7 Steps for Putting the “PH” Back in PHUN in Your Classroom
Making lessons more engaging starts with swapping passive note-copying and straight lectures for active, experiential tasks students actually do something with. Build in student choice, quick checks for understanding, and multi-modal activities: projects, discussion, hands-on work, instead of relying on notes and a test. Active, meaningful learning experiences can be more memorable than passive note-copying alone.
Part 2 of 5 … Join us in the second installment of a five-part series that tells the story of how one dedicated principal observed positive change in the classroom when teachers incorporated the principles and philosophy from the popular book, The Wild Card by Hope and Wade King.
7 Reasons Why substantiates the need to change up our ordinary teaching and mundane routines, and it's the same case for why lessons need to be more engaging. Let's set the stage by contrasting two classrooms teaching 5th-grade American History and the events leading up to the Boston Massacre.
Scenario 1
Setting: Classroom with chairs and desks in rows; teacher's desk is in the front of the room; lots of Boston Massacre notes on the whiteboard; the teacher is reading from her notes.
Teacher: Jon, make sure you are writing down all the notes from the board into your notebook. The test questions are created with these notes.
Jon: Can you just give me the notes or can I take a picture of the notes?
Teacher: No, just write them down as I read them to you.
Jon: Can I just read the book?
Teacher: No, I am teaching you the important information from the book. Today's topics are in your book. You can read the book, too.
Jon: Can I just sit here, or are the notes for a grade?
Teacher: The notes are not for a grade, but the content will be on the test. You should probably write them down if you want a good grade.
Jon: I actually learn better just reading.
Scenario 2
Setting: Classroom with tables and flexible seating; teacher's desk is in the back corner; many visual and 3-dimensional models, graphic organizers, anchor charts; Chromebooks on tables; the teacher is listening as students present and defend their thinking
Jon: I believe the British did not have the right to sleep or be fed in the colonists' houses. The right to quarter troops had to be illegal.
Teacher: What information leads you to believe this?
Jon: I researched several websites, one being www.history.com, which states that the colonists were upset with the British troops, especially in Boston. This led to the Boston Massacre.
Teacher: Who else has evidence to back up or refute Jon's viewpoint?
Jon: I learn best when I use the Chromebook to research.
Obviously, two different ways to teach students. Which one is better? That is up for debate. If students and the teacher were polled, I would bet they'd say the latter example is much more engaging and fun, not only for the students, but also for the teacher. Which one is easier to execute…the first scenario? Which scenario has higher chances of retention…I would put my money on the second scenario.
Did you notice in the title that I purposely spelled "fun" with a PH? There is more than one way to spell it if you're creative and willing to think outside the box…much like the excitement, creativity, and fun in your classroom. In the next two installments in this series, I will give you several ideas and strategies to overhaul your classroom instruction. Here are seven reasons to bring back the PHUN in your classroom, and to figure out how to make lessons more engaging along the way.
1 - Identify Stale Curriculum
Teaching to standards, planning lessons with the same "Madeline Hunter" format, and assessing what you have taught can become very commonplace. For a majority of us, when we plan, we use the mandated district curriculum and go from page to page, meeting the expectations for pacing. We look to finish the textbooks or cover as much content as possible. We may even connect this textbook teaching to state standards, and there may even be some exciting lessons.
We need to champion a greater variation of learning experiences.
We need to break away from our ordinary lesson planning, with administrative approval, and create learning experiences that students will remember. Experiential learning with a high level of engagement connected to the standards, and even connected to the textbook, can be powerful. The following series of articles will give you more ideas and invigorate your lesson planning and teaching.
2 - Consider Alternatives to Unengaging Instruction
"Sit and get" professional development is not very effective for teachers. Not surprisingly, the same holds true for our students in the classrooms. Research generally finds that active learning can outperform traditional lecture-only instruction on measures of student learning. A large meta-analysis of undergraduate STEM courses found higher exam scores and lower failure rates in classes that used active learning, though that finding shouldn't be stretched into a universal percentage for every K-12 subject.
Since we know this as adults sitting through lectures, why can't we change this for our students? We must break away from our conventional teaching practices. We need to understand that although lecturing and regurgitation may seem the easiest, they are not the most effective strategies for teaching.
The following steps will give you more ideas!
3 - Get Students' Attention
Changing up what we do to get students' attention can be fun not only for students, but for us too. As we compete for their attention, we can change our teaching practices to increase engagement. Many educators are fighting students' screen time and gaming, such as Fortnite.
As educators, we can continue to make this a battle, but it's not one we're likely to win. The gaming industry has far more time, energy, and money to create new ways to engage our students. Instead of going to battle with them, in some ways it's smarter to join them. We must create learning experiences that capture our students' attention and help them learn the content, even when they do not realize they are learning. This may seem like trickery, but in actuality, it is great instruction. Having students engaged in learning gives us room to go deeper into the content, and well-designed active engagement may support student retention.
"As educators, if we continue to make this a battle, we will not win... We must create learning experiences that grab the attention of our students and help them learn the content even when they do not know they are learning."
4 - Identify Low Engagement Instruction and Increase Engagement
Engagement can take many forms, but low-engagement instruction is also easy to spot. This is when students sit, do not interact with anyone or any materials, but are still expected to learn. We can incorporate learning structures, project-based learning, experiential learning, and other approaches to increase students' active participation. This can be exciting and fun for both students and teachers.
