Engagement
What is Engagement?
Student engagement is recognized as an indicator of successful classroom instruction.
Students are "engaged" when they make an investment in learning. They try hard and take pride in learning new information. Watch the video below to learn more about engagement and strategies to use in your classroom.
Activating Activity: WORD SPLASH - In the middle of a piece of paper write MY FAVORITE CLASS. Think about the best class you ever took. What types of things did the teacher do that made this class memorable. Write them around your paper making a splash of words and phrases.
Will your students become involved in their work?
Will they take visible delight in accomplishing their work?
Will your students become persistent problem solvers despite challenges?
Work Period: Watch the video on engagement. Add to your Word Splash as you watch the video.
Video Engagement: https://youtu.be/6nAri9vuSXE
Summarizing Activity: Metaphorical Thinking - This activity promotes higher order thinking as it asks students to make a comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common. Examples: Life is a journey. My principal is a rock. My teacher is a lifeline. My school is a museum. How would you fill in this blank? Engaged students are ___________________. (Mine? Engaged students are choreographed dancers.)
Curiosity
Curiosity makes our brains more receptive for learning, and that as we learn, we enjoy the sensation of learning. Curiosity makes learning more effective and enjoyable.
Instilling students with a strong desire to know or learn something is what every teacher lives for, and research has even shown that curiosity is just as important as intelligence in determining how well students do in school.
Curiosity prepares the brain for learning.
Curiosity makes subsequent learning more rewarding.
Learn more here: Why Curiosity Enhances Learning https://www.edutopia.org/blog/why-curiosity-enhances-learning-marianne-stenger
Why don't woodpeckers get concussions?
Are you curious?
You'll find 100s of videos that spark student interest and curiosity by clicking TedEd on the Resources for New Teachers page.
Activation
Call it activation, schema, relevant background knowledge, prior knowledge, or just plain experience - when students make connections to new learning, their comprehension increases. Students constantly try to make sense out of what they learn by seeing how it fits with what they already know. When we help students make those connections before, during, and after new learning, we are teaching them a critical comprehension strategy that the best learners use almost unconsciously.
Activating Activity: What happens if you don't preheat the oven before baking the cookies? What happens if you lay the seeds on top of the ground but you forget to till the soil? What happens if you don't bait the hook before you cast your fishing line? What happens if you don't stretch before you run? What happens if you don't prepare your students before you start teaching a lesson?
Work Period: Watch the video on Activating Strategies. Take note of strategies you want to try in your own classroom. Remember the strategies are here for you when TAPP Essentials is over and the school year has begun.
Video Activating Strategies: https://youtu.be/jWOfXNMXt9o
Summarizing Activitiy: Fill in the blank - Activating learning is like __________________________. It is an important part of each lesson because ___________________________________.
Summarizing
Summarizing teaches students how to discern the most important ideas from a lesson or text, how to ignore irrelevant information, and how to integrate the central ideas in a meaningful way. Teaching students to summarize improves their memory for learned information. Summarization strategies can be used in every content area.
Activating Activity: Look at the picture of the organized closet. Notice that dresses, pants, and shirts are separated and hanging in their own areas. The shoes have their own space. Purses are lined up on a shelf. Some items are also organized by color. Now think of your brain (and your students' brains) as a closet. Where and how will you store new information?
Work Period: Watch the video on summarizing strategies. Take note of strategies you want to try in your own classroom. Remember that the strategies are here to study and use in your classroom during the school year.
Video Summarizing: https://youtu.be/goRDsWtv6A8
Summarizing Activity: The brain is a pattern seeking device. Learning to summarize helps students organize their minds. Summarization strategies tell students - put this with your other reading tools. Put this on the shelf with what you already know about numbers. If we don't show them where to "hang" new information, it could land in the wrong pile and precious learning time is lost.
Complete this DNA: What have I discovered? What do I still need to know? What action do I take next?
Teaching Innovations
Innovate Your Classroom
Creating innovative classrooms builds lively teaching, academic rigor, and connective instruction, the three components of engagement. These videos showcase four methods for increasing these components. Be sure to click on the process guides!