DISCUSSION QUESTION #12: Choose ONE (or more, if you like) of
the HOOKS from below. How have used this HOOK or how do you plan to use a
HOOK in the future to engage your students?
Be specific by giving examples.
(If you haven’t used any of these hooks, try one out and share with us.)
The
Storytelling Hook
The Swimming
with the Sharks Hook
The Taboo
Hook
The Mime Hook
The Teaser
Hook
The Backwards
Hook
I use the Swimming with the Sharks kind of teacher. I have always been one to walk throughout my students. I move from row to row, talking and involving each student. I don't like staying in one place, specifically in the front of the room. If I have things I have written down for them to look at or copy, I still walk about checking and talking with the students to keep them engaged in the lesson.
ReplyDeleteWe just had a play reading today during reading and I participated with the students as one of the characters. I let one of them became the narrator, instead of me being the leader of the play. The kiddos loved me being a part of the play and we all got into character and acting out our parts. It is always wonderful to let the students see that teachers are human too.
Students seem to really appreciate and enjoy when the teacher participates with them instead of just facilitating.
DeleteOne of my greatest memories is when my 7th/8th grade teacher would play dodge ball with us if we had indoor recess. It's cool to see the teachers get involved. I'm sure your students will remember you being a character other than the narrator, especially if you used a different voice!.
DeleteI played basketball last year with one of the classes at the high school.
DeleteI overheard one of the boys say, "be careful, she's old...if she falls she could break a hip." I laughed and laughed, but I hope they remember they are cared for by many people.
My students love Readers Theater! I don't know what it is about that type of reading but they seem to use "voice" better on Readers Theater than any other time!
DeleteI love this idea. It is ok to be silly with your students. I love to go in and observe classes where the teachers are taking an active role in student learning. It makes the class so much more interesting.
DeleteI always try to do what my students are doing. Math, reading, what ever subject and we learn together.
DeleteI like doing things with my students as well. It builds rapport and provides them with an example of items from the time period.
DeleteI remember our various sports coaches throughout JH/HS; how some would just yell and blow a whistle and others would be running our laps with us. I feel like we had a greater respect, and would push ourselves harder, for the coaches who were literally in our faces because they were scrimmaging with us, rather than just on the sidelines telling us what to do. I know my post really wasn't about teachers in a classroom per say, but I feel like it's along the same lines.
DeleteI get to use the Swim with the Sharks hook some helping my kids with their Envision math homework. I'm learning what the series wants right along with the kids. They thoroughly enjoy that.
DeleteToday I tried the Swimming with Sharks Hook. I was working with a group of 3rd graders, and we have been talking about figurative language. I had a long list of examples of personification. I had each student pick an example and try to change it. We talked about how to write one, and they helped me write an example. Then they got to work. While they worked, I sat with them and wrote my own examples. When it came time to share, everyone shared their example, including me.
ReplyDeleteI bet that made a lasting impression with your students to see you actually doing the same work they were. Did any of them comment about your involvement?
DeleteI think it helps the students a lot when we take the time to do the work with them! It helps them feel important. It also helps us to reflect on what we are really asking out students what to do.
DeleteStudents seem to like having their teacher involved and shows them can not only assign work, but can also do the work, What a way to model for students.
DeleteI think that I will try the backwards hook for the next novel my higher level language arts lab class reads. I like to pick books that have been made into movies and use them as part of the culminating activity for the novel. I've never really thought about showing the movie first as a way to generate interest in the book, but now that I think about it, I believe it could be very effective.
ReplyDeleteThat would be great change and then as you're reading the novel, you can talk about how it was portrayed the same of differently in the movie. Which version did they like better? ect.
DeleteThat sounds very interesting! I would bet that you could find some great movie/book combos that would help students understand the text better.
DeleteI do love a book or story with a movie, but I too always do the movie last, but should switch it around.
DeleteJuniors read The Scarlett Letter, I show the movie first. The language is so difficult, if the students have a visual image of the person, it makes the story more understandable for them. I do the same thing with the Great Gatsby.
DeleteGREAT idea, Debi. I may have to try that, too. I usually do a Polar Express unit the week before Christmas break, that culminates with watching the movie. Maybe I'll show the movie first, and then we can discuss the differences between the book and movie.
DeleteI really like your idea with the movies and then reading the novel based on the movie or vice versa. You can get the kids to notice or take notes on how the novel versus the movie contrast or relate to each other. That would be a great way to get them to thinking and pick up on little things from either the movie or the book.
DeleteOne teacher showed the movie to the novel as they read. reading and then stopping and showing parts of the movie.
DeleteDebi-
DeleteI remember participating in several book/movie combos in school, and I don't think ANY teacher ever showed the movie first. I wonder why??? Looking back, it seems like the books would have been much easier to understand (Some of the language was WAY above us, haha!) if we had had some point of reference beforehand.
