We have a saying where I work at the Van Andel Institute for Education: “We believe learning should be memorable, meaningful, and fun!” It’s a quote that I earnestly believe in, but I also recognize the challenges that come with this lofty goal. The number of responsibilities teachers must deal with is endless, and the world of education is only growing more uncertain.

Creating lessons which fully engage our students can sometimes feel like an added burden. After all, isn’t it their responsibility to pay attention, learn, and apply the knowledge we give them?

Well, yes and no. Certainly our students must develop their own sense of accountability, but educators need to remember that our pupils are not empty vessels waiting to be filled. Our students are people with goals, dreams, concerns, and interests. Of course they want the content we teach to be meaningful. If we’re to respect this fact, while also delivering the best education that we can, then we need to make relevance, experience, and impact the core pillars of our lesson creation.

Relevance

Make Content Relatable: Instruction should be designed with students’ prior knowledge in mind. Using a generous amount of analogies, metaphors, and practical examples enables students to connect material to knowledge they already possess and experiences they’ve had.

Don’t Underestimate Inspiration: Often instruction becomes relevant and interesting simply because a teacher exudes passion for the topic. A teacher can provide a personal connection to ideas that students may initially perceive as foreign. A great teacher can inspire us to see relevance where we thought there was none.

Lead With Engagement: A topic can be quite interesting simply by initiating that learning with an engagement hook. Instruction that effectively utilizes conflict, surprise, stories, mystery, puzzles, etc. is assured to generate significant learner interest while also helping to manufacture a strong learner desire to know.