How to Encourage Student Participation in Class Reading Answers

Increasing student participation can have a positive effect on your classroom learning environment and can help keep students engaged and focused on what they're learning This can be done in following ways-

Give students a task during your lessons. Try giving students a key word to listen for throughout the lesson-you can also link this to a movement or chant. For example

during a lesson about circles and tangents, you can cue students to chant the formula every time you say circle throughout the lesson. Not only does this repetition build memory, but it keeps students engaged throughout the lesson. Allow for student collaboration. Well-timed opportunities for students to work together or even discuss a concept mid-lesson can be great for engagement. Turn and Talk is a great strategy where students are given a discussion topic and time to turn quickly and discuss with a partner.

Give student a choice in how they learn. Students tune out when they feel like their ideas do not matter. Allowing students to make choices about how they learn and the type of work they do will make them feel invested in the lessons.

Assess student's prior knowledge and tailor your lessons to build on what students already know. Students will feel successful and be more engaged when new content is linked to what they already know.

Use the jigsaw strategy. When working on a large amount of content, allow groups of students to become "experts" on a small section of knowledge, and then have them teach the content to the rest of the class. This allows students to work together and helps them process difficult content in smaller and more manageable chunks.