7 Strategies to Gain and Hold Student Interest

Students don't always listen to the teacher. Sometimes they are preoccupied with personal issues or classroom disruptions. But sometimes, failure to listen may be a normal response to ineffective teaching. Let me illustrate.

Early in my teaching career, I was attempting to cover some new content in a high school classroom. This was back before I understood the importance of teaching in a multi-sensory approach. Consequently, my usual teaching method was to have students open textbooks and read along with my verbal presentation.

Many of my students would not have cracked a book as homework, so I believed the only way I could present new information was to go over it all verbally, point by point. As you can imagine, I struggled with keeping student interest. In fact, one day, one student said this to me in front of the class, as she walked out. "You talk too much and too long." Well, that statement was an eye-opener, and the impact of that statement has stayed with me throughout my teaching career--shaping the way I currently teach.

Back then, I literally turned students off to learning. Why? I failed to incorporate some of the most basic strategies for gaining and holding student interest in the classroom.

Here are 7 strategies you can use to gain and hold student interest--particularly at the secondary level.

1. Grab student interest by presenting information in a way that links new information to what is of interest to them in their world. This makes new information worth the effort to learn and helps lodge it in memory.

2. Move around the classroom and don't stand in one place to present. Students tire of looking at one place and in one direction for lengths of time.

3. Spark up your personality through animation, pauses, voice inflection, and eye-to-eye contact with each student.

4. Emphasize important points by letting students know that "something important" is about to be said. Be careful not to repeat this too often.

5. Minimize other distractions. For example, it's probably best to avoid teaching with your back to a window that faces a busy street or courtyard.

6. Teach in short segments, and include student interaction, questioning, and brainstorming. Variety holds student interest.

7. Finally, remember to present information for all the senses. Your content will be more interesting, better remembered, and you'll tap into the strength of a variety of learners, if you teach to reach different learning styles.