JBHM Education Group Seeks Ideas
In an article published in the September 2008 edition of Educational Leadership, Dr. Douglas Reeves, founder of The Leadership and Learning Center, wrote about something called the Extracurricular Advantage. Citing research by several educators and as a result of observations in schools, Dr. Reeves states, “We can make a strong case that the positive peer and adult relationships, organization, discipline, expectations, and other positive influences associated with extracurricular activities are likely to improve performance.”
Brad Kuntz is a high school teacher in Gladstone, Oregon. He wrote an article for the November 2011 edition of ASCD’s Education Update titled, “Engage Students in the School Community”. In the piece he observed, “A student involved in some sort of club, group, or team stands a better chance of becoming an engaged citizen, gaining self-confidence, and feeling more accepted.”
It seems reasonable to conclude that involvement – be it in the classroom or through extracurricular – has a positive impact on students. Creating activities that are student-centered is often the key to enticing participation from students that otherwise would not. Over the past 10+ years we’ve seen countless clever ways to do just that.
Take a look at the examples that follow. And if you’ve designed or witnessed a student-centered activity that engages students, let us know*. From time to time we’ll share a few of your ideas with our specialists and the teachers and administrators with whom we work.
- Develop Back-Row Leaders—purposely choose a struggling student to lead a club or initiative (can be a boisterous, shy, aggressive, or passive person).
- Create English Learners and Special Education Mentors—students who help teach reading by reading to others and helping with vocabulary.
- Form a Compare and Contrast Club—similar to a debate team, discuss current events, art, sports, etc., by using Power Words in a score-keeping format.
- Encourage shy students/slow readers by allowing them to read questions to the class that the teacher has prepared in advance, relating to the lesson for that day.
- Develop a Lunch Club—student-led club that reads about health & nutrition; encourage reading out loud; you can even turn this into a project that will benefit the school at large.
- Start a Coffee Club—after school Creative Writing for Strugglers facilitated by teachers; stress vocabulary; provide coffee for older students, juice for younger grades.
- Implement a schoolwide program to “WOW” students who are caught doing well academically, socially, and behaviorally. Consider using a token economy.
- Initiate a class perfect attendance competition on a periodic basis by having the class spell “Perfect Attendance.” Every day that all students are present for their homerooms, the class will post a letter outside the door, eventually spelling perfect attendance. The winning class gets an ice cream party, pizza party, movie and popcorn, a day out of uniform, or some other creative reward.
*Send your ideas for student-centered activities to sbeibers@jbhm.com. We may have to edit your submission for presentation purposes.