Wouldn't that be great for content like "Romeo & Juliet"
DeleteI think this is the hardest section for me to give an example for one of the hooks. At the elementary level, books are read and when I read, I try to add different voices and change the tone and volume for different parts of the book. I have never told my own story in the true sense of storytelling.
ReplyDeleteI have done an activity to get students using their words and spatial concepts to tell me how to draw a picture. The students know what the final picture should be and now they have to break it down enough to tell me how to draw it. I did this in Kindergarten and kept it simple by wanting them to tell me how to draw a snowman. They are engaged and trying to use their words. They also like when I draw it wrong and then get really happy when I draw their instruction correctly. I see this being more of the backwards hook.
I love your idea of drawing it wrong based on their directions. I'm sure you can see the wheels spinning as they're thinking of how to get you to do it right!
DeleteI like the drawing idea! I can see kids really getting into this. It helps them think about how specific they need to be when they talk. Also a great way to increase their verbal language!
DeleteLast year I used swimming with the shark hook a lot. I worked in a self contained EBD classroom. I noticed when I gave more responsibilities and control to the students the more they were engaged. I would sit in one of the students chairs and have one of the students teach us one of the concepts I previously taught them. They loved playing the role as the teacher. I would then ask questions along with the other students to help the lesson flowing. It made the students have to take the time to explain the steps to a concept taught. It helped me understand how much they really understood the concept being taught or not.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see how students become more engaged when it is their turn to lead: they demand respect that they may not otherwise give. It also seems to get them more excited - they want to do well and have fun doing it!
DeleteThis hook doesn't usually work for me because I teach to such small groups or 1:1. However, I have to hook my computer up to the projector at the back of the room to use it. I have noticed that when I'm teaching behind the students rather than in the front, it has a whole different feel. I don't know if it's more effective, but it is different.
DeleteThis sounds like a good hook to use with my students. I agree that sometimes the more responsibility they have the easier it is to get them to participate.
DeleteThe taboo hook sound of interest to me, I know of parents that have told their kids not to read certain series or books, and really did not want their kids to, and those were the first books the kids checked out and read at school. What a great way to get Junior high and high school to do something.
ReplyDeleteI think that you would do great using this hook with the kids that you work with. It would be a great way to get them into a book that they don't think they should or could read.
DeleteI never thought of looking at it that way, it would get those resilient kids to - read more. Depending on the book as long as you have validity to present to the student other teachers and the parents and showing high interest this book would really get kids engaged in reading a book.
DeleteI agree. If you wants kids to do something the fastest way is to tell them not too.
DeleteI've struggled with this hook....many of my kiddos are so literal. I think I would choose the "teaser" or "taboo" hook.... I think the taboo hook would work well for my three freshman boys! Especially in English. For my students who don't tend traditional general ed core classes, the teaser would help with "buy in" for a new activity.
ReplyDeleteI am going to try the mime hook with students to learn vocabulary words. They use gestures quite a bit anyway and I think pictionary activities will concretely attach meaning to the words.
ReplyDeletePictionary and gestures would be fun activities to incorporate into vocabulary. My students have typically used inflection or stories to help them remember their vocabulary terms. I will be trying this as well! Thanks, Jerrie!
DeleteThere is an IPad app called Charades. My students love it! When we have extra time at the end of class we often play it, it is very challenging. The kids have to describe or act out whatever it says, which is often a phrase and the kid holding the IPad has to guess. It is timed which makes it more difficult. It is a free app.
DeleteI like all of these ideas! I'm always looking for new ways to teach things. Thanks for sharing the iPad app, Carol. I like to incorporate the iPad whenever I can, but I'm not the best about finding good apps to use.
DeleteThe ipad app sounds like lots of fun, as does the mime idea. I think miming vocabulary words might help the students remember them.
DeleteI'll bet the miming vocabulary words would be good for kids learning English as a Second Language as well.
DeleteI personally love the "Story Telling" hook. Any time that I can share a personal story to engage my students, the better. Not only does it draw them in, but it allows them to get to know me as a person and thus build rapport. The best part is when they can add to the story, or make connections to what we are learning. Sometimes I have to stretch and either retell a story or tell one from the news, but either way I try to make it something concrete that is relatable for them as well. One example was why we needed to focus on punctuation. I shared a story about when I worked retail and of a report that our manager had submitted to the District Manager. Since the DM uses individual store reports in their daily report, it has to be professional. On the next phone conference, my DM was "called out" for her lack of professionalism. It was stressed that there should be proper punctuation and spelling in an official report. Needless to say, she always had one of us look over her report before sending it off after that.
