Ways To Pace Instruction in the Classroom.

  Yesterday, I shared some nice ways to keep a good pace going in the classroom lesson but I found enough material that I wanted to share a bit more today.  I find the idea interesting because when I took teacher education classes, it was still when you sat kids in straight rows, lectured, and assigned work.  That was pretty much every class.  The teacher would often supply the notes on a transparency to project it on a screen so the kids could copy the notes down.  That is my default model.  I am trying to improve my teaching so I keep the kids on task and focused.

These suggestions form Florida actually integrate well with the material I've already talked about yesterday.
1. Incorporate movement which could be physical such as getting up and standing in a corner to answer a question or using different types of high lighters to show different types of information.

2. Incorporate academic games to review or preview material.  It builds the desire to learn due to the curiosity that students have.

3. Create mild competition using games such as Jeopardy.

4. Take inventory of student likes and dislikes to use to help plan lessons because if they like it, they are more likely to learn.

5.  Continue calling on students for the same question to keep interest up.  This might reveal that students did the problems differently.

In addition to pacing, it is important to actively engage students  so they learn.  This article offers five suggestions to improve actively engaging students.

1.  Connect the material with real life.  Keep in mind that some examples need to be culturally relevant to the students.  I have to use snow machines and ATV's out here because that is the vehicle used by families.  A problem with a car means nothing.

2. Use student interest and fascinations to boost engagement.

3.  Give students choices, allow them to set the pace, and try using menus in class and for homework.

4. Present the information in multiple formats.

5. Help students become aware of when they are off task.

Give both articles a good read for more detailed information.  I plan to download spread sheet programs to play with over the summer on my iPad to see which is best.  My iPads at school are old enough not to come with Numbers.