I love movie previews. I have seen the previews for EVERYTHING and then they make me WANT to watch the movie!
A good preview can catch you in and make you want to see a movie you thought you had no interest in. It can make you say “Wait a minute! I DO know something about that movie! It’s the one that has so-and-so in it. It’s the one about such-and-such! That’ actually looks cool!”
While a lesson is not ALWAYS as fun as a movie (Although, I have seen some of your lessons. They are pretty dang fun), but sometimes, we have to get the kids interested with a preview. Sometimes, they’re not automatically interested on their own. Sometimes, we have to drum up a little interest. 
I have seen three quick and easy ways to preview a lesson that take little to no preparation. You can do them at the beginning of a lesson or you can do them at the end of the day before to get the kids curious about the next day.
Curiosity is a powerful tool. It gets kids engaged. And we all know that kids who are engaged are learning while kids who aren’t really engaged are just going through the motions, which means they aren’t really learning. They’re just doing busy work
- Have them skim a text or reading to find the one or two most used words that are going to come up. But give them a super-short time limit so they’re not actually reading. Give them 30 seconds and make it a game. They’re just skimming. Then, based on their skim, ask them what they’re about to read about. Now they’re curious. Why are we going to read so much about the word “states”? Or about the word “nobles”? Or what’s a “silk road” going to be all about?
Give the kids 3-5 words from the upcoming lesson and have them work with a partner to put the words in a sentence. They should not be entirely unfamiliar terms, because the kids can’t do much with a pile of unfamiliar words, but mostly familiar words. For Post-classical china, I’d use “silk, trade, great wall, paper, ideas”. For the lead-up to the Civil War, I’d use “North, South, Slave, free, election”. See how well their sentences explain what they’re going to learn. Then, if you want to get FANCY, have them return to that sentence after the lesson or unit and fix up that sentence. They can even do a “I used to think ___ but now I think__” to reflect on how much they’ve learned”
- A third way is to just ask a big question and have kids turn and talk. “How can you get silk from here to there? What if it’s something heavier and breakable like porcelain?” What should we do if Texas wants to leave the USA? Should we let them -- or make them stay? How does the government try to guarantee our rights? How can it do a better job?
Let’s continue to be intentional to build curiosity and engagement in our students so they WANT to learn!
How can you use previews to build curiosity and engagement in your lessons? How do you already do this? I’m SO curious!!
Email me! Newmantr@pcsb.org
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