Technology can carry some of this weight without adding to your planning load. A quick poll with a tool like Google Forms or Kahoot doubles as engagement and a fast check for understanding: you find out who's lost before the test does, not after.
Empowering students through increased engagement may seem like teachers are giving up control of their classrooms, but if done correctly, that empowerment may support stronger academic retention.
5 - Increase Creativity and Innovation
The ability to take a risk, be creative, and even be innovative is stymied for many different reasons…sometimes self-imposed, and sometimes imposed by others. We may turn the next page in our textbook or teach in the same format every lesson without even realizing that our students are not as engaged as they could be. Unfortunately, we do not know what we have never experienced before. We must be able to step out of our comfort zones, reflect, and try something new.
Working with the principal and getting the "license" to change instruction drastically can be exciting and invigorating, which is exactly what many of us need to shake things up in the classroom. Giving students a choice in how they show what they know, whether that's a poster, a podcast, or a short presentation, is an easy first step. Meaningful, appropriately structured choice like that can support student autonomy, motivation, and engagement.
"We must be able to step out of our comfort zone, do some self-reflection, and try something new."
6 - Increase Retention
Well-designed active-learning activities can improve learning outcomes and may support longer-term retention. Using varied, well-designed activities- visual, hands-on, discussion-based- gives students multiple ways to engage with and practice content, which may support learning and retention better than a single format repeated every day.
7 - Make Memories
Students remember experiences and the relationships they had with teachers more so than what was on page 150 of the social studies textbook. When we create memorable experiences, we are connecting students to content at a much higher level.
As I think back to my favorite teachers, many come to mind… not so much for what they taught, but for how they treated me. When I concentrate on the content I was taught in school, experiential learning is the most prominent: 1) making a World War II Airplane out of balsa wood in fifth grade, 2) playing my drum in music class in sixth grade, 3) cooking a dish in home economics my junior year, 4) doing an explorers simulation in social studies in fifth grade, and 5) eating at a long table for Thanksgiving dinner in first grade. All these experiences increased my retention in a given content area, engaged multiple modalities, and made the content memorable.
We sometimes do what is easiest and teach straight from our textbooks. Unfortunately, the number of memories I have from textbooks is minimal. In fact, one of the only textbooks I remember was from a social studies class… because it was so outdated. I remember facts about countries, people, and perceptions that had changed from the circa 1980s textbook I used in high school (I was in high school in the early 1990s). It was amazing to see what had been in print a decade earlier and how much it had changed. It was memorable how my teacher used the textbook to teach "change". Other than that, I do not remember many other pieces of content taught from a textbook.
Positive teacher-student relationships and memorable learning experiences can contribute to student engagement and learning, and that's worth keeping in mind as we plan.
Continue reading... find the third installment of Jon Konen's 5-part Wild Card Series here.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I make my lessons more engaging without a full rewrite of my curriculum?
Start small: swap one lecture segment for a discussion, add one project-based task, or run a quick digital poll to check understanding mid-lesson. You don't need to overhaul the textbook, just change how students interact with it.
Why is lecture-style teaching considered less effective?
Passive note-copying gives students little chance to process, question, or apply what they're hearing. Active formats like discussion, hands-on tasks, and student-led research ask students to do something with the content, which is where retention actually happens.
What does low-engagement instruction look like in practice?
Students are physically present but not interacting with material, peers, or the teacher: sitting, listening, and writing notes with no active task attached. It's easy to miss because the classroom looks orderly, not because it's working.
How do I increase student retention without adding more class time?
Build in multiple modalities for the same content, such as visual, auditory, and hands-on elements, rather than one long explanation. Students who experience a concept several ways are more likely to remember it than students who only heard it once.
Does giving students more choice in assignments actually help engagement?
Yes. Letting students choose the format they use to show what they know- a poster, a short presentation, a podcast- gives them ownership over the work. Meaningful, well-structured choice like that can support student autonomy, motivation, and engagement.
- Active learning outperforms lecture-only instruction - a large meta-analysis of undergraduate STEM courses found higher exam scores and lower failure rates with active learning.
- Low engagement is easy to miss - a quiet, orderly classroom can still be a low-engagement one if students aren't interacting with the material.
- Varied activities may support retention - giving students multiple ways to practice content visual, hands-on, discussion) can support learning better than one repeated format.
- Structured student choice supports motivation - letting students pick how they demonstrate learning can support autonomy, motivation, and engagement.
- Relationships and memorable moments matter - positive teacher-student relationships and hands-on experiences can contribute to engagement and learning.
If redesigning lessons like this is the part of teaching you want more formal grounding in, the programs listed here include coursework in instructional design and curriculum development, along with applicable state licensure requirements.
As a 5th grade teacher, in 2010 Jon won the Presidential Award for Elementary Math and Science Teaching (PAEMST). As a principal, his school won the 2012 Blue Ribbon Award. In 2018, he won the National Distinguished Principal Award (NDP). In 2019 he won the National No Kid Hungry Breakfast Hero Award.
Jon is the author of three guides published on teacher.org: An Educator's Guide to Combat Bullying & Bully Prevention; Teacher Evaluation: A Transition Guide to Exemplary Performance; and You are the Wild Card: Infusing Fun Back into Curriculum. He has authored a children's picture book that was released January 2019 titled Benjamin’s Visit to Principal Reads Office…again! (available at www.archwaypublishing.com)
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