A Few More Ways to Rev Up Lessons and Hold Students' Attention

Jim Burke shares ideas for engaging activities across the curriculum.

Grades

6–8

Analogies: Make comparisons. In social studies, compare daily life during the Civil War to daily life during World War II.
Stories: To help students relate to a health class lesson, tell a story about a certain experience, focusing on the choices you had to make along the way.
Numerical Representations: Have your students examine what happened during the Depression using graphic data to connect social studies and economics.
Visual Explanations: In English, challenge your class to imagine that the characters in Othello are on a football team and then describe the role of each character.
Dramatic Interpretations: Have students role-play a Supreme Court case based on a constitutional amendment you are studying in a government unit.
Essential Questions: Ask the big questions. In biology, try "Why do living creatures have to die?"
Hands-On or Manipulative Techniques: Have students design and build a city or structure using the shapes and concepts they have studied lately.

Create a List