Motivating the Reluctant Learner Through Interactive Activities Presented by: Kim Cole Ruth Kistner Kristen Swanson Intro Kim, Ruth, Kristen – each intro ourselves and give brief description of our jobs Kim- Business bathrooms cell phones breaks lunch 1

Today’s Agenda Play. Discuss. Take it back! Kim purpose- Explain the folder-how things are happening- Share with your teacher- refer to website page Take it back!

Index Card Activity Number your card 1-4 Write top four ways to engage learners Work independently Kristen- Number your card 1-4 Write top four ways to engage learners Work independently- no talking to neighbors ( no peeking at their card either) This is supposed to be boring and difficult!!!! It is poor model! 3

Our thinking Hands on/interactive Authentic Personal interest Relevant/meaningful Kristen It wasn’t interactive- you had to work alone It wasn’t authentic- it wasn’t real or connected It wasn’t linked to your personal interests It wasn’t relevant or meaningful because there is was not context, purpose, goal, objective, etc. SO… Here’s a way to make it better…. Let’s do the same activity in a different way…. 4

Four Corners Read the guiding question Read the cards in each corner Go to the corner you most agree with Talk amongst your group -Why this is most important? Pick reporter to share out to large group After arguments - Would you like to switch? Kristen Cards posted and hanging in corners Move to corner discuss with group , be ready to share out After people share do you want to move 5

Debrief What did you think of our first two activities? Why was four corners more engaging? Kristen Why was this a good activity? Interactive Allowed student to think individually, risk of failure removed, Allows them to be either validated (by their group) or gives them an opportunity to hear from peers (fosters communication) Everyone is involved Provides an opportunity for student to change mind Forces individuals to make a decision Ask the audience- what did you think?? 6

You do List materials needed Develop a guiding question Create four responses Explain to your class Play Create your instructions Kristen As you are doing this you need to have your purpose or goal in mind Some variations are: Human scale Persuasive essay/debates Bias Take a few minutes and create one four corner that you can take back to your classroom 7

Guiding Principles Connect/build trust Build confidence non threatening ways Meaningful/relevant Challenging/supportive Make learning concrete/ visual/hands on Decrease extrinsic rewards Emphasize intrinsic reward Find student interest Ruth Today – these guiding principles tie into the four corners we just addressed Top 5 do naturally – right arm hand speech etc. etc. Paycheck….. Address a little something in each Success breeds success 8

Interactive Activities Break from routine Motivating/challenging Reinforcing Encourage interaction and communication Authentic Ruth Through our feedback many of the paraprofessionals asked how can we get kids more engaged Today we are going to share activities/games that we believe can be adapted to any level, disability category, etc. Natural way of communicating Authentic practice in communication skills (speaking, writing, listening, reading) Meaningful context for language use Built in social skills Fosters positive feelings Natural intrinsic motivator 9

Trace Your Hand Kim (possibly pull up some internet radio) Play some music. Make the environment pleasant. Encourage participants to talk to their neighbors, etc. Trace your hands so you can write down your top 5 activities ;-0

Bag Activity Don’t peek in bag Read the clues Feel inside the bag (without looking) Guess the item/theme How can you relate it to your curriculum? Ruth Check notes improve- create worksheet of brown paper bag 5 bags – (incorporates senses) -- make 2 bags of each category 2 minutes per bag Bag feedback paper and create your own bag paper (double sided paper) Have one person in each group designated as the clue maker. They look in the brown bag and determine the clues and write them on the bag. Table setting, using the place setting Money Using the items in the bag link to curricular area/disability category Background knowledge for a story or content area subject Brainstorming prior to writing How do you see this being used in your population Have kids create the three clues ( after feeling, reading, writing etc.) Better mental image, 11

You Do Think of your curricula strand Think of items to put in bag Create your clues Is this a before, during or after activity? Ruth Pass out bag worksheet- brainstorm ideas there 12

Break Ruth

Fly Swatter Products posted in front of room Four volunteers We will call fact Student must find fact and swat Kristen Create worksheet General ideas We have simplified by using multiplication facts – you would do something specific to your population, test content review, vocabulary review, socialization have a gen ed student wheel the wheelchair student 4 questions and 4 swatters (include celebrities for fun) 14

You do Create questions Based on content Simple answers Multi step answer Kristen How can you engage everyone – So we may have one runner, but th4 whole team participates in coming up with the response This can be played on a table Can put Velcro piece on the fly swatter and the response Each person does a part of the problem and then they swat the flies 15

$100,000 Pyramid Kim How to setup the game: To edit the game board, click on the words in the blue boxes. This should put white dots around the word. Click on the word again and it should get grey dots around it. Now double click on the word. You can now edit your words. When you have changed all of the words, highlight all 6 boxes with triangles in the grey work space then drag them over to cover the boxes. How to play the game: This should be played with one person looking at the screen and another facing away from the screen. Click on the triangle in the lower left hand corner of the pyramid. It should disappear. Your term should now appear. The student looking at the screen now needs to get the other player to say the word, without saying the word (much like taboo). If they get it, click on the word again and a dollar amount will appear. If they pass, you can click on another triangle to get another word to try. Once they have worked all the way to the top, they can go back and work on what they passed. They can see the ones they passed on on the screen throughout the game. You could have one person looking away from a projected screen and the rest of the class looking and trying to help. You could also push the ppt out with a program to students in pairs at laptops and have the whole room working in pairs.

$100,000 Place Value Equivalent Fractions $50,000 Types of angles $75,000 Kim Money $10,000 $20,000 Types of Measurement $35,000 Types of graphs

Kim- give them an hour

Win, Lose or Draw Divide the class into teams (3-6 members) Choose an artist Set timer Artist draws, team guesses Get through as many cards as you can within the time limit Ruth No words, letters, numbers or symbols can be used Can decide on rules ahead of time for some students may need to put lines to indicate number of words can check off as they get each word Try to as sign jobs – clock watcher, recorder of answer, guesser etc. Variation if whatever they miss the other team can steel. 19

You do List materials needed Create 5-10 cards Create your instructions Ruth Cards can be idioms Categories ( lead to paragraph writing) Vocabulary ( reading, content area) Social stories Flash card template 20

Tic Tac Toe Challenge Choose X or O Choose your square Answer question Correct get symbol Incorrect other team can steal Kristen Click to separate game For folks that are my age – Hollywood squares but no car at the end Create questions from past trainings ( Can use old Zonk questions) Dust up board with finger mark area and sign be played for – if hey win can enter their symbol 21

You do Create questions Determine if this is a pre or post activity Kristen Also share extreme Tic Tac Toe idea

Break

ABC Board Provide curriculum topic Board with letters A-Z Come up with word that starts with each letter Set timer Review answers- if any answers duplicated cross out Earn points if only one with answer Kim Body parts, geography, verbs, adjectives, predicate expanders, Variation –scattegories- one letter- EX. come up with all the nouns for L 24

ZONK Kim Play Zonk as closure to today’s workshop Create a set of Zonk cards Think of ways to use Zonk- test review- 25

Revisit Our Corners Kristen Reflect back to the top four from the first part of the day

Closure Kim Refer back to your hand What were your five favorites? If you didn’t fill in go back and choose now- If you like all 8 put the others on the back- Reminder – on paper you can pull this up online- this is might be good to share with your teacher Always looking for new games, variations of these games – let us know email us we love to give you credit for the wonderful things you do!!

Being able to help someone learn something is a talent Ruth Thank you for being so interactive and for always being there to help our students learn. We hope you have a few things you can take back to your classrooms 28