7 Surefire Strategies that will Engage Students

The back to school season brings lots of emotions, everything from excitement to nervousness for the new year. This is not only true for students, but teachers too. 
 
It’s always hard to sleep the night before the first day of school.  So many unknowns and emotions running wild.  As a teacher, you’re lucky to get little bit of sleep and it’s probably full of dreams – you see yourself in the classroom and imagine how the first day will go.  Then you start to dream about all the things that could go wrong. 
 
What’s worse, is when one of those teacher nightmares start to come true.  No teacher wants to look around and see their students rolling their eyes, slumped in their seats, barely putting their pencil to paper.  Teaching to students who don’t want to engage – yikes!

As teachers we are always looking for ways to engage our students.  To be clear, engagement doesn’t mean entertainment.  We want our students to be actively participating, conversing, and thinking about our lessons. 
 
In this post, you will learn 7 surefire ways to engage your students.  The best part is these strategies will work in any classroom, any subject area and any grade level.


#1 Modeling Engagement
It all starts with YOU.

​You can’t expect your students to be excited and engaged with you lesson if you aren’t. When you are positive, they will be too.  If you are all but rolling your eyes and talking in monotone, your students will behave the same way.  Your influence is powerful – use it wisely.

#2 Graphic Organizers
Sometimes all it takes is presenting information is a different way to refresh some intrigue.  Using graphic organizers and visuals can be an easy way to accomplish this. 

​Even if you are teaching secondary, don’t forget you are still teaching kids. They may not express it, but they love a fun doodle or a sticker just as much as elementary students.

​#3 Make it Social
How much time do you give your students to talk with each other about your content? With structured guidelines, students can have valuable conversations that will boost their engagement with your content.

#4 Use Different Tools
Sometimes just using a different learning tool can increase your students’ motivation to participate.  Post-it notes, student white boards, and poster size chart paper are an easy way to get each student involved and engaged in your lesson.
Master the 6th-grade transition with the exact systems
​I use to build independent scholars.


#5 Read Aloud

There are so many great picture books that relate to so many different subjects. The best part, is they can be a valuable tool in teaching concepts to young and old.  There is no age limit on picture books – I have seen adults riveted and engaged during presentations and workshops. 


#6 Utilize Your Teacher Strengths

Use your strengths and teach with the tools you are good at using.  It will improve your own confidence levels and attitude, which will have a direct effect on your students. 

Even if there’s a new teaching tool that is all the rage, if it causes you stress, then don’t use it.  Teaching is stressful enough as it is – no sense in adding to it unnecessarily.


​#7 Be Clear and Consistent

There’s nothing worse than making your students guess at what you’re asking.  Provide them with clear, consistent instructions with everything you do. 

​Explain what you are asking them to do and why – you will get more engagement when students understand the value.



I know your teacher heart is full but your plate is overflowing! If you found this post helpful, I think you’ll love these other 'teacher-approved' resources. They’re designed to help you keep that momentum going without the burnout.

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Teaching with Textbooks | Teach Like Midgley

I’m Hillary Midgley, and I help teachers move from classroom chaos to streamlined success with no-frills systems that make managing student work easy. New here? Start with the Manage Student Work ebook.