ReplyDeleteWhile students may think that they will not need these skills in life after high school, the reality is that they will need many of them - whether they realize they are using them, or not.
Storytelling is great! I can relate to many of my students because I was kind of a pill in elementary school. I was bored, what can I say? So I tell them about when I was in school and it makes them see me more as a real person. It helps so much with rapport too!
DeleteI like the idea of "real-life" story telling to let your students know that what their are learning (or asked to do) in school is relevant to the world of work.
DeleteI use the story telling hook quite frequently - usually they are stories about me as a child. My students love to here how I used to confuse words or ornery things I did in school to my teachers, or how I was taught multiplication, etc. I think it lets them relate to me better to find out that I certainly was not a "perfect" student and that I got confused, too. I think I am a pretty good story teller, so I embellish a little to make it more interesting, but it is based in facts and usually they get how it relates to what I am teaching. I have sort of used the mime-hook. I learned that ESL students sometimes need vocabulary words presented in different ways, so I will often use pictures to teach the words. Then a day or two later, I will draw a picture that relates to a vocabulary word and see if they can tell what the word is. Sometimes it's funny because just like Pictionary, they sometimes get way off base. I also sometimes have them draw pictures for the words, but have found that is a difficult skill for most students.
ReplyDeleteI also like to use the storytelling hook to tell stories about myself that relate to whatever content we are covering. I think that when we can talk about ourselves, it makes us seem more real to the kiddos. We are more like them then they think we are! :)
DeleteI use the Story-Telling Hook more than the others. I love to use different voices and facial expressions when I read. It gives more meaning to the story when I do that. Also other kids will do the same thing if they see and hear me doing it. Halloween is the best time to practice voice, if you have the right sort of stories you can make different voices that add to the mood or atmoshere. Whenever I do this I look up to find most of my students are mezmorized by how I am reading and are really getting into the story. After awhile they are not embarrassed to read like that too!
ReplyDeleteI wish I could do this. I never feel like it fits my personality or classroom.
DeleteThis is such a great approach! Students love to hear a story being read when there are different voice tones and facial expressions. I'll bet when they read, they will try to read exactly the same way. What a wonderful talent you are passing on to your students!
DeleteI have used the swimming with the sharks hook before, especially when I was a Kindergarten teacher. I loved walking around and being in the middle of the kiddos while I was teaching. It is harder for me to do now because of the size of the groups that I normally teach. However, when I am in a classroom room helping kids, I love to walk around and be right in the middle helping my kids, as well as other kids in the room. I think it reaches the kids more when you are walking around and teaching from different spots in the room.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how people can teach without swimming with the Sharks!! I agree,
DeleteMy phone :-( but anyways... I agree, it's much harder with SPED because our groups are typically smaller.
DeleteI like to use the taboo hook. Like, we are the ONLY people in the whole school who get to know this awesome information! They eat it up! The other day I saw some weird exercise in the internet where they cross their arms, grab their ears, and squat. I told them I wanted to teach them this brain exercise to make their brains work better first thing in the morning but they couldn't tell anyone else because it was such a big secret. They were so excited they didn't even care we all looked goofy. It got them up and moving AND, what do you know, their brains were working wonderfully after getting some movement in.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea! I'm always afraid they will think I've lost it if I try something so far out of my comfort zone.
Deletehaha I saw this video too and totally did it with my kids! thats awesome.
DeleteI like that idea after all everyone likes a good secret.
DeleteI like to show kids learning or behavior strategies like it's a trick only they know about.
DeleteI have used the storytelling hook before. The way I have done this is by changing my voice when reading a story to my elementary students. I've also been known to do they same with the junior high and high school. This isn't on purpose, and I quickly realize what I'm doing when I get the look that lets me know they think I'm crazy. I would also like to try the taboo hook with my higher end students. That seems like it would be a good way to get them interested and keep them there.
ReplyDeleteI try to do voices but it have to allow myself to get out of my comfort zone to do this. I have found it becomes easier for me over time. How funny that you even do it on accident, shows that you must be a pro :)
DeleteI have used the Swimming with the Sharks Hook. While presenting notes or watching videos in Science class, I always walked around the room and interacted with the students. When playing games for review or completing labs, I would jump in and take part. Even with the smaller class sizes that I have now, I still try to do this. I would love to try the Storytelling Hook, but I am so bad at voices!
ReplyDeleteIt is neat that you get to teach science, sometimes it feels like this subject is overlooked. It seems like this hook can be incorporated into many subject areas.
