In 152 Ways to Keep Students in School: Effective, Easy-to-Implement Tips for Teachers, author Franklin P. Schargel provides practical tips for teachers that can be read quickly and easily implemented in order to improve student learning.

Involved Students Learn Faster!

Children should be active participants in their education and enjoy being involved in the learning process. Moreover, students who do so actually learn faster.

Examples of how to involve students in the learning process include:

• Have students write the end to stories in English classes.
• Give students a choice of books to read in English and social studies.
• Ask students “What if...?” questions. For example, in history class, “What if Germany had won WWII?” Construct similar questions for music, art, math, and English: “What if Beethoven had never lost his hearing?” “What if Monet had not pioneered impressionism?” “What if Pythagoras had never discovered and proved the Pythagorean Theorem?” “What if J.D. Salinger had never written Catcher in the Rye?”
• Bring an object into school and have the students identify it. 
• Bring an object into school and have the students make a story up about the object.

Although these tips can be and have been used at all grade levels with all types of students, these strategies prove to be especially successful with nontraditional students. Purposefully written so that each tip can be read quickly and easily implemented, these learning techniques provide concise snapshots of what educators can do to keep students from dropping out.