Teaching and Learning Strategies - Engagement Activities

Acting out a story: Having the students act out a part of a story. Using physical movement to demonstrate and improve comprehension of the story. Could also be used on a smaller scale with puppets, etc. but includes physical movement of some sort. 

Audio recording: Audio can be an efficient medium for recording interviews, stories and cultural events. Nevertheless, transcribing recorded material into print form can be a long and boring task. A good way to handle this task is to assign a number of students to transcribe five minutes of tape each. The work is often easier when students work in pairs: one operates the tape recorder as they listen to the tape together and agree on the exact words spoken, while the other does the actual transcription.

Brainstorming: Brainstorming sessions are activities in which students are encouraged to come up with any and all ideas about a given topic. The ideas do not need to be complete sentences; they can be words or phrases. What is important is that all ideas are valid. Do not stop the flow of ideas by allowing the group to critique, analyze or justify the ideas put forth. The purpose is to get students thinking about the subject in a lively and entertaining way and to make them aware of the various aspects of the topic. During a brain-storming session, the instructor can take on the role of the recorder and write a list or make a web of ideas, as they are expressed. 

Chunking and questioning aloud: The process of reading a story aloud to a group of students and stopping after certain blocks of text to ask the students specific questions about their comprehension of the story and some key features of the text