“For two minutes each day, 10 days in a row, teachers have a personal conversation with the student about anything the student is interested in, as long as the conversation is G-rated. Wlodkowski found an 85-percent improvement in that one student’s behavior. In addition, he found that the behavior of all the other students in the class improved” (Smith and Lambert 18).

Smith, R. & Lambert, M. (2008). Assuming the best. Educational Leadership, 66(1), 16-21.

I think that this is a really intriguing and effective strategy for engaging students in the classroom. By just getting to know a little more about their students each day, teachers can use that knowledge to tailor their lesson plans to the interests of their students and maximize their learning potential. Students oftentimes tend to act out in the classroom when they feel like they aren’t getting enough attention from the teacher or if they wish things were being run differently.

This strategy could also be really helpful in reaching students who tend to be quieter than their peers; by engaging with them and learning about what these quieter students are interested in, teachers gain much more information than if they had left these students alone. Therefore, I think this could be an extremely effective strategy both for students who tend to act out in class and those who have trouble participating.