Motivating Students to Work Independently

How Do You Train Students to Work Independently?

Training students to work independently takes time.  Students have to build up the stamina to stay focused on the task at hand.  Don’t expect it to happen the first day or week…possibly not even the first month.

 

As a teacher, you are constantly striving to find opportunities to “fit it all in” while also working smarter, not harder.

 

Training students to work independently is yet another opportunity that will give you time to work in small groups to differentiate and meet the needs of all your students.  This allows for interventions with those students who need it without sacrificing your higher achieving students since this time is also perfect for enrichment learning.

Working independently with a worksheet is the norm in classrooms.  However, worksheets aren't necessarily interesting or motivating to students.

One solution is to have students complete these “Let’s Learn About” units that focus on science or social studies topics.  Students can watch the instructional videos over several days at their own pace and complete the reading and writing activities.  

This allows you to cover more than one subject at a time.

 

These Google Slides give you the ability to move slides around to fit the needs of your classroom best and place the writing activities where you want them.  

Art lessons and songs are even included in most lessons for more engagement and enrichment for your students.

 

Click here to see all of the current topics in my store.

These units can be completed independently by the students as they spend several days watching informational videos and extend their learning about some really cool things!

There are certainly other ways to find time in your classroom to utilize independent learning while working with students, but incorporating it into social studies and science is a big plus.  

When you can include reading and writing, you are triple-dipping the curriculum, which is a HUGE WIN all the way around!

Students will research and learn about topics and transfer that learning to graphic organizers and writing activities.

While students are taking responsibility for their learning, it gives you time to fill in gaps with students.

You can use that valuable time to pull small groups and complete intervention activities.

Finding things of high interest to students is always self-motivating toward getting your students to work independently.

 

Click here to try a FREE Let's Learn About Honeybees unit.

 

 How do you motivate your students to work independently?  Comment below and tell me.

Working hard to fit it all in is just…