One really great example that I've seen someone use with active learning engagement was when we had presenters in from the Springville Museum of Art for ArtTalks. In order to change things up for the kids, who had been sitting in classes all day long, was to have them do an active game called Artist, Model, Clay. They demonstrated once in front of the class and then had them split into groups of 3 to play the game. This only lasted for about 5 minutes and then the class was seated for the lecture.
Not far into the discussion, they had passed out dots to the students and had them come to the front of the room and place them next to the artwork that spoke to them the most. I loved that the students were always engaged and moving. They had a brief discussion about the pieces and then they passed out cards and had students match artworks to their titles in groups of five. They then regrouped and volunteers shared their predictions about titles of artworks and why their group decided on those.
The thing that stood out to me in that particular lesson was how many ways they had the students interact, not only between themselves, but the ways they were able to interact with the teacher. This has been an excellent reminder of things that I need to do in order to shake things up in my own teaching. I think it is really important to keep things moving, so the kids stay focused and not go to sleep with their eyes rolling in the back of their head from boredom. I know how exhausted I get when I sit in lectures all day.
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