Strategies to Engage Students

Have you tried the Fishbowl Strategy?

Instructional Strategies for every teaching situation you face. Teaching Strategies Website

Inside Outside Circles

Graffiti 

Numbered Heads Together

3-2-1 

Biography in a Bag

RAFT  (My favorite strategy)

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About Fran Mauney

Fran Mauney has over 30 years experience in education. She is an award winning educator who leads academic innovation and technology projects for Greenville County Schools. She enjoys training teachers, students, and administrators, keynote speaking, playing with grandchildren, and serving at church. She has her own consulting business and shares her expertise with community organizations and tech companies around the country. She has served as an adjunct college professor, university supervisor of student teachers, School Advisory Board member for Education and Human Services at a local university, member of School Improvement Councils, Site Director for Grants, and led the education practice at SYNNEX, while caring for her 99 year old mother. Together, they host a weekly online talk show about living life with purpose. She is honored to be part of the Game Changer program with the National Center for Performance Health and Consultant/Trainer for ImaginGO.

4 thoughts on “Strategies to Engage Students

  1. Susan Felton

    As exciting as I find all of the information about all of these wonderful technology-based activities, I was drawn to the ideas and strategies offered under “Strategies To Engage Students”. I really liked the “Working Agreements” that the teacher in the video had his class create. When you can get students to recognize what a good learning environment looks, feels, and sounds like, you and the students can accomplish a lot. I liked his “Private Think Time” when presenting problems to the class, and I loved the idea of teaching kids how to give and accept help.

    I also liked the methods listed that engage all the students in the discussion of whatever topic is being presented. I would love to try activities such as “Graffiti”, where everyone writes down words and phrases related to the topic, and then the group summarizes those thoughts for the class. “Numbered Heads” was another great way to give every student a chance to respond to a question or topic. And “3-2-1” is a good tool to use for self-evaluation and reflection. I am sure all of these activities could incorporate technology in some way.

  2. Terri Phillips

    I have been looking for new strategies to use with one of my classes. It is right after lunch and the students are just not motivated. They are very quiet and just want to put their heads down. I need to get them up and moving so I plan on trying the inside outside circle and face-off with this class.
    I also plan on using the fishbowl strategy. This is an excellent strategy to help students develop social and emotional skills. The article by Angela Thomas stated that more people are likely to lose their jobs because they cannot get along with others not because they cannot do their job. My students struggle with social skills and I think the fishbowl as well as the inside outside circle are strategies I can use in my classroom to help them.

  3. Amy Lemons

    After watching the video I immediately thought of ways I could utilize these stategies in my classroom. I could use the fishbowl activity for students who might have a hard time working with others. It would be great to have them watch friends who are working ,playing, building… correctly. Of course my children couldn’t take notes but could draw a picture of how to play correctly or retell facts about what is going on. The inside outside circle could be used during planning and recall. I could aslo use it during our small group time with flascards, rhyming cards… This technique would really help my lower students learn from their peers as well.

  4. susan malsam

    I really enjoyed the video and had fun experiencing firsthand the fish bowl and inside/outside circle strategy. The teacher in the video had wonderful ideas about how to make the kids in his class own their classroom and their role in their own learning. The kids seems more open to discussing their ideas and were drawn into feeling comfortable. It was interesting to see how he used the fishbowl in his classroom and then experiencing it firsthand in our classroom. It was very unnerving to be in the fishbowl but interesting to be a spectator. I would love to try the other strategies listed in this blog.

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