Fill-ins and games are an incredibly important part the Needs-focused™ Approach. During live training sessions on Classroom Management I always make the point that the best way to ensure engagement and minimize disruption during lessons is to have your students turning up for class in a positive frame of mind – actually looking forward to your lesson.
It’s a lot easier keeping them in a positive state than it is to make them enjoy a lesson if they have already made their minds up that they are going to hate it. The only way to do this is to consistently give them a satisfying & rewarding lesson experience – by making appropriate/achievable tasks, cooperative/active learning and FUN an integral part of every lesson.
In the full version of Lesson-ology™ we include a highly exciting and novel collection of quirky ‘puzzles’, ‘on-the-spot’ games, ‘fill-ins’ and ‘fun tips’ which you can use with any group to fill five minutes, enhance learning, teach social skills or simply bring some hilarity to the lesson.
A resource bank of ‘fill-in’ activities can be a life-saver during those daunting times when a lesson starts to go wrong. At times like this, to avoid classroom chaos, you need to quickly change the tone of the lesson, grab every pupil’s attention and collect your thoughts. Fill-ins are also a great way to infuse a lesson with positive emotions and cement teacher/pupil relationships.
Here is a small sample of the materials from this, my favourite, section...
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BEHAVIOUR NEEDS ENGAGING LESSON ACTIVITIES