One of the most important elements of teaching is keeping your students engaged. If you students aren’t engaged, they are less excited to learn and will most likely retain less knowledge. As a grade 2 teacher, it is very important that I carefully plan engaging lessons while my students are learning new content.

 

Working With a Partner

In our current Unit of Inquiry about the scientific process, we are researching different types of scientists. In order to keep my students engaged in their learning and research, they choose a partner to work with. By working with a partner, students can share information and knowledge with one another. This makes researching easier, as they are just beginning to learn and use new research skills. Their task is to research using various materials (books, search engines, videos) and write down 5 facts in their own words about that type of scientist (Zoologist).

 

Hands On Learning

Once students have an idea about what their scientist does, we do a hands-on activity that takes the students’ knowledge about Zoologists further. By doing a hands-on activity, students create a meaningful connection to that type of scientist and can now understand the content in a deeper way. In order to deepen students’ understanding about Zoologists, I brought in 2 hamsters to observe like Zoologists do. Students used their journals to take notes on the hamster’s behaviors and habitat. After we pretended to be Zoologists, students met with their partners and discussed the similarities and differences in their observation notes.

 

Reflecting

To finish the lesson, students reflected on their experiences by answering the question, ‘Would you like to be a Zoologist? Why or why not?’ This question allowed students to take their understanding of Zoologists and apply it to real life and made their reflections personal. While researching, students wrote down many questions they had. By participating in an engaging learning activity, students were able to answer many of those questions and make connections through a hands-on experience and made their learning meaningful and successful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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