Movement and Learning

Thank you so much to Kelly for submitting an idea about using movement and learning to motivate our students to perform better. 

"Just a small tip.  Many of the activities on The Tutor House can be adjusted into TRP activities.  For example the "S bowls (The Sounds of S)" exercise could be adjusted by making bases (like baseball ones) with the bowl of words in the center of the floor and you have to run and put the word on the correct base. 

Then you could review the exercise by making a timed warm-up activity the next day.  ʺif you can sort them in 2 minutes then you get to pick which story we readʺ or some other incentive.  Just try to think how you could make each activity involve movement.  Relay races etc. 

I used to do a sentence arrangement exercise where the words, punctuation and etc were written on sticky notes on and jumbled on one wall and the student had to arrange them in the correct order on a different wall.  It sounds like it would take longer and waste some tutoring time but the physical movement after a long day of class paid off with the increased concentration. 

Also look at some activities designed for EFL students as they are usually designed for after school programs for tired students and are very active.  Instead of standing to read, I would suggest a focus and when they hear it they have to jump up and then sit back down at the next occurrence example pronouns.  ʺJane walks into the store while she (student jumps up but keeps reading) saw her friend Harry.  He (student sits back down but keeps reading) was buying some groceries for his (student jumps back up) mom."

Thanks for sharing Kelly!  I love movement too when learning with my tutoring students.  I agree that after a long day of sitting in the classroom, they definitely will do more for me when they can get up out of their seat!  In my office, I have two small basketball hoops that I use to play a sorting game and we have even gone outside to do learning with chalk on the sidewalk.

Do you have a tip that you could share with tutors?  Please submit your idea using this link and include a 500 word or less description.  Pictures that go along with your idea are helpful, but not totally necessary.