Engagement

One of our CPD focuses this year was "Engagement". This need not involve teachers becoming "Entertainers" or "Magicians" and feeling like they have to put on a  "Variety Show" lesson. Student engagement can be increased through the simplest of ideas. Often, it can be the way in which something is presented to the group.
I like to mix things up every now and then just to keep students on their toes, so-to-speak.
Here are some of my ideas, I must admit they are probably not original but they are popular and have great results in my classroom so please feel free to use them/ adapt them.

1. What's in the bag?
This works better for the younger classes. It basically involves a bag inside which you need to put an object/objects relating to the lesson. Students then have a limited number of guesses to work out what is in the bag and ultimately, how it links to the lesson. I recently did this with year 7, the lesson was pets and I hid a toy rabbit inside the bag.
You can vary the questions from open to closed. For the older students you may wish to only allow questions in the target language.

2. Secret Mission.
Write out the lesson objective or learning outcome on paper or card, using 1 piece per word. Jumble up the words and put them in an envelope. Write "top secret" on the envelope and hide it under a student's chair.

When students arrive, tell them that you need to recruit a "Secret Agent" to help with your mission. Students should check under their seats to see if they are the "Secret Agent". The student with the envelope may recruit 3 sub-agents to help them. They should then open the envelope and re-arrange the words to crack the code and reveal the learning objective/ outcome.

3. Golden Ticket.
For this you'll need a book of raffle tickets (3 for £1 in the pound shop) and some self- made golden tickets.

When I launched this with students, I played a clip of "celebration" by Cool and the Gang as students arrived in my room. This got their attention straight away. I explained that during the lesson I would be rewarding good behaviour and great work with raffle tickets. At the end of the 2 week cycle, I would draw a raffle ticket and the winning student would get a golden ticket.
The ticket can be redeemed for a number of things including, hot drinks, cake, a magazine and the permission to listen to music during 1 lesson.
I found that student engagement increased almost immediately. All year groups are very keen to get their hands on a golden ticket.

4. Graffiti Wall.
For this you'll need active inspire on the interactive board. Insert the wall background. This can be found by clicking view, browser, background, textured.

This is a great way to review key words/ terms or find out how much students already know about a new topic.
I give them a few minutes to think about the words and then I ask them to come up and write their word on the board. Students seem to enjoy choosing different colours and fonts.