How to Revamp Five Routine Class Activities for High Student Engagement

Every teacher employs routine lesson plan ideas from time to time.  And, yes, a classroom routine should be part of your day-to-day work.  Routine provides a comforting and predictable pattern that students recognize, which helps classroom management.  But routines, if overused, get old quickly during a school year.  In this article, we’ll share how you can transform routine lesson ideas for high student engagement.

Are you doing any of the following activities in class?  

1. Warm-up question 
2. Reading assignments
3. Lecture
4. Video Clips
5. Class discussion

We thought so.  We do them too!  

But if a routine is overused, or improperly implemented, it isn’t effective.

Let’s take a look at five routine class activities and give them a boost to achieve high student engagement.

Routine Classroom Activity: Warm-up questions at the start of class.

Why teachers do a warm-up activity: Getting the students on-task right away is a solid classroom management strategy.  You should definitely have a routine at the start of the period to get everyone in class focused and headed in the same direction. 

What tends to happen if your warm-up routine is overused: Problems arise when the warm-up looks the same day after day. “Take your notebook out, answer the question quietly, and then we’ll share”  might fly early in the year, but it eventually loses its effectiveness.

Three Ways to Boost Your Warm-Up Questions for High Student Engagement:

#1: Do a “thinking only” warm-up.

I’ve found that if I ask students to ponder complex questions, they produce complex answers.  But if I ask them to write it all down, I get very few words.  Being forced to write down all those thoughts can reduce the task to just another warmup that they want to finish as soon as possible.

#2: Give them a choice.

Provide two questions roughly the same topic but with different contexts.  For example, one question about World War II alliances, another question about Russia potentially aligning with North Korea (maybe include a short informative video clip).  The class quickly votes and, viola, they get to do what they want.

Bonus: This activity helps students see the relevance of the course content by looking at it from another context.

#3: Get them out of their seat.

If the warm-up elicits many responses, ask them to stand up and circulate the room to find partners with whom they can exchange ideas with a Give One, Get One.  Play music as they walk around.

If the warm-up lends itself to discussion or debate, play “Would you rather…” and have kids walk to the corner of the room that represents their answer.

Routine Classroom Activity:  Students read and answer questions.

Why teachers do reading assignments: It’s practically an academic tradition to have students read (from a book, website, or other source of text) and answer questions on a worksheet.  There’s nothing wrong with it every now and then.  Plus, it gives you a break from being the sole “giver” of information. However, research indicates that “letting students work on their own” lacks the structure needed for students to complete the reading.

Depending on your class, a “reading assignment” can go south very quickly. 

What tends to happen if reading assignments are overused: It starts with 8-10 students who don’t want to read.  You then have to exert energy to try to keep them on task. After a few minutes, a critical mass forms.  You’ve lost the class.  Suddenly everyone in class is chatting and all but a few students have decided not to even do the assignment.  What a waste of time.  

Three Ways to Boost Your Reading Assignment for High Student Engagement:

#1: Provide structured support for the reading.

• Read it together as a class. 
• Have students read it in pairs, switching off every other paragraph.  Ask pairs to discuss, summarize, or make connections as they read.
• Front-load the reading (providing background) and ask students to predict what happens next.  
• Offer options for the reading assignment (for example, students can answer questions or take Cornell notes)
• Ask students to engage in metacognition while reading.  While reading, they explain or write down their thoughts, connections, and questions.

#2: Jigsaw the reading.  Place the class into groups of 3-4.  Divide the reading into 3-4 chunks.  Each person reads one chunk and answers those questions.  Everyone then presents to/teaches their group about their section.

#3: Make the reading necessary to complete a task more meaningful than answering questions.  Here are three examples of tasks that require reading to complete, but the possibilities are infinite.

• Create a four-panel cartoon to summarize a text.
• Groups of two write and record a two-minute podcast debating an issue from an article.
• Small groups of three create a sales pitch for an Industrial Revolution invention.

Routine Classroom Activity: Teacher-led lecture

Why teachers lecture: Direct instruction – when the teacher plays the role of “knowledge giver” – is a common instructional practice.  Even though “student-centered” approaches have gained favor in the last 20 years, lecture persists in classrooms as a quick and easy way to share ideas with students.

What tends to happen if lectures are overused: Lectures are viewed as a passive, old-school method in classrooms.  I’ve heard students tell me they like lectures because they can just sit back and relax, something like watching television.  

A lecture is most effective when:

1. It is used infrequently enough to be a “novelty” to the class.
2. The teacher is able to evoke active thinking from the students during the lecture.

