If you’ve ever had a student shout out, “Don’t make an Angle Side Side out of yourself!” months after you taught triangle similarity and congruence, then you already know the power of sticky strategies. These are the moments—funny, physical, surprising, or theatrical—that students remember long after the unit test is over. In this post, we’ll explore a collection of teaching ideas to make learning stick, especially in the secondary math classroom, where engagement and retention can sometimes be a challenge.
Research tells us that learning becomes more durable when it’s tied to emotion, movement, novelty, or personal meaning. Whether it’s acting out a math concept, using humor and inside jokes, or taking math outside the classroom walls, these memorable teaching strategies help students form deeper connections with content. Best of all, you don’t need to overhaul your curriculum—just sprinkle in a few of these ideas, and watch the stickiness build over time.
Ready to boost retention and bring your lessons to life? Here are some of my favorite teaching ideas to make learning stick.
Move It to Memorize It 🕺
One of the best ways to anchor a math concept is to get students out of their seats and into their bodies. Movement-based strategies engage kinesthetic learners and help all students form spatial and muscle memory connections to what they’re learning. When the body gets involved, the brain pays more attention – and the learning tends to last longer.
Example Ideas Of Movement to make learning stick:
Body Geometry: Have students use their arms to form different types of angles or create triangle types by linking elbows. Bonus: ask them to “freeze” in a pose while classmates guess the shape or angle.
The Function Dance: Students physically act out their representation of the types of parent functions. Ramp this learning up even more and gamify it. Do a “Simon Says” game and shout “Simon Says be an x-cubed graph” and everyone makes a wiggle with their arms. Shout, “Be a negative x-square graph,” and anyone who makes a downward-facing parabola with their arms is out because you didn’t say “Simon Says.”
Transversal Walk: Use masking tape or chalk to create parallel lines and a transversal. Have students “walk the line” and pause at intersections to identify corresponding, alternate interior, or same-side angles. You can even take this a step further and have them investigate the large angles on the floor to determine if the lines are parallel or not. I wrote about this activity HERE.
WHY IT WORKS:
These teaching ideas make learning stick because they embed the concept into a lived experience. Instead of just hearing or seeing a diagram, students become the math, literally. Later, when they need to recall the information, their bodies serve as a built-in retrieval cue.
Pro Tip: Take pictures or videos of students modeling concepts (with permission) and refer back to them in future lessons or review days. Each year I taught 7th grade math, I took their Body Geometry photos like you see above and turned them into a giant word wall! Double win!
HUMOR AND INSIDE JOKES 😂
Never underestimate the power of a running joke. Humor creates emotional connections and recall triggers, especially when students help create the joke themselves.
EXAMPLE IDEAS OF HUMOR TO MAKE LEARNING STICK:
This happens so naturally sometimes it is hard to recreate. But if you are aware of the impact humor and an inside joke can have on learning, you can be on the lookout for these opportunities and can fan the flames when you see them starting.
Once, during an investigation into angle pairs and learning to determine if lines are parallel or not, I saw the lightbulb come on for my student, Mel. It clicked for him, and so I leaned into questioning him so he could verbalize what he was beginning to understand. When he was explaining how he knew two lines were not parallel, he blanked on the words “not parallel” and blurted out, “nuker nuker!” The class, Mel, and I all erupted into laughter. And so from that day on, when we described lines that were not parallel, the entire class yelled, “Nuker Nuker!” And the learning stuck.
Triangle Congruence Joke: “Angle Side Side is not a shortcut—don’t make an Angle Side Side out of yourself!” It’s silly, but students remember it forever.
Voice Characters: Use goofy voices for math terms (“Distributive Dan” yells when students forget to multiply everything).
Problem Personas: Give recurring characters to word problems (e.g., “Forgetful Frank” always forgets that what he does to one side of his equation, he must do to the other).
WHY IT WORKS:
Humor increases dopamine in the brain, which helps with motivation, attention, and memory—plus it builds class culture. When math feels fun and personal, it sticks.
TAKE IT OUTSIDE ☀️
Change of Scenery, Change of Memory
Sometimes, the most memorable learning happens when you step outside your classroom. The novelty of a different environment instantly boosts attention and makes the moment stand out in students’ minds.
EXAMPLE IDEAS OF CHANGING SCENERY TO MAKE LEARNING STICK:
Chalk Geometry: Draw angles, triangles, or graphs on sidewalks and have students label, walk, or measure them.
Data Walk: Collect real-world data (like leaf lengths, steps to the basketball hoop) and bring it back inside for graphing or statistics.
Similar Figures: Map out scaled drawings or distance ratios on the blacktop using string or tape.
WHY IT WORKS:
Outdoor learning combines movement, novelty, and natural sensory input, all of which improve attention and memory formation.
HANDS-ON TOOLS & MANIPULATIVES 📐
Manipulatives aren’t just for elementary students. Secondary students benefit just as much—especially when the concepts get abstract. Touching, building, and manipulating objects creates a bridge to understanding.
EXAMPLE IDEAS USING MANIPULATIVES TO MAKE LEARNING STICK:
Algebra Tiles for expressions, equations, or factoring.
Integer Chips for adding, subtracting, and multiplying integers.
Folding Angles with patty paper or sticky notes to discover relationships.
- Clinometer for working with angles of elevation and depression with trig functions.
WHY IT WORKS:
Physical interaction makes abstract concepts more concrete and gives students a mental model to visualize when the tools aren’t present.
MAKE IT THEATRICAL 🎭
Turn Your Lesson into a Scene They’ll Never Forget
Theatrical teaching isn’t about being a performer – it’s about using drama, costumes, music and/or storytelling to make a concept unforgettable.
EXAMPLE IDEAS USING THEATRICS TO MAKE LEARNING STICK:
Proof Courtroom: Dress like a lawyer and have students “argue” their geometry proofs as evidence in a trial.
Integer Boot Camp: Transform into a drill sergeant who commands attention with integer chants and call-and-response drills. I do this! Get my lesson here!
Themed Units: Turn your classroom into a “crime scene” for solving equations or decorate for a math “holiday.” Get more ideas and some free Pi Day décor here!
CONCLUSION
You don’t need to turn every lesson into a production, and not every class will vibe with every strategy. But incorporating just a few of these teaching ideas to make learning stick can transform the way students experience your classroom and how much they remember. The more students feel a lesson through movement, laughter, creativity, or surprise—the more likely they are to hold onto it.
Try this: Choose one sticky strategy from above and build it into your next unit. Then watch what happens when your students connect with the material in a whole new way.
