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Join the CHAMPS! - hooking concepts in lessons

Hooking concepts for student engagement in lessons

Updated July 2023

Joining the CHAMPS means implementing one of the most effective teaching strategies for planning effective lessons. The CHAMPS acronym stands for “Connection, Hook, Acts, Main, Plenary, Starter”. This method helps to create engaging learning experiences, driving student success and fostering an interactive learning environment.

We have discussed how to Connect concepts in lessons. We have also looked at the segmentation of lessons into Acts and reviewed strategies for designing the Main , Plenary and Starter parts of a great lesson. This article is about Hooks and how to use them in lessons.

Effective teaching methods often involve strategic lesson planning, designed to maximize classroom engagement. Among the most potent strategies are 'hooks'—attention-grabbing stimuli used throughout a lesson that keep students engaged. Here's how to leverage the power of sensory hooks in your teaching.

What are hooks and why are they important?

Hooks are a term used to describe a stimulus, usually within the introductory section of a lesson that ‘grabs’ students’ attention. Hooks usually mark the beginning of a lesson but can be used throughout the lesson. If used at the start, the better the hook, the more engaged students will be at the start of the lesson and potentially, for the remainder of the lesson.

Choose to start your lesson in a way that maximises this spark or at least incorporate a hook into an aspect of every lesson. I like to encourage teachers to think of possible hooks linked to our senses.

Sight

Visual stimuli are a powerful part of effective teaching methods. Instead of limiting visual elements to projected images or PowerPoint slides, consider diversifying the kind of visual stimuli you use.

Many teachers will have an intriguing image on a slide or projected onto a whiteboard. How can we make this more interesting? Students are so used to looking at the board, so having a sight-based hook occasionally not on the board would be a novel way to grab their attention.

For example, have an object on a table or plinth to get them to look at from different angles. You could also just prepare images in an envelope or around the room and see what links students can make to the images and the previous lesson or the current lesson. You could ‘misplace’ objects too. How observant are your students? This is a good way to test them and get them engaged simultaneously!

Carefully planned use of visual stimuli can spark curiosity, increase classroom engagement, and lay the foundation for an exciting lesson.

Sound

Auditory stimuli can significantly enhance classroom engagement and diversify teaching methods. Too often, the main sound stimuli in most classes are the teacher’s voice! But why not make your hook a different type of sound? For example, a sound linked to the lesson could be played as students enter.

If you are teaching students about pollination in Science, why not have a soundtrack of birdsong? This could be linked to a starter task that requires students to list all the types of pollinators they know or what they know about animals and pollination.

If you are teaching an English lesson, and you are reviewing material related to cities, why not the sounds of a busy city? You could then get students to try to guess the sounds and discuss the ‘value’ of those identified. Maybe even have eye masks for students or get them to put their heads on the table and have a guess at the sound quiz to start the lesson?

A simple podcast may suffice. So much of modern-day life is spent watching, use this hook to model the value of an often-neglected skill, listening.

Smell

Smells can evoke strong memories and emotions, making them a useful element in lesson planning. With due consideration for allergies or students with respiratory issues, this is an endless source of hooks. Back to the science pollination lesson, bring in some flowers! This can start a cascade of questions…Can students note the differences between scents between different types of flowers? Are the less scented ones brighter? If so, how is that an evolutionary advantage?

The smell you choose as a hook should generally be pleasant, but you can use an unpleasant smell in small quantities or in an enclosed space. Once a year, the school science department does a compulsory practical for senior chemistry that always makes for a ‘smelly’ school corridor. Some have described it as the smell of vomit.

The science lab becomes a very popular venue for the curious that day. The chemistry students never forget this experiment, but the strength of the reaction it gauges in non-chemist is what I would like to explore here.

Whilst I am not suggesting you ‘stink’ up your class, if there is a ‘horrible’ smell that links to a topic, don’t be afraid to use it. It may be within a contained jar. Stink bomb scents, for example, can be produced in small quantities if you want to take them on a ‘scent trip’ through medieval England, use this.

Why did the streets smell so bad? How was this linked to lifestyles and what were the solutions? Is everyone’s perception of smell the same? Maybe even have eye masks for students or get them to put their heads on the table and then unravel an onion or an orange and see who can guess the smell first? Is what is pleasant to some, pleasant to all? Is distance a factor? If so, what does this link to?

Taste

Lesson planning that includes taste can be a fun and memorable teaching method. Like smell, due consideration for allergies must be taken with this endless, tasty and all-round MOST popular source of hooks. If you are teaching students about acids and alkalis, why not get some sour sweets for them to try and then get them to review the ingredient list?

If you’re teaching health policies and food production, maybe get them to try drinks with different levels of sugar and see if they can rank them by pleasantness? Does their rank match with the sugar levels? Perhaps also get them to rank by sweetness? Does their sweetness rank match with the ingredients?

You could invite them to bring in a food item linked to the topic that you will be studying, and then do a short presentation on this link. You may choose for them to share with others or just have it themselves depending on quantity. Make it clear that whatever they choose, they must make it an authentic and well-considered link.

For example, a cake that triggers good memories of a lost relative could be relevant depending on the context of the lesson. This particular use of a taste hook would require a planning and approval process.

Touch

Tactile experiences can greatly enhance student engagement and understanding. Most students love to touch new materials, especially those you ask them not to! This is another opportunity to get the eye masks out. The value of touch across all subjects would provide many opportunities to use this hook.

In the sciences, link to temperature and receptors. In history or humanities, link imprisonment or limitation of contact as a punishment. In English, explore those poems linked to touch. In maths, see how accurate different parts of the body are when touching to identify objects. Is this linked to the area of the body used, the object, or density of receptors?

By integrating these sensory hooks into your lesson planning, you not only boost classroom engagement but also foster more effective teaching methods and create a more immersive learning environment.