Four Ways to Boost Your Lecture for High Student Engagement:

#1: Limit the length to about 10-15 minutes, with a maximum of about 20 minutes for upper high school.

#2: Include frequent breaks in which you ask students to discuss, process, ask clarifying questions, or summarize the information you just presented.

For example: When you pause your lecture, lead the class in opportunities to think about the content.  Here are four ways to structure those breaks.

     –Questioning – students must create one or two questions about the information

     –Example Finding – students must think of an example 

     –Divergent Thinking – students should disagree with one part of your lecture

     –Agreement – students should identify one part they agree with

I get the best results when I let the students know what type of “break” is coming.  For example, before explaining those three slides on the impact of global warming, let the class know you’ll be asking them for examples from their life.  When you get to the part of your lecture on solutions to global warming, front-load it by requiring them to come up with at least one question about the content on your next slide.

#3: Incorporate interactive elements into your lecture.

     Nearpod or Peardeck offer free trials; allow teachers to incorporate student feedback into slides

#4: Insert short video clips into your lecture – see below for best practices.  Note: The feedback we’re getting from teachers now (2023-24 school year) is that students aren’t as engaged with video clips as they used to be.  Be judicious with your clips.

Routine Classroom Activity: The teacher shows a short video clip.

*We aren’t talking about a 45-minute video; we cover best practices for those longer video assignments in another article.

Why teachers show video clips: With the ability to insert YouTube video clips into Google Slides and PowerPoint, it makes sense to use the technology to engage students.  Short (about 2-minute) clips are one of my favorite ways to break up a lecture.

Any video clip longer than 3 minutes better be really engaging to hold attention.

What tends to happen if video clips are overused: Too many clips lose their effectiveness.  Kids stop watching.  As we mentioned in the “lecture” section above, we are hearing from teachers (2023-24 school year) that students aren’t as engaged with video clips as they once were.  Be judicious with your clips.

Three Ways to Boost Your Video Clips for High Student Engagement:

#1: Require that students do something with the clip.  Even if they just have to share one key idea when it’s over, you need to give them a reason to watch and ask for accountability. This is a non-negotiable in my opinion.  Showing a three-minute clip but not asking for any thinking from students is rarely effective.

#2: Set up the clip by providing context.  You can dramatically increase engagement by providing an introduction to the clip that compels students to find out what happens.  Think of your setup like a “clickable headline” for the video you’re about to show.

#3: If you have a five-minute clip but only two minutes are relevant, don’t show the entire clip.  If you do, you train your students that the clips don’t matter.

​​​​Routine Classroom Activity: The teacher leads a class discussion.

Why teachers have discussions: Class discussions encourage students to think critically and communicate ideas clearly in a safe and supportive environment.

What tends to happen if a discussion is overused: Sometimes a great class discussion will happen organically, without planning or prep.  Enjoy those random moments of classroom magic because they are rare. 

In most cases, simply starting a lesson with, “Today, we’re going to discuss chapter 3.” isn’t going to yield stellar results.  A 15-minute discussion can easily result in only a few engaged and contributing students while everyone else watches the clock. 

To maximize student engagement and participation in your discussions, try out the following strategies.

Six Ways to Boost Your Class Discussion for High Student Engagement:

#1: As you plan the discussion, identify your objective(s) for the discussion time.  Share this with students.

#2: Provide students with potential discussion questions as well as time to think about, perhaps research, and plan out responses.

#3: Include a small-group component to the discussion.  Even though not every comment is heard by the class, it multiplies the number of participants.  Plus after trying out ideas within a small group, students are more likely to participate in a whole-class setting. 

#4: Establish ground rules that encourage civil discourse and respect. Students are naturally less willing to participate if they fear they’ll be interrupted or disparaged.  We wrote more about this in Things Your Students Want You To Know (But Won’t Tell You).

#5: Create a culture in which class-wide participation is the norm.  Our opinion article on Why and How You Should be Randomly Calling on Students goes into more detail.  The single biggest threat to a great discussion is when 3-5 students dominate the conversation.

#6: Before the discussion, have students create goals for the amount and quality of their participation.  Afterward, ask students to reflect on their performance.

Aim for variety within your routine class structure.

As you develop your lessons and establish your classroom routines, be on the lookout for where you can include some variety.  This variety will keep students engaged and active in the learning process because they know that there is a structure but do not necessarily know exactly what will be expected of them each day.  Creating this balance of tension will lead to a more effective classroom environment.

Brad has taught history at the middle and high school levels for 19 years, almost exclusively in American public schools.  He holds a master’s in educational technology and is passionate about elevating the status of professional educators.