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The ultimate goal of every effective teacher is deep, meaningful learning for their students, which, crucially, requires student engagement.
Another–perhaps more tangible–term for this nebulous concept of "engagement" might be "involvement". Alexander Astin, founder of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, puts it best: "Quite simply, student involvement refers to the amount of physical and psychological energy that the student devotes to the academic experience." The use of this "psychological energy" is manifested in the student's study habits, participation in campus activities and organizations, willingness to interact and collaborate with teachers and peers, and, perhaps most importantly in the high school context, in-class behavior.
However, students do not often hand engagement to their teachers on a silver platter; rather, it must be earned through intentional lesson planning, positive rapport, engaging activities, and classroom procedures, among other things.
In striving for my students' best learning, I make it a priority to cultivate an engaging classroom where students see the joy and fun in learning and, as such, truly desire to participate in that learning. Just a few examples of the ways in which I have chosen to cultivate a culture of engagment in my classroom in practical ways include:
Connecting life at home with life in the classroom
Connecting life at home with life in the classroom
IntroLetterForParents.pdfStudents may spend much of their day in the classroom, but the reality is that our students' lives and selves are so much bigger than that. Students can only thrive in our classroom when they're supported at home, and parents can only support their child academically when they know what school looks like for them.
To help engage the "whole person" that each of my students is, I created this letter to send home at the beginning of the courses I teach. This letter is intended to give parents a peek into who I am, how I view their student, and how they can support their student's learning. This also sets a precident for continued conversation with students' families throughout the course.
Incorporating visual and performing arts into teaching
Incorporating visual and performing arts into teaching
Earth Day Coloring Page.pdfEach student brings with them different passions, talents, and interests. In particular, many students are passionate about the visual and performing arts. As such, incorporating these things into curriculum is a great way to get students engaged in their learning.
There any many ways to do this—poster assignments that emphasize creativity, presentations and performances, or, one of my personal favorites, coloring pages. This allows students to practice the things they've learned (in the case of the above example, practicing the Quadratic Formula) while also being playful and artistic. This is a great activity that artists and non-artists alike really enjoy.
"Gameified" learning activities
"Gameified" learning activities
Creating review activities that students can play instead of simply complete is a great way to earn student engagement. It's important to remember that different students (particularly students of different cultural backgrounds (Gonzalez et al.)) learn best in different environments. Some prefer a collaborative environment, while others prefer a competitive environment. To accommodate this, I intentionally include games in instruction that emphasize each of the different environments (competitive and collaborative).
An example of a competitive gameified learning activity