How to keep teenagers engaged in a live online class (without begging anyone to unmute)

If you've taught teenagers on Zoom, you know the moment. You ask a question, look at a grid of black squares, and wait. I teach teenagers live online most evenings, and I also run youth workshops with groups like Dialogue Academy and Youth Impact, so I've had a lot of practice getting a quiet group to talk.

What I've learned is that my own energy only helps a little. Structure helps far more. When teens know what to do, how long they have and how they'll be asked to join in, most of them will.

These are the techniques I use most.

Start before the start

The first two minutes set the mood for the whole class. If students join to silence while the teacher struggles with screen share, they settle in as an audience.

So before class officially begins, I put a "do now" task in the chat or on the first slide. It's something anyone can answer in one line, like a question about their weekend, a would-you-rather linked to the topic, or a guess about today's lesson.

By the time I start teaching, most of them have already typed something, and that small first step makes them much more likely to keep taking part.

Swap cold calls for warm calls

Cold-calling means picking a student with no warning. It can work in a physical classroom, but on Zoom it often falls flat. The student has to find the unmute button, their Wi-Fi lags, and three seconds of silence feels very long for everyone.

Warm calls still include everyone, with a bit of preparation built in:

• Give a heads-up. "In a minute I'm coming to you two, so have a sentence ready."
• Give thinking time. Everyone writes an answer privately for thirty seconds before anyone speaks.
• Let them build on each other. "Who can add to that?" feels safer than "Who knows the answer?"
• Offer a lifeline. A student can pass to a classmate, then come back with their own take afterwards.

Everyone still takes part, but they've had a chance to get ready first.

Use chat waterfalls

This is my favourite. I ask a question and everyone types an answer in the chat, but nobody presses enter until I say "go." Then they all send at once and the answers pour down the screen together.

It works for three reasons:

• Nobody can copy the first answer they see.
• Students who rarely speak answer just as fully as the confident ones.
• In about five seconds I can see who understands, so I know whether to move on or slow down.

Afterwards I pick out an answer or two and ask the person who wrote it to tell us more. It's a gentle way to get someone talking who wouldn't have put their hand up.

Put a timer on everything

Online, attention drifts fast when there's no end in sight. So I say how long an activity will take before it starts, and I keep a timer on screen for independent work.

I also try not to talk for longer than about ten minutes before students have to do something, whether that's answering a question, writing a line, voting, building or discussing.

Timers help me as well. If I've only given myself four minutes to explain something, I have to decide which part matters most.

Give breakout rooms a job, and give students roles

Breakout rooms are either the best part of an online class or the worst. Without a clear task, students land in a room, look at each other and wait for the countdown to finish.

Before I open the rooms, I post the task in the chat so students can still see it once they're inside. The task always ends in something to bring back, like one idea or a finished slide.

I also hand out roles:

• Driver shares their screen or types in the shared doc.
• Reporter shares the group's answer when we're all back together.
• Timekeeper watches the clock and keeps things moving.
• Questioner asks "Are we sure?" and "What are we missing?"

Roles give quieter students a clear way in, and they stop one keen student from doing everything. I drop into each room briefly, and I keep breakouts shorter than feels natural. I'd rather a group come back wanting more time than run out of things to do.

Have a fair camera policy

Cameras are a sensitive subject. Teachers want to see faces, and students often have good reasons to keep theirs off, such as a weak connection, a shared bedroom, a younger sibling in the background, or simply feeling awkward.

I always follow the policy of the school or organisation I'm teaching for. When it's my call, I don't demand cameras for the whole class. I ask for them at specific moments, like discussions and presentations. The rest of the time, reactions, chat, polls and speaking up all count as showing up.

What I care about is participation. A student with the camera off who answers every waterfall and talks in breakouts is engaged. A student with the camera on who's clearly watching something else is not.

Give everyone a few ways to join in

Plenty of teenagers find speaking in front of a group hard, and some never get comfortable with it. So I build several ways to take part into every lesson.

In one class, a student might drop an emoji, vote in a poll, draw on a shared whiteboard, type in a shared doc, answer in the chat and speak once. Switching between these keeps the lesson from feeling repetitive, and it shows me who understands what, even if some students never unmute.

Give the work an audience

The most reliable way I know to raise effort is to make sure someone other than the teacher will see the work.

In my classes, students make things for actual people rather than imaginary customers, and my workshops end with something students present or will use afterwards. When teens know an outside audience is coming, they put in noticeably more effort.

End with an exit ticket

I finish most classes with a two-minute exit ticket in the chat or a quick form. I ask for one thing they learned, one question they still have, and sometimes one word for how they feel about the topic.

It gives them a moment to reflect, and it gives me what I need to plan the next lesson.

When a class isn't working

Some days nothing lands. When the energy drops, I change the activity instead of pushing harder. If I've been talking, they start writing. If they've been working alone, they pair up. Sometimes a two-minute stretch or a silly question is enough to reset the group.

If one student seems checked out week after week, I check in with them separately instead of calling them out in front of everyone, and any message I send has a parent copied in, like all my class messages. There's usually a reason, and it's rarely laziness.

If you'd like me to run a session like this for your students or your team, have a look at my training on teaching online.