Students Must Be Actively Learning

What exactly is "active learning?" Active learning engages our students and requires them to be active participants in their learning. Active learning is a way to be proactive as a teacher and to motivate our students before they become unmotivated. It is a way of teaching that engages them before they can become unengaged. It promotes collaboration, critical thinking, and creative thinking. Teaching is more than just telling our students something and assuming they will remember it. Statistics state that we only remember 20% of what we hear, but we remember 70% of what we say and 90% of what we say and do. 

WOW! Those percentages jumped up pretty fast right? It is so important that we have our students actively learning so that they have a 90% chance of learning the content rather than a 20% chance. We must have our students participate in a group discussion or in a drama presentation. We must have them do the real thing rather than just talk and read about it! If you are teaching World War II, then have your student reenact the events from that war rather than just reading the historical facts from the text book. If you are teaching division, have your students get up out of their seat and group themselves to demonstrate a division problem. There are endless ways to incorporate active learning in your classroom. Active learning also means giving students the opportunity to take control of their own learning. One way to do this could be using signal cards. Signal cards have green, yellow, and red on each side. If a student is understanding the content being taught their card will be on green. If they are unsure they will be on yellow and if they are confused and need help they can put their card on red. This is just a good way for the teacher to quickly glance at the class and see who is getting it and who still needs help. Other active learning strategies include: scavenger hunts, KWL charts, walking tours, interactive notebooks, learning journals, and so much more! Get your students up and moving and DOING. You will not regret having more engaged, motivated, successful students!

I learned so much about this topic. It has really motivated me to use active learning strategies as soon as I begin teaching. Active learning is something I have learned that takes a little more effort for the teacher, but in the end it is totally worth it. I plan to use active learning in my future classroom to give my students the skills they need to succeed. I plan to have my students up and moving every single day. Long gone are the days when students are sitting in a desk for a consecutive eight hours. We want our students doing something and gaining real knowledge from that experience and not just memorizing facts.