6 Ways to Boost Engagement
By Marissa Despins, Ronnie Eyre, Carla Fedler, Amber Dial, Tiffany Schmidt, Vanessa Mejia, Tammy DeShaw – Updated Nov 17, 2023
Creative ways to boost engagement in upper elementary
For today’s post I have teamed up with an amazing group of other educational content creators to bring you a round up of some of our very favorite ways to boost engagement in upper elementary classrooms. I hope you are able to find some fun activities to help get your students excited about learning.
Use Close Reading Strategies
Close reading is a powerful tool for students that can significantly boost learning engagement. This method encourages students to delve deeply into a text, whether it’s a story, article, or historical document, to extract a deeper understanding of its meaning and context.
By closely examining the details, vocabulary, and structure of a text, students not only improve their comprehension but also enhance their critical thinking skills. Close reading prompts active interaction with the material, fostering curiosity and promoting a sense of ownership over their learning. Moreover, it allows students to engage in rich classroom discussions, helping them to better express their ideas and articulate their thoughts.
Ultimately, close reading not only fosters a love for reading and learning but also equips students with essential analytical skills that are vital for their academic and personal development.
Looking to learn more about close reading and how you can use it in ways to boost engagement? Click here or on the image below to read more!
Spark curiosity
Ronnie from A Teacher’s Wonderland has some great ideas about building engagement in the Upper Elemementary classroom.
With a little creativity and some tried-and-true strategies, you can create an engaging learning environment that sparks curiosity and fosters a love for learning.
One idea is to incorporate technology games or activities, such as educational games or virtual field trips, to make lessons come alive. Additionally, consider incorporating hands-on activities, group projects, and real-world connections to keep students actively involved in their learning. Remember, by tapping into their interests, providing opportunities for collaboration, and making learning meaningful and fun, you can help your students become active participants in their own education.
Read more about creative ways to boost engagement on the A Teacher’s Wonderland blog by clicking on the image or button below!
Talk about Books
Building student engagement with independent reading is super important to Carla from Comprehension Connection. She suggests conferring about books your students are reading to have small conversations with them. You learn reading preferences, interests, about challenges your students might be facing, and more. You can read her post about this topic here and grab a freebie here.
You can also host book tastings where you set your room up like a restaurant and bring in your favorite titles by genre. You create a book menu and have your kids record the title, author, and first impressions of books that appeal to them. The kids read just the opening for a few minutes to get a taste of the book. After their taste and a little snack, they rotate to another genre table. So much fun!
Read more on the Comprehension Connection blog by clicking on the image or button below!
Looking for more ways to talk about books in the classroom? You may want to explore our guide to cultivating a love of reading!
Create Bulletin Boards
In education, we hear the word “student engagement” a lot. But what does it really mean? To put it in the simplest of terms, it refers to the level of motviation that students have in the classroom. Motivating students can come in the form of games, topics of their interest, projects they take pride in and more.
One of the ways that Amber from TGIF motivates her students is to allow them to decorate the room with their work. Math craft bulletin boards became part of their monthly ritual during the school year. The students were invested in their learning because it was proudly displayed on the bulletin board. Teachers have the added bonus of showing off the standards they are working on to administration and the decor taken care of by their students.
Read more information from Amber from TGIF on her blog by clicking on the image or button below!
Celebrate Achievements
Vanessa at Longwing Learning boosts engagement by celebrating student achievements.
Let’s take a sneak peek into her simple yet effective routine: First, she creates rings with different levels of understanding posters on colored paper for each student. The different levels of understanding show how well a student grasps a topic, from not understanding it to being able to teach it to someone else. Then, she has her students point to their level before and after each lesson. It helps her gauge how well they understand without sharing with the class.
But here’s the best part: when Vanessa notices her students making progress, she celebrates it, whether it’s a tiny step or a giant leap. And you won’t believe it – this celebration boosts her classroom’s motivation!
Read more from Vanessa on the Longwing Learning blog by clicking on the image or button below.
Use Hands-On and Collaborative Learning Activities
Student engagement in upper elementary involves a mix of creativity, adaptability, and understanding of developmental needs. Tiffany from The Learning Effect likes using hands-on activities and collaborative learning to tap into these areas.
One way she does this is by having students create their own board games. Create Your Own Board Game is an easy, open-ended project that all students can participate in. Small groups, partners, or solo, students love this activity, and engagement levels soar. There are many different ways to use this project – as a review before testing, a final project after finishing a class novel, or enrichment for a specific math skill or science topic.
After students create their games, they play each other’s and work through anything that needs to be tweaked based on their peer’s feedback. A project like this is fun, and students become fully invested in their work. It’s a great way for students to show what they know through writing questions and answers for their game and when playing others’ games.
Read more from Tiffany, and creative ways to boost engagement that she uses with her learners, on The Learning Effect blog by clicking on the image or button below!
For more hands-on learning activities, you may be interested in our posts on Thanksgiving STEM Challenges and Nature Mandalas!
Make Learning an Adventure
When it comes to sparking engagement in upper elementary classrooms, it’s all about igniting that curiosity and making learning an adventure. Engagement can easily be obtained with technology- interactive online tools, educational games, and even virtual field trips- and it brings motivation along with excitement to the classroom. And of course, fostering a classroom environment where students feel heard and valued, allowing them to take ownership of their learning through choice and creativity, can really make a differents. These approaches not only save time for the teacher, but also leave a lasting impression on students. One activity that accomplishes all of these things that Tammy from The Owl Teacher has found effective is incorporating technology into math using math quests. In this adventure, students solve math problems as they choose their own path through a story. It’s very similar to the “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories with a math twist! Students love when they can make their own choices and participate in anything interactive.
Interested in reading more about Ways to boost engagement in your classroom?
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Essential Skills for Comprehension Success
Engaging Learners in Deeper Word Work
How to Explain Text Evidence to Boost Writing Skills
The Art of Literary Engineering
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