I am reading and reflecting on the book Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess. The "pirate" philosophy is built on these things: Passion, Immersion, Rapport, Ask/Analyze, Transformation, and Enthusiasm.
Dave Burgess uses Part II of the book to list some different types of presentation hooks, ways to engage students in lessons. The book contains questions to ask about teaching lessons so teachers can think about how to use the different engagement strategies.
Burgess writes: "Much of your success as an educator has to do with your attitude towards teaching and towards kids. The rest of your success is based on your willingness to relentlessly search for what engages students in the classroom and then having the guts to do it."
Here's a list of the different types of hooks and a brief description of each one. (Well, part 1 of the list.)
I Like to Move It, Move It - Use movement to engage students.
- The Kinesthetic Hook - Incorporating gestures, tossing and catching, motions, walking around, movement in different ways.
- The People Prop Hook - Using students as props or concepts, creating a graph or chart with students.
- The Safari Hook - Getting out of the classroom for part of the lesson (on the school campus or off of it)
Long Live the Arts - Use music, dance, drama, and art to engage students.
- The Picasso Hook - Drawing, making, creating non-word representations
- The Mozart Hook - Adding music, writing lyrics, creating songs
- The Dance and Drama Hook - Performing skits or dance, writing scripts, "interviewing" key people from the past
- The Craft Store Hook - Incorporating crafts or craft supplies
What's In It For Me? - Make personal connections to engage students.
- The Student Hobby Hook - Using outside interests of students in lessons
- The Real World Application Hook - Interacting with the world in meaningful way
- The Life Changing Lesson Hook - Incorporating life lessons in what you're teaching
- The Student Directed Hook - Providing student choice and giving them control
- The Opportunistic Hook - Using current events, trends, TV shows, or movies
These are three groups of hooks in the book. The next post will have the rest of the hooks.
While a lot of his specific examples apply to kids older than I regularly teach, the concepts still remain the same. As a teacher, I must be intentional in what I do. Using movement, art, and personal connections are all ways we can teach in early childhood as well as older kids.
Making intentional choices - looking for ways to engage students - doing things in a purposeful way.
It comes back to that great quote in the last post:
"Everything you do or don't do [in teaching a lesson] is a choice."
(More presentation hooks in the next TLAP post. Part 2)
