Active Learning Strategies

What is it?
     Active learning is any method of teaching that engages students in their learning and encourages them to be active in their learning. This type of learning promotes involvement during lessons, better participation during activities, and an overall better understanding of the material.
                                         
How is it used in the classroom?
     There are many ways to incorporate active learning strategies into your lessons. First, if students are working in pairs or groups, use some active learning strategies to help them stay on task and engaged in the activity. During this activity, you could incorporate Think, Pair, Share as a way to actively engage the students. First, the students think about the question and their response. Then, the student pairs with a partner or group and shares their responses. This allows them to build on their think time and collaborate with their peers. If you are doing a whole group lesson, you can use signal cards to help constantly assess your students. These signal cards can be red, green, and yellow. Here is what each color means:

• Red: Stop, I am lost.
• Yellow: Slow down, you are losing me.
• Green: I have got it!

Incorporating these cards allows the students to be active in their learning, but also helps you see where the students are struggling. This helps you as a teacher to modify your instruction to help your students. Check out this video below to see active learning strategies in action!

What is the impact on student learning?

     Active learning strategies tremendously boost student involvement and engagement during lessons. They are more motivated during class to participate and work hard. They retain more information from the lesson which allows them to perform better on assessments. They are more confident when communicating with their peers. They are more comfortable in the classroom and more willing to share their answers and responses in whole group settings. 

What is the cost?

     These strategies are free to use in your own classroom. The only cost is the time it may take to teach the strategies, but that shouldn't take long at all. Depending on the strategy, you may have to use some type of material. Be sure to check out your storage closet, flea markets, yard sales, or resource rooms before spending too much money.

Bonus info: 

Here are some different strategies for you to look up and possibly use in your classroom!

• Graffiti Walls
• Word Splash- APP
• Interactive Notebooks (THE BEST)
• Walking Tours
• Exit Slips
• Scavenger Hunts

Final Thoughts:

     One new strategy that I learned was biopoems. I am sure that I did one of these back in the day, but I never really understood what it was. Now, I know that these are great tools to use for students to share with others. This would be a great activity to use at the beginning of the school year to get to know your students and to help your students get to know each other. This also helps them practice grammar skills like adjectives to describe themselves. This strategy really promotes creativity and active learning. I would love to use this in my future classroom the first week of school depending on the grade level I teach. I would love to make one about myself to help my students get to know me as their teacher.