers utilize technology and media in the classroom. ASSURE is a way to ensure that the learning environment is appropriate for students. ASSURE can be used in lesson plans to improve your own teaching and your students’ learning while using technology. The ASSURE acronym stands for these important components:

The ASSURE model is a fantastic way to plan effective, media-rich lessons. ASSURE is based on “Events of Instruction.” The model is Constructivism-based; in other words, it is a framework that assumes passive learners will not learn at their best; learners must be actively participating in their own learning, interacting with their environment and peers. ASSURE also recognizes the different learning styles of all students.

In analysis stage of ASSURE model , information such as the number of students, grade or age level, gender, socio-economic factors and cultural or other types of diversity,  learning styles such as  auditory, visual, and tactile/kinesthetic,  prior knowledge of topic; psychosocial characteristics, such as motivation, attitudes, socioeconomic, is very vital to be considered.

Here are some of the values of learner analysis

·         The number and location of our learners will affect our choice of teaching strategy (i.e. e-learning vs. teacher-led vs. on-the-job).

·         The experience and knowledge level of our learners affects the kind of activity choices during the lesson.

·         The cultural mix of our learners will affect what we say and how we say it during the lesson.

·         The presence of subject-matter experts (SMEs) in our future learner group will affect the structure of our class, as we may want to use them in some way to help teach the novices in the group.

·         The knowledge of any physical disabilities of our learners will affect our choice of classroom and classroom layout.

·         It helps to determine the best teaching methods for specific learners in a specific context, attempting to obtain a specific goal.

Therefore in order to become skilled in today’s classrooms it is crucial to know when to use a wide range of instructional strategies and passive and interactive media.