Are you looking for ideas to make your lessons fun and interactive for your students? Interactive teaching-learning activities ensure maximum participation. Students also love active learning and engaging activities- says a 2019 Harvard study.
This article is a gold mine of interactive teaching activities and effective strategies to engage your students. Keep reading to learn 12 superb interactive teaching methods. We’ll also discuss why you should make your classroom interactive and how to do it. Let’s start with the basics of the interactive approach in education.
.
.
.
Interactive teaching methods are teaching methodologies that focus on the maximum engagement of learners.
In interactive teaching style:
You involve your learners and ensure participation.
Make your students responsible for learning.
Design teaching-learning activities based on their needs and learning styles.
Increase their attention and retention.
.
.
The traditional classrooms were teacher-centered. Teachers transmitted information and students received it. When you were in school, you studied what the teacher taught, did homework, gave exams, and passed to the next class. But teachers have now adopted a modern and interactive approach to teaching-learning.
.
Interactive teaching methods are better than conventional teaching styles-
.
.
.
Students learn six times more through active interactive learning than traditional learning, as per a 2015 study.
.
.
Interactive teaching methods benefit both teachers and students (Senthamarai, S., 2018)-
.
.
.
Teachers play the biggest role in making their teaching interactive. You can use interactive teaching methods to engage your students in these ways:
.
Hands-on interactive teaching activities students can do on their own.
Ex: Lego models, Math games for thinking, Brainstorming Mind maps
Interactive collaboration activities students can do in pairs or groups.
Ex: Group discussion, Scavenger hunt, Field trips
Interactive strategies and activities involving teachers and students.
Ex: Flipped classroom , Interactive Q&A, storytelling
Activities involving multiple media. Using EdTech tools, text, images, video, and sound to engage learners.
Ex: Educational movies, Interactive TV, Smartboard.
.
.
Here are some interactive teaching strategies for teachers-
.
Ask a question or problem. Then pair your students. Let them solve the problem and conclude. Now give them individual chances to present the conclusion in their own words. This activity is the perfect example of interactive teaching: Thinking skills + Student Interaction + Collaboration+ Communication.
Ex: Give a Math puzzle. Call each pair in front. One partner solves the puzzle on board while the other explains the solution/answer.
.
This is a fun interactive method of teaching. Make session groups: Every group has a separate topic to discuss. Give prompts to students. Help them lead the conversations. Let each student present their ideas and thoughts. Students should learn from others in the group and build new knowledge.
Ex: Group discussion on Indian Budget 2023. Ask students to discuss budget allocation, positives, and negatives. A group leader will summarize.
.
You can distribute these cards to your students before (Entry slips) or after (Exit slips) teaching a lesson. Teachers ask reflective questions- What do students expect from the lesson/topic? What did they learn? What they didn’t like, etc. Teachers improve their teaching methods based on students’ written responses.
Let’s read some more examples of interactive teaching strategies.
.
This is an interactive teaching style for language learning and writing. Students exchange their essays or thesis with their classmates. Then their peers write the essay’s strengths, problem points, and areas to improve. Peer review writing helps each learner get objective feedback from their peer.
Ex: Give students an essay topic. Ask partners to exchange their essay papers and write their reviews.
.
Online Interactive games increase student participation, promote social and emotional learning, and develop competitive and team spirit. They’re entertaining and involve multiple senses. Interactive teaching games boost student interaction, focus, motivation, and problem-solving skills (Lieberman, Debra., 2006).
Ex: Crosswords for Social Science.
Wordle and Scrabble for Vocabulary.
.
These are paper worksheets with interactive learning features like voice instructions and choosing responses. You can create interactive worksheets using online interactive teaching tools. Interactive worksheets increase student engagement and are more interesting than regular worksheets. They build functional thinking skills in students (Lindenbauer, Edith. (2021).
Read on for more interactive teaching resources.
.
These interactive teaching strategies make students think, plan and act. Students also interact with their classmates to prepare for roles and dialogues. You can make students enact history lessons and literature characters or teach them moral values. Students can do role plays in pairs, groups, or with the teacher.
.
Learning stations are interactive activity corners in your class. Groups of students rotate from one learning center to another and complete the tasks set up by you. Learning centers enhance student activeness and creativity, as per a 2021 study.
Ex:
Corner 1- A concept demonstration.
Corner 2- A laptop is kept for students to watch videos about it.
Corner 3- Teacher asks open-ended questions about the topic.
Corner 4- A hands-on activity to apply or create knowledge.
.
Interactive Icebreaker activities start conversations with learners and make them comfortable. These are great for the first day of the session or before teaching a new concept. Icebreaker games and interactive questions boost communication between students and teachers.
Ex: Riddles, Questions with Jenga, and Pictionary.
.
Lessons become interesting when teachers and students exchange roles. Students understand teachers’ challenges and teachers open up with students. It encourages interactive learning, self-learning, and responsible behavior.
Ex: Ask students to prepare a topic and teach the whole class. You sit with other students and act like them.
.
Students can open an interactive whiteboard on their devices and collaborate with the whole class.
Ex: Divide the class into groups and give students a creative drawing task. Each student will give their input on the interactive whiteboard on their device. Make sure you’re regulating the activity to avoid nuisance.
.
Make your presentations and lecture demonstrations interactive by adding polls, quizzes, and brain breaks.
Ex: An Interactive Science demonstration.
Give a Physics demonstration.
Now ask students to carry out the procedure in lab and record findings.
Divide students into groups to discuss data.
Group leaders will circle common results and present the conclusion.
.
Latest trends like educational technology, personalized learning, and gamification have revolutionized classrooms. Teachers need to adopt new teaching methods to bring out the best in students.
The interactive teaching approach blends modern pedagogies, active learning, and EdTech tools. There are many advantages of interactive teaching methods. You can ensure maximum engagement and participation of students by applying interactive teaching strategies. Brainstorming, buzz sessions, interactive teaching games, and Q&A are some examples of interactive teaching activities. You can also use online interactive teaching tools and apps to make interactive lessons.
Several studies (and informal observations) have revealed that better student engagement in class is read more...
Problem-Solving and Analytical Thinking are declared the top job skills by the World Economic Forum. read more...
Teachers today are not only meant to educate students, they are for mentoring them to grow up to be read more...
Well planned lessons ensure that time and resources aren’t wasted and that students progress as th read more...