4 Intriguing Ways to Keep Students Engaged During COVID-19

It can be very stressful for isolated students to spend long periods in front of a computer to get instruction or do homework. Being at home adds to distractions. However, if we bend a little, there are four pretty rock-solid strategies to keep their attention.

Create Online Clubs

Creating an online club should be done according to student interests/talents. Giving students opportunities to engage other peers, even if adult-supervised, is a healthy distraction from continued screen time. When students feel like they belong, it gives them a sense of purpose and meaning and fosters internalization of “I can”; “I want to”; and “I belong”.

Check & Connect theoretical underpinning: Intrinsic motivation

Create Custom Learning Paths

What does your student want to know about more than anything? Create a teamwork mentality and build a customized learning path based on those topics. Awaken learning as a lifestyle. Motivation occurs as students experience growth in their understanding, realize their capacity to learn, and explore higher levels of personal agency and autonomy.

Check & Connect theoretical underpinning: Intrinsic motivation

Serve with Passion

If students could help heal the world, what would they do? Help them connect with someone in that field. Design service-learning experiences that help them discover their ability as change-agents. When students help design interventions for real-world problems, competency increases, which can give them greater confidence to solve personal challenges. Having adult support helps build resilience as students have more resources to “bounce back” from unexpected circumstances or set-backs. Making connections outside school in professional or service-oriented settings can also increase students’ perspectives and fuel hunger to know what they can accomplish.

Check & Connect theoretical underpinnings: Cognitive-behavioral theory, Systems theory, Resilience, and Intrinsic motivation

Claim Your Identity and Grow Stronger

What characteristics do students value most? How can we partner with them to facilitate their growth? Change is a journey, and what a tremendous chance to grow alongside students as they begin the process of self-actualization. Recommend great books, YouTube videos, etc. This is a powerful chance to connect students’ inner drives with their engagement and performance in school. Encourage them to look at difficult tasks/circumstances through the lens of who they want to be and what they value. For instance, “Malcolm, you said you value honesty and respect. If that’s true, then how could you use honesty and respect to talk to Mrs. Jackson about your grade?”

Check & Connect theoretical underpinning: Intrinsic motivation

Extras

Parents and caregivers, when appropriate, can serve as tremendous partners for students in these activities, which can help strengthen child relationships and increase family engagement.
These activities are closely aligned with the Cognitive and Affective subtypes of Check & Connect’s multidimensional model for student engagement.

Find ways to accelerate the academic growth of struggling students or answer questions about implementing C&C now at checkandconnect@umn.edu.

Attend, Engage, Invest

Perspectives on Check & Connect, dropout, student engagement, and related topics