Tips for Teaching Effective Lessons  Maintain students’ attention “Attention is where learning begins.” (Eggen P. & Kauchak D. (2010) pg. 207) Plan attention-grabbing lessons :  Remember lesson length vs. age group.  Be creative! Use students’ names. Have students actively involved in learning activities. Use visual aids/ discrepant events/real-life problems/emphasis/ thought provoking questions. Eggen P. & Kauchak D. (2010) Educational Psychology: Windows on Classrooms (8th Ed) New Jersey:Pearson

Tips for Teaching Effective Lessons  Ask Questions Helps you determine whether students have accurately perceived the information you’ve taught. Helps to activate students’ prior knowledge. (schema activation)  Hold reviews  Ask what they already know on a topic.  Have them share personal experiences relating to the topic. Places students into cognitively active roles when used to help guide thinking and learning. Eggen P. & Kauchak D. (2010) Educational Psychology: Windows on Classrooms (8th Ed) New Jersey:Pearson

Tips for Teaching Effective Lessons  Make the most of students’ thinking abilities. Present information with interconnecting ideas.  Tie back new information with previous learnt items. Teach closely related items together.  Helps to avoid confusion further down the track. Remember students construct their own knowledge based on prior knowledge and experiences.  A student’s mind is like a brick wall. If a row is missing a brick you cannot build the next row on top of it; same as if a student skips learning something, they cannot build on top of it until that brick is put in place. Eggen P. & Kauchak D. (2010) Educational Psychology: Windows on Classrooms (8th Ed) New Jersey:Pearson

Tips for Teaching Effective Lessons  Understand each students’ natural learning method. Auditory learners:  Learn by listening and speaking.  Prefer oral instructions.  Lesson Ideas: interviewing, debating, participating on a panel, giving oral reports and participating in oral discussions of written material. Visual learners:  Learn by observing.  Can recall what they see and will prefer written instructions.  Lesson ideas: reading, video, computer graphics, maps, graphs, charts, cartoons, posters, diagrams, graphic organizers and text with a lot of pictures Kinesthetic/Tactile learners:  Learn best by touching or manipulating objects. Need to involve their whole body in learning.  Understand directions that they write and will learn best through manipulatives and acting out.  Lesson ideas: playing games that involve their whole body, movement activities, drawing, playing board games, making dioramas, making models, and following instructions to make something. Cartoons: Study & Learning Centre, RMIT © 2007