There’s no shortage of great student engagement ideas out there, I know. So am I just going to share one more idea that you’ll never use? Hopefully not! 

Here’s the problem I have with most “engaging” teaching ideas… they take FOREVER to plan and implement. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken hours to plan one activity that took 20 minutes for students to complete! Or spent hours prepping materials that were only going to be used once. But ever since I started making a conscious effort to leave school at a reasonable time every day, I refuse to do any of that!

Planning engaging activities doesn’t have to be that time-consuming! I promise your students are not expecting fancy or flashy. They just want to do something DIFFERENT every now and then! 

Read on for some simple ways to increase student engagement in any activity. Without having to plan or prep for hours and hours!

Use What You’ve Got

My students can’t stand it when I ask them to get out a textbook! Probably because I’ve set an expectation that we usually do more exciting things than read from the textbook. But sometimes I need a little help!

So here’s what I do instead of pulling out textbooks all the time (read: we still do sometimes):

1. I take some of the word problems from our math book and change the names. I’ll either use students’ names or change them to make the problem about my dog or cat! I usually add them to a slide on the SMARTBoard and add a photo, clipart, or even gif to go on the slide. This seems like it would take a while, but Google is your friend!
2. Cut up questions from a worksheet or textbook page and tape them up around the room like task cards. Any time the students can get out of their seats is a win!
3. Turn questions from a worksheet or textbook into a scavenger hunt or escape room. It can be as simple as creating a puzzle or changing multiple choice answers to create a secret word!

Student Collaboration

Just like with movement, any time I can get my students talking is a win! They are going to talk anyway, so how about giving them something productive to talk about?

Here are some ways I like to quickly give students a chance to collaborate:

1. “Think, Pair, Share” is my EVERYDAY quick collaboration. Is there an open-ended question after a paragraph in your social studies book? Instead of asking it and hearing crickets, have students talk to each other about it!
2. Turn it into a game! Take some questions that you’ve cut up from a worksheet and add it to a pre-made game. The options are endless–bingo, a simple game board, tic-tac-toe… the list goes on!
3. Have students complete the activity in partners or small groups instead of individually. When I use scavenger hunt activities in my classroom, I always have my students work in partners! 

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Use Technology to Your Advantage

I know not all of us have access to the same amount of technology but, if you’ve got it, USE IT! Even in the days when I had access to only a little bit of technology, I worked around that. I had students partner up to use the few devices I had. Sometimes I planned lessons far in advance so that I could sign up for the school laptop cart ahead of time. I took my students to the computer lab as much as possible before my school even had laptops. 

1. Have you tried Quizizz? Every time I tell my students that we are going to do a Quizizz, I hear a collective “YES!” in my classroom. What I like about Quizizz is that you can quickly add questions made by other teachers to the game you’re creating! This has saved me SO much time!
2. Sometimes I will take text from our textbook and create a Nearpod lesson with it. Students will read the text as they normally would, but I will add extra links and questions. There are some great features on Nearpod, including multiple ways for students to respond!
3. I love using Google Forms to create self-checking activities! When I do escape rooms with students, I always give them a Google Form to check their clues. Self-checking activities are a win-win for teachers and students–they get immediate feedback and you don’t have a ton of grading!

So there you have it, those some quick strategies I use to increase student engagement, without increasing my prep time! When planning units, I try to add each of these activities in at least once per unit to “spice” things up.

Want even more ideas to increase student engagement in your classroom? My FREE Low-Prep Engagement Toolkit gives you 16 different strategies to immediately add engagement to your classroom! Click here to get your hands on it and start engaging now!