What does engagement look like?
This is a tricky question. It is a question whose answer has changed over the years. For example, when I was a student and sadly when I began teaching the
normal thought, my thought, was that good student mean that the teacher was in front of the classroom lecturing while the students were seated in neat and
tidy rows of desk, quietly taking notes or focused on the instruction that was taking place at the chalk or white board.
My thoughts on student engagement have definitely changed over the years. Now as an administrator, if I see a quiet room with all the students sitting in
rows, I stop in to see what is actually happening. The conversation about student engagement is now about student centered learning, cooperative learning,
and student motivation. We no long like to see classrooms that look like cemeteries. We look for and highlight teachers whose classrooms are lively, where
students are interacting with each other and the material. Sometimes student engagement may look like organized chaos. And that is ok, if learning is taking
place. Let’s take a quick look at a few articles to help solidify this understanding.
edutopia.org/blog/golden-rules-for-engaging-students-nicolas-pino-james
https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-nine-strategies-for-promoting-student-engagement/2021/02
Assignment:
Write and upload a one-page reflection that considers the following:
1. How do I feel about student engagement?
2. Am I interested in improving student engagement in my classroom?
3. Is this important?
4. Can I do this?
5. What evidence demonstrates that students stay on task and actively engaged during the entire lesson in my classroom?
6. How do students take ownership of learning new content in my classroom?
7. How do students demonstrate active listening during the lesson in my classroom?
8. To what extent is class time utilized wisely with minimal disruptions or lost instructional time?
9. How do I motivate students to seek to improve their own performance?
10. What evidence demonstrates that students monitor and adjust their own participation?
11. What evidence demonstrates that students collaborate with others to accomplish assignments?
12. What evidence demonstrates that students corrected each other respectfully when off task?
13. To what extent do students exhibit signs of valuing the content taught?
14. What evidence demonstrates that students are given opportunities to interact and collaborate with their peers?
15. In what ways is active participation creating opportunities for use of today’s career skills, and which ones?
