How can I add variety to my classes?

Dear Aggie,

Now that we are a few weeks into the semester, and my students are used to my style of teaching, I would like to add some variety to my classes. Any suggestions?

~A Fellow Novelty Seeker

Dear Fellow Novelty Seeker,

So happy to read your question! You are right to have set a certain routine at the beginning of a course; students need that first. However, as you have sensed, it is time to provide them with variety.

Research shows that novelty is crucial if we wish to maintain students’ attention. If students do not pay attention, no learning will occur, yet we sometimes take it for granted that students will pay attention.

Instead, getting students’ attention should be a goal in itself. In my search for answers on how to achieve that goal, I came upon James Lang’s book Distracted. Among other things, it reassured me about my struggles to get and maintain students’ attention: I was not alone.

All educators face the same students, pulled in a million directions, torn between our subjects and clickbait. Yes, we all must compete with the clickbait without lowering our standards or becoming entertainers.

One solution struck me as the easiest to implement. Lang suggests thinking of our classes as modular; each thing we do in class is its own module. For instance, consider these modules:

• Opportunities for student questions
• Analysis of images
• Closing connection exercises
• Group work
• Pair work
• Poll questions
• Review of passages in assigned readings
• Worked problems
• Demonstration of a procedure
• Open discussions of theme and meaning
• Short videos connected to course content
• Creating a concept map
• Whole class discussion
• Mini-lecture
• Quiz

He advises trying to come up with at least 15 modules; then write each on a different index card. Individual modules should last about 15 minutes, so for a class like mine of 75 minutes, that would mean 5 modules (index cards) per class period. The best tip is to mix the modules up. Alternate between the modules that require students to be active and those that require them to be more passive. Laying the index cards in front of you will also allow you to visualize your classes and speed up your preparation.

Now, a caveat. I do quiz my students each class, so this module will always be present. Variety is possible even here: the quizzes do not have to occur at the same time. Sometimes I quiz students at the beginning of class on the readings they were supposed to prepare for class; sometimes, at the end of class, on our class discussion; sometimes in the middle, on a mini-lecture I just presented. They never know when, so they are on time, and are (almost!) always listening.

Similarly, I will always want my students to work together; but what they do within their group might be different. Let’s say one day they work together to come up with a question for the final, one day I give them a writing sample and ask them to critique it, or another day I ask them to compose a slogan to illustrate an idea.

As long as I vary the actual group work they do, staying away from routine, I can maintain their interest. This technique worked great for my classes, and I love having my students guess what activity will come next and wonder with anticipation.  

Hope these tips will help you as well.

~Aggie

Resources:

Lang, J. M. (2020). Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It. Basic Books.