How To Keep Students Engaged Until Summer Break
As the weather gets warmer and the sun sets later each day, engaging my middle school students becomes increasingly difficult. With their sights set on summer vacation, each school day is a new challenge for teachers. Inquiry and student-led learning are great ways to keep students engaged even as summer break inches closer. Mini inquiries are best for this busy time of year because you can do them in a few class periods and engage students in what they’re working on. Here’s how I use mini inquiries in my classroom to beat end-of-year distractions:
1. Pose the question
For my class, I used the inquiry, “What makes a hero?” The first time I did this lesson, we had just read "Black Panther: The Young Prince" by Ronald L. Smith, but you can do this with any book that depicts heroes or anti-heroes. In the book, one of the villain characters does something heroic, so my goal with this lesson was to teach students that the idea of a hero can be flexible and complicated.
First, I had students answer the question using background knowledge. We kept a running list of heroic qualities, which helped students see that there are many possible characteristics a hero can have. We discussed the list and developed a working definition for the word "hero" as a class.
2. Empower students to research and use text-based answers
Next, I sent students on a mission: find heroes in the What Makes a Hero? text set I curated on Newsela. For this lesson, I included articles about real people we may consider heroes for different reasons. Students selected a text that resonated with them.
Using text sets that include diverse perspectives for inquiry lessons helps increase student choice and agency. It also provides an opportunity for students to take more control of their own learning. First, the teacher can select one of the articles to model their thinking and share any annotation requirements, such as highlighting text evidence or taking notes that help them answer the inquiry question. Next, the class can work together and all students can contribute ideas. Finally, students can work independently or with partners to gather evidence from multiple articles, time permitting.
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3. Have students share findings in creative ways
After students complete their inquiry, they need to share and discuss their findings. First, I had students share with a small group and then facilitated a class discussion. Each small group shared a few important findings, and we added those to our class definition of a hero. We kept a list of qualities in a Google doc, but you could also use chart paper or a collaborative tool like Jamboard. You may also have students create a product, such as a poster or digital poster, and then facilitate a gallery walk to encourage them to review each other’s findings.
Students appreciate having choices in their learning and building in a way to share findings helps make the work relevant. Inquiry capitalizes on student choice and is a great way to keep students engaged even when they're counting the days to summer.
Premade text sets make instruction easier
Don’t want to curate your own text set for a mini-inquiry lesson? Newsela-created text sets are ready and waiting for you and your students! Choose from one of these premade lessons:
Why are holidays important?: Do this inquiry over one or two class periods, or break it into smaller chunks over several days.
What does it mean to be equal?: Use this text set as a launching point for a unit on the suffrage movement.
What future careers interest me?: This collection of Newsela's dream job articles helps students learn about several career paths and share their learning.
For even more options to include inquiry and student-led learning in your end-of-year lessons, check out all the text sets and features Newsela Social Studies offers.