Student Engagement In The Classroom Student Engagement Students

Student Engagement In The Classroom

Student Engagement Students, sit for 42 minute blocks of time. Teaching bell to bell in engaging activities is important, to prevent students from drifting off. It is important to be aware of “dead time. ” Don’t allow students to be stuck in dead time!

Student Focus Group When students were interviewed about what engages them in a lesson, one thing stuck out: Students are most interested in a lesson when it has personal meaning to them. Students like to know how concepts connect to their lives. Giving a lesson meaning to students will increase student engagement.

So…. -How do we know if students are engaged in our lessons? -How can we fully engage students in our lessons?

There are Four Levels of Student Engagement Level 1 - Fully Active Learners Level 2 - Responsible Students Level 3 - Halfhearted Workers Level 4 - Work Avoiders

Our goal should be to move students up the active learning ladder by focusing on strategies that eliminate dead time… So when planning a lesson, we can think: 1. How can I “hook” my students immediately? 2. How can I keep them engaged throughout the lesson? 3. How will I know that they are engaged?

10 Rules of Engagement

Rules of Engagement 1. Start class with a mind warm-up Ask students to find the mistakes planted in material written on the board. Instead of classic work on your own, form teams of three people and turn it into a competition. 2. Use movement to get kids focused Get kids to join in some simple physical movement like marching in place and stretching arms to opposite knees.

Rules of Engagement 3. Teach students how to collaborate before expecting success Project learning without training can cause lots of dead time. Create teamwork rubrics with students to review desired behaviors. Model a proper teamwork session and have students observe and share a positive comment. 4. Use quickwrites when you want quiet time and student reflection Tell students to summarize what they have heard and predict an exam question that could be asked on the material.

Rules of Engagement 5. Run a tight ship when giving instructions When giving instructions require total silence. Remind students that you will never repeat your instructions once you have finished going over them. 6. Use a fairness cup to keep students thinking Write each student’s name on a popsicle stick and put them in a cup. Pull a random stick to choose someone to speak or answer a question. Before using the fairness cup, prepare a range of questions that all students can answer, even the bottom third of your class.

Rules of Engagement 7. Use signaling to allow everyone to answer your question Ask questions that allow for multiple answers or explanations and instruct all students to prepare at least one answer. Then, wait for them to signal they are ready. 8. Use minimal supervision tasks to squeeze dead time out of regular routines Regular routines such as handing out papers, handling an unforeseen interruption and addressing students who didn’t do their homework can sometimes revert to dead time. To alleviate this, ask students to study a review sheet, summarize a reading passage, or read the day’s assignment ahead of time.

Rules of Engagement 9. Mix up your teaching styles Try to move from teacher centered learning to student centered learning and vice versa. 10. Create teamwork tactics that emphasize accountability Insist students ask “three before me, ” meaning that they are expected to seek assistance from all members of their team before they turn to you.

ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES That Promote The Rules Of Engagement

Engage students before they enter the classroom… Greet students as they enter. Ask students how they are doing. Acknowledge them as individuals which demonstrates you are interested in them and they know they are not invisible to you! In LOTE classes they should enter the room hearing the language.

Avoid Dead Time… Hand out assignments as students enter the room or have a “Do Now” already written on board. Train students to work as soon as they sit down by establishing routines. Get students actively engaged right from the start!

Choose Students At Random To Write Responses On The Board… Have more than one student write the same question’s response on board. Students love to compare answers. The diverse responses on the board may initiate stimulating conversations. Students come alive with controversy which creates a lively atmosphere. Put random, anonymous, examples of student work on board and give students opportunities to correct them. This allows students to have access to technology. This allows students to work on presentation skills.

Have Students Play The Role Of The Teacher… Have students create an essay as a class. Each student contributes a sentence. This promotes participation and as the story progresses students are given the chance to change or alter the story. In Social Studies, students study documents in groups. Each group is responsible for creating questions related to their document and for creating their own essay question, related to the “theme” of the documents.

Incorporate Competition In The Form Of A Game… When reviewing for tests, games like “Password” or “Pictionary” provide opportunities for the student to be actively engaged. Giving clues acts as an added bonus as the student is truly trying to “teach” and guide their teammates. Working as a team, and introducing competition always increases intensity and engagement with the students.

Encourage Students To Stay Engaged By Holding Them Accountable… -Students complete a short True/False quiz as their Do Now activity and as the lesson progresses, students need to remain engaged in order to determine if their True/False answers were correct Students complete a closure or exit ticket at the end of the class period. Both strategies can help the teacher determine if the students were engaged for the entire lesson

Sample T/F quiz Do Now: Read answer the following questions about today’s lesson: If the answer is false, write the term that corrects the statement on the line adjacent to the fact. T/F 1. The length of a day on the planet Venus is longer than its year. __________ T/F 2. Earth is the only planet with large amounts of liquid water at its surface _________ T/F 3. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are known as giants. ____________ T/F 4. Impact Structures are common on Mars because of its location in the Milky Way. _____ T/F 5. The make-up of a planet’s atmosphere is determined by its temperature. _______

Sample “Exit Ticket” Closure/Exit Regents Questions: