It’s All About Engagement

Kristin Skogstad

Instructional Coach

Sioux Falls School District

Mr. Radley's Class: Part 1Mr. Radley's Class: Part 1

• It is the beginning of Mr. Radley’s third week teaching 7th grade physical science at Edgewood Middle School. On Monday morning, he enters his classroom five minutes late to find the homework bin half full.

• The class is full and his students are sitting on the counters and desks talking and playing with the meter sticks. On the way to his desk, he agitatedly commands “Everyone sit in your seats; class has started.” The students slowly fill their seats as Mr. Radley jots the objectives on the board.

• “Alright, today we’re going to take half of the period to discuss the chapter reading and the other half performing a lab. Who can start discussing section 1?” The students sit in silence. “At least the people who did the homework should speak up; Joseph, I see your paper in the stack, what can you tell me?”

Mr. Radley’s Class: Pt. 1 QuestionsMr. Radley’s Class: Pt. 1 Questions

-So far, what do you think are a few of Mr. Radley’s mistakes? Is he doing anything right? Why do or don’t you think so?

HW Grades

Mr. Radley's Class: Part 2Mr. Radley's Class: Part 2• “I didn’t understand it,” Joseph replies. “Did anyone understand

it?”, asks Mr. Radley. No one answers. “Well, let’s skip to the lab and hopefully we can discuss the concepts from the chapter you pick up along the way. I am going to add a chapter quiz to the syllabus for Wednesday.”

• In response the class lets out loud grumble and rustling of papers, accompanied by a few book slams.

• Later on during the lab activity, Mr. Radley spends most of his time keeping the students on track and clarifying his instructions. He removes two students for being disruptive and shortens the lab by having each group perform only one trial to compile the data as a class.

• The next day, several of the students participated in the chapter discussion. On Wednesday evening Mr. Radley is surprised and frustrated as he scores the quizzes. The class average for the quiz is C-, with almost half of the students scoring in the D range.

Describe your Experiences with Describe your Experiences with MotivationMotivation

• What have been your experiences with student motivation?

• Do you have any challenges with student engagement?

• Do you have any motivating strategies that you use in your classroom?

EngagementEngagement

• How do you define engagement?

• Phil Schlecty (1994, cited in Strong et al.) asserts that students who are engaged exhibit three characteristics:– They are attracted to

their work– They persist in their

work despite challenges and obstacles, and

– They take visible delight in accomplishing their work

Strategies for Increasing Strategies for Increasing MotivationMotivation

• Tips for the classroom Level:– Ensure classroom expectations for

performance and behavior are clear and consistent,

– Work to build quality relationships with students,

– Break large tasks into a series of smaller goals,

– Promote mastery learning, &– Evaluate student work as soon as possible

after project completion, and be sure that feedback is clear and constructive.

Motivating Students to Engage Motivating Students to Engage in Class Activitiesin Class Activities

• More tips:– Ensure course materials relate to students’

lives and highlight ways learning can be applied in real life situations,

– Allow students to have some degree of control over learning,

– Arouse students’ curiosity about the topic being studied, &

– Design projects that allow them to share new knowledge with others.

How do you Pull??

ABC’s of Engagement

Authentic Learning- Activities

• Help kids see the relevance in what is being taught. Answer “Why do we need to learn this?”

• Give a purpose for learning.• Alpha-boxes• Agreement circles• Author’s Chair

Best Practices, Books, Blooms

Taxonomy

•Best Practices for Teaching and Learning

•Use books to teach and reinforce standards.

•Blooms Question Stems- Wiki (summary Cubes)

•Build A Model

•Book Clubs

Collaboration, Community, Choice,

Connections

•Provide opportunities for students to work together.

•Carouseling (Post a variety of questions around the room and have groups spend one minute answering them)•Case Study (Work in teams with a a real world article that applies to the subject or problem.•CGI•Choice Board (Academic Choice)

Differentiation, Determine Importance

•Dare to Be Different Wiki

•Common Core Standards

•Debates

Environment , Expectations

•Classroom Community is EVERYTHING!

•Establish Expectations

•Daily Five

•Envelope Game

•Exit Tick

Feedback, Formative

Assessment, Fun

•How will your students show you what they know?

•Foldables

•“Find Someone Who”

•Five Golden Lines

Goals, Games

•Start each lesson with GOAL!

•SMART Notebook Lessons- Lesson Activity Toolkit

•Gallery Walk

Hands-on, Humor

•Human Bingo or Tic Tac Toe

•Human continuum

•Human Treasure Hunt

•Humor

Interest, InvitingIntegrated

•Icebreakers

•Inner Circle / Outer Circle

•Idea Spinner

Joy

•Jigsaw

Kindness, “K”atch and Hold

Laughter

•Learning Logs and Journals

•Lineup

•Listen-Think-Pair

•Learning Line

•Luck of the Draw

Manipulatives, Music

•Moving Summaries

•Mix-Freeze-Share

•Magic Prop Bag

•Menus

•Café

Notebooks, Networks,

•Blogs, Wikis

•Thinking Notebooks

Outside

• Field Trips• Community involvement

Project Based Learning

•Buck Institute for Education

•Edutopia

•Pizza Wheel

•Pick a Brain

•Partner A and B

Questioning

•Bloom’s Questioning Stems

•Question Matrix

•QAR

Relationships, Real World

•RAFT

•Reverse Engineer

•Role Playing

•Reader’s Theater

Student Centered,Singing (Music)

•Take Me Out of the Bathtub

•http://www.mathwire.com/music/music.html

•Socratic Circles

•Share one; Get one

•Scaffolding

•Summary Ball

•Simulations

Technology, Thinking Tools

•Intel Thinking Tools

•Think, Ink, Pair, Share

•Taboo

•Triads

Understanding

* Umbrella Strategy

Vision, Variety, Videos

•Value Line

•You Tube Downloader

Web,

•Who Has Time for Technology?

•Word Splash

•Wordle

•Guess the Wordle

X-Pectations

•Establish the Expectations

•X- marks the Spot

You

•The most important thing is a classroom is YOU, the teacher!!

Zeal

•Energy and enthusiasm are contagious!

•Love what you do!!

•Zig Zag

What Questions do

you have?