DeleteI really like the storytelling hook because I feel that I have some of my own moments in life that I can tell students that they could relate to. In some given situations I can relate to a lot of my students for the simple fact that there have been hard times in our lives and I can show them and explain perseverance as well as never giving up on your goals or dreams that you want. We could find books in the library that tell a story that can also be similar to something that's happened in our own personal lives and see how that story or stories turned out. In my given small classroom you would think that I would not move around a lot when I'm teaching a lesson but when I read the swimming with the sharks hook I realize that I do move around while I'm teaching a lesson as well as after the lesson. When I'm moving from student to student to check their progress or they need help on something I think all of us in the education field specially in special education probably move around quite a bit. The teaser hook would be a technique to used to shock and surprise students get them a little bit out of their comfort zone and they would be really curious of what you're doing or what you're up to and where it might lead which is obviously in a engaging direction.
ReplyDeleteI have utilized the swimming with sharks hook in my classroom. I am always considering proximity and what is appropriate for the lesson being taught. Sometimes participating in the game with my students or moving around the table checking on each individual students progress and engagement throughout the lesson.
ReplyDeleteI think this is great, proximity is very important in a classroom. Also, playing the game with the students is fun for them. They always like to have the bragging rights that they beat me.
DeleteWhen I taught preschool, I used the storytelling hook daily. I love to use facial expressions and gestures. I also like changing my voice and tone. I actually still do these things with my own children. I do not have many opportunities to use these hooks with students. I am preparing to present social emotional lessons to a fourth grade class who seems to lack social skills. Perhaps, I can try the storytelling hook to get them engaged or the swimming with the shark hook and participate in the activity.
ReplyDeleteThe story telling would be great for social skills! how to express emotion :) great idea!
DeleteI might have to skip to the end if it's good, so the backwards hook, I wish I was a better storyteller.
ReplyDeleteI have done the story telling hook, I really want to try the backwards hook! Such a good idea. I think he has such a cool topic.. history.. I know he doesn't like when people say this, but I do think his subject is easier to do this with than say elementary math. The students do need to know the facts.. but manipulatives and real life situations always help in math.
ReplyDeleteBut I think with some cool reading stories adding some mystery and history at grade level would be a great hook.
The backwards hook is interesting. I feel like my kiddos can barely understand the material in order, so putting it out of order would be confusing to them. I could try it with something that is super easy then they could figure out what is the beginning, or the other parts of it.
DeleteI think the backwards hook is interesting. I use a little bit of this when I am checking students that are learning to read. Do they know the sight words or are they memorizing the sentences. If I have them read the sentence backwards, it's a good way to check if they actually know the words.
DeleteI use the storytelling hook quite a bit. I usually try to bring real life situations into the story and add my kids into the story as well. This technique gets the kids interested in what I am saying, especially if I am using my kids, since they know them. Once I tell them a story, I can transition into the lesson and I still have their attention.
ReplyDeleteI have to say I use swimming with the sharks hook. I usually attend many classes with students. I do all assignments they are given and then we compare how we did the problems and if we did the same way or the we got the same answers, etc.
ReplyDeleteI also have used the Taboo hook, alot like the game. tell me how you did something with out using certain words.
I use the Story Telling Hook. I use speaking in different voice tones for each character in a book. Last week I tried something different. I had a student that was struggling with odd and even numbers in math. We used a high pitched voice to read the odd numbers and a low gruff voice to read the even nmbers. The student loved it and remembered the odd and even numbers!
ReplyDeleteThe next thing I want to work on is the Teaser Hook.
This group of hooks was a little harder to pick from or talk about because I feel they were made more for older kids. However I was able to relate to the Storytelling Hook. With Kindergarten you tell a lot of stories. At this age they are mesmerized by the things you tell them that go on in your life because so many think we never leave the school we live here. Our experiences or letting them tell theirs are great ways to get kids talking about the subject at hand.
ReplyDeleteI like the backwards hook. Personally I feel that there is more than one way to accomplish something. A little mystery will keep the students interested in the lesson.
ReplyDeleteI tend to use the Storytelling Hook when working with my younger kiddos. Sometimes, when they find out they’re being pulled from class to do assessments, and not necessarily for some fantastic surprise, they’re not as excited about leaving (I remember one kiddo, after doing 10 minutes of math, kept telling me he REALLY thought he needed to get back for Calendar Time, haha!). If I change the way I’m speaking, have a really upbeat attitude, and portray (Let’s be honest, sometimes I don’t want to be there either, haha!) that what we’re doing is unquestionably the coolest, most fun thing in the world; they pick up on the enthusiasm and make it through the session without too much trouble. I also think that having that kind of attitude while instructing can do wonders for student engagement. Kids know if a teacher truly wants to be there or not, and if the teacher doesn’t care about what’s going on, why should they???
ReplyDeleteI thinking I could try the backwards hook to tell the story of how a student pulled it together in high school after a rough start and how much easier his life was when he did his work.
ReplyDelete