Presenting New Knowledge to New Teachers

I'm currently working on a presentation for the CERRA Induction Symposium--a conference for teachers who have just finished their first or second year in education. I signed up to present on strategies for keeping students engaged. At this point, I'm wondering what was I thinking?!?!

So I have been reflecting on the most engaging lessons from my classroom this past year. What is engaging instruction rooted in?

Let's start with anticipatory sets. Getting students to anticipate the lesson helps them to get excited about their learning. Before dealing with Romeo and Juliet, students can examine value statements that deal with the major themes from the play and decide if they agree or disagree with the statements. Once they realize how much they can relate the major themes of the play with their actual lives, the classic piece of literature becomes much more attainable. Teachers can also use questioning strategies, word webs, songs, and videos to get students engaged in the lesson before it starts.

Once the lesson begins, strategic instruction is a powerful, student-centered approach to learning. Using strategies help students access the tools that adept learners are able to readily access. One great strategy for teaching new concepts is the concept map. This graphic helps the learner to understand relationships between the concept and other thoughts/ideas. I have used this to entrench knowledge of figurative language. A history teacher has used the mapping process to further explain the amendments to the Constitution. Strategies can be extremely engaging for learners, and they help students tap into the cognitive strategies that will help them as they encounter new knowledge.

Mixing in music and video to lessons also helps increase student engagement. Keeping clips short and relevant is all students need get that technology fix that this generation seems to need. A US History teacher working with the Jim Crow South could introduce "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday and "The Flowers" by Alice Walker. This incorporation of both music and a short literary piece will help fire up the dendrites to increase student learning and comprehension.

Engaging instruction is vital in teaching today's youth. There are many options teachers can tap into to help create connections to enhance learning. I only hope that I can come up with a few new ideas to help new teachers this week.