My Approach to Disengaged Students

What is happening with my learners?

This year I have a group of 6 boys between the ages of 5yrs to 8yrs old who need special support in every area of their learning. All my learners have a short attention span to engage, participate and to interact in academic learning activities. At the beginning of the year, I have observed that when a student is stopped from their preferred play activity and prompted to engage in another academic learning activity, these students begin to whinge, get upset and show no interest in the new activity presented. On some occasions, they sit on their chairs however they do not engage in the activity. Throughout the day, the majority of time is lost trying to grasp their attention to engage, leaving us less time to learn.



Question asked.
What can I do differently to motivate my learners to engage?

New Approach!!
Based on the nature of my students, I’ve decided to focus on their strengths and interests to support their learning. By doing this, I am going to focus on providing opportunities for my students to play and interact. This will hopefully enable them to develop and increase their ability to engage and participate.

How will this work?
Well... to give me some ideas about my students' hobbies, favourite toys, games, screen programmes and of course what they enjoy to do in their free time. I will send a questionnaire to their parents to assist me with this. The information gathered will hopefully help me to create some activities to motivate my students to participate and engage.