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Entrance Activities that Encourage Student Participation


















The concept of engaged learning has recently been brought to the forefront in part due to the new teacher evaluation system and theorists that include this concept in their rubrics such as Danielson, Marzano and Stronge. Personally, I am happy that they chose to include this topic in their rubric because creating an engaging classroom is at the heart of learning. Plus, it’s a lot of fun!

Silent Tasks

One technique that I utilized in my classroom was to post a task on the board for students to complete when they first entered my classroom. Quite often, the message would read, “Without talking…” The students then had to apply a concept that would address the concept that I was teaching that day. If we were working on division, the directions might state, “Without talking, divide the class in half.” The students received no other directions other than that. At first, if there 25 students, the students would separate into groups of 12 and then look at me with silent but upset eyes as if to say, “What do we do? We do not have an even number.”  Then I would say, “What are your choices?  Look around the room. Reread the directions. How can you solve this problem?” Eventually, a student would come up and take my hand and lead me to one of the groups. Or the students would motion for one student to pretend to be cut in half and would put his/her feet in both groups. Whatever solution they devised, we often concluded the activity with laughter and discussion of what could have worked and how they could apply the concept to new situations. My silent tasks were a great way to initiate an engaged lesson. My students honed their skills of collaboration and problem solving while at the same time having fun.

Who am I?

Another technique that an instructor might want to try is to create cards with words or names regarding the topic of the lesson plan or unit and play the game, “Who am I?”  When students enter the class, the instructor attaches one of the cards on the back of each student so that he/she cannot see it. Then the students walk around and ask each other questions about their person or name and try to identify who they are. If the student guesses their name or word correctly, then he/she sits down.  For instance, for a workshop that I recently developed I made a list of education buzz words (NCLB, Bring Your Own Device, Student Growth Objectives, etc.). It was a great way to get my participants involved, social and thinking. But this concept could be repurposed for various levels and subject matter. For example, if your class was reading a novel then the instructor could use the names of different characters. If a science teacher was working on a unit in physics, then he/she could use lists of terms and words. In an art class, the students could be famous artists or to represent techniques.

Gallery Walk

One collaborative technique that requires all students to share or apply existing knowledge is to use a gallery walk. Students enter the classroom and are invited to visit each poster board and contribute his/her knowledge to the topic. For instance, in fifth grade students are introduced to simplifying equations. Thus, one gallery walk for this grade level could include several poster board with equations at the top. Students are then asked to simplify one term and then go onto the next poster.  In a history class the instructor might invite the students to identify and write the name of one event or person under the name of each topic or era listed at the top of the poster board.

Perspective Positions

Lastly, one technique that gets students to interact with one another is the use of perspective positions.  The way it works is that you put a question on the board, and ask the students to stand at one end of the room if they believe one thing to be true, the other side of the room for students that believe the opposite, and in-between for those who are not sure.  Next, you would ask the students to take ten minutes and try to convince the other students to stand in their corner.  You listen to the students’ discussions and evaluate if they represented the facts correctly and if they able to employ persuasive techniques to convince their classmates of their position.

There is a lot of value in getting students engaged the minute they enter the classroom. When we employ engaged entrance activities, we initiate learning as soon as students enter the classroom. We get our students thinking and applying existing knowledge. We encourage collaboration. We foster problem solving. And we introduce the topic of the day’s lesson.


Victoria Pagonis
Founder and President
Standards Solution