Language Arts Blocks

Over the past couple weeks of school, it has become evident that the students are very tired during the Language Arts block at the end of the day. The block starts at 1 o’clock and they have not been in the classroom since 11:30, so they are not always ready to jump into learning. On Thursday, to start the Language Arts block, the students played a game called Password. I created a PowerPoint with one vocabulary word on each slide. Two students came to the front of the room and had their backs facing the board while the other students gave one word descriptions of the word projected. I thought that this would be a good activity to get the students out of their seats. They loved this game. The students that were in their seats were sometimes more excited when the word was guessed correctly than the person that was actually guessing. The students were much more awake for the rest of the lesson. This game got the students engaged and gave them much more energy to move onto the other lessons during the Language Arts block.

Starting off the Language Arts block with Password helped to motivate student learning (I.D.2). Having the students start the block off with a game

actually motivated them for the entire block. I thought that students would be engaged during this activity, but I did not realize how it would have an impact on their energy for the rest of the Language Arts block. This aspect of the lesson was incredibly engaging and motivated students to learn.
Password impacted the students learning because not only were they actively participating in the game, but they were also reviewing vocabulary.

If students were filling out a worksheet, they would know they were completing a vocabulary activity, but with this game it was a fun activity that was interactive. It also impacted their learning because it got them ready for the rest of the Language Arts block. Normally during Language Arts, students need reminders to keep their heads up or students are complaining of stomach aches, but on this day students were ready to learn. Language Arts comes after the students have been at specials, lunch, and recess, so it is not always the easiest to get them into the learning mode. Having a game at the beginning got students ready to learn for the rest of the

day.
In the future, I want to find more ways to motivate students from the beginning of the lesson. Having a short game at the beginning of class made the students so much more productive for the rest of the day. I have also been finding technology to be motivating to the students. I would like to continue working on incorporating motivating activities and technology into my lessons.