I think it is really wonderful that today's children spend so much time early in their life playing educational games. It gets them ready for learning and provides them with a wonderful head start that can make those early school years much less of a challenge. That being said, I do find that with all this early multi-media exposure, their interest in just reading a book or listening to their teacher talk and explain things is quite diminished. I promised myself I wasn't going to do that whole "kids today" rant, but I really must just say that given all these fun learning tools that children are handed at the age of three and how much time they spend playing video games and watching movies and TV shows that have special effects they way they do, it really puts educators at quite the disadvantage.
Ok, now that I'm done ranting, I want to share with you how I have managed to make my social studies lesson plans really come alive in the classroom in a way that kids can really absorb the information. Although I first found success with my civil war lesson plans, I have to tell you, it doesn't matter what kind of class you're going to teach. I assure you, my world history lesson plans are no less boring for the kids than any of the other subjects I teach. The key to capturing the attention of a child, as far as I can tell, is to allow them to have fun with the process. I like to incorporate different kinds of media into my lesson plans. Not only is it something they are used to having present, but it keeps their attention by shifting the focus so they don't develop "tunnel vision." Using Power Point presentations has been a really great way for me to do this. I can show them pictures, give them written information- heck, I sometimes even use video clips in there.
I mentioned that I keep students' attentions by shifting their focus a bit- this is really important. The average attention span is often only 10-12 minutes, 20 if you are lucky, so no matter what it is that you're doing, you need to be shifting things up so that they don't completely zone out. I find that giving them something different to focus on every now and then- be it a video clip, a worksheet instead of an overhead, or just doing a slide show of pictures that relate to the historical period we are studying and letting them tell me about the pictures. That picture thing works really well, by the way. You can get an idea of what they actually know about that time in history and sometimes you can even get pretty good ideas as to what else to incorporate into your lessons by seeing what they pick up on the quickest or which parts they find the most interesting.
The other thing I do which really makes a huge difference in keeping the attention of my students is have them take regular breaks during which they move around. Sometimes, I will just have them stand up and wiggle about in front of their desks or walk around the room and then return to their seats. Other times, I have them get together in groups and come up with little skits to act out. Regardless of what type of movement, it seems to really help them when they can get their bodies moving. Getting the blood flowing helps them to concentrate when they sit back down to work.
About the Author:
Written by Kacy Suther. MultiMedia Learning LLC provides social studies lesson plans/a>, world history lesson plans and civil war lesson plans through their unique PowerPointŪ Presentation software. Students learn history through classroom social studies games and engaging technology. Learn more at http://www.multimedialearning.org .
Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:21:57 - 100%
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