Embedded Files
Problem
Navigating through a year of remote learning during the pandemic, and a year of readjusting to the classroom has surfaced and perpetuated challenges in student engagement across Maker. Since returning to in-person learning, teacher-driven instruction has been prevalent and both students and staff have voiced a need for regrounding core Maker practices of CBE, PBL, and design learning. Student behaviors such as lateness and daily / period attendance are additional areas of growth that have been identified based on student engagement and rigorous expectations. We don’t want students who are merely compliant; we want them to be learning, we want them to be challenged, and we want them to feel that their presence matters. We want the learning that happens in our classrooms to support them in their experiences outside of our classroom as well.
Hypothesis
If students are engaged in an open task in the beginning of class, they will continue to be engaged throughout the class period during the acquisition of new skills.
I think this will allow for students to be more invested and engaged in the beginning of the lesson. Hopefully, this initial engagement will last throughout the introduction and application of new skills.
Target group
Algebra 2 - F Block. I choose this class because there is a wide range of background knowledge and prerequisite skills present in this class. Therefore, when new skills are introduced, there is a very diverse amount of learning / practice time needed to master the skill. Often, some students will pick up immediately while others need almost 2 days of practice. I want to find a strategy that leverages these students to work together and build each others’ overall comprehension level while also making the introduction of new material be more student-centered, student-driver and exploratory.
Planning & resources
Planning
I will use this lesson structure during instruction. Each new lesson will have a “launch” in which an open task is assigned. This open task will relate to the new material, but be accessible through simplification of materials. For example, when introducing quadratics, a graph of a parabola will be presented and students will be asked “what could this graph represent, explain how you know.”
I will then use student responses to drive the lesson and the delivery of new material. For example, if a student answers a parabola that models their awakeness during class, when introducing the vertex, we will talk about it in terms of awakeness.
Resources
Teacher Made Materials
Data collection
Data collection
Baseline data
Google form to gauge student interest
Measuring success
Engagement during and after task (collectively qualitatively)
Work completion rate / percentage of benchmark that began with an open task
Links
B Block turn in rate of Unit 2 BM #2 - 23 / 33 = 70%
F Block turn in rate of Unit 2 BM #2 - 25/31 = 81%
Overall findings & impact
During the open task, engagement definitely increased. Students who do not usually participate raised their hands and offered up answers. Additionally, students who do not usually talk during turn and talks first began by talking about the prompting question (i.e. how many siblings they had) and this caused them to feel more comfortable sharing about the graphs that they saw.
Ultimately, this was a successful strategy for initial engagement, but failed to sustain engagement throughout the entire class period and during independent work time. As problems became more mathematical, students began slowly losing interest.
In order to improve the strategy, I would embed more open tasks throughout the length of the class time, not just at the beginning. The thought is that this would increase engagement initially and then hook students again if they lost interest during work time.
Actionable steps
If you want to use this strategy in your classroom, I recommend …
Allow students a space to first write down their thoughts and then turn and talk with partners.
During turn and talks, prompt a student to go first. For example, instruction “the student who has the most siblings should share first.”
Hold students accountable by stating that every group will be required to share whole group, so they should have an answer prepared.
Begin with something along the lines of “I notice and wonder”
Brianna DiLiberti | brianna.diliberti@uamaker.nyc
Page updated
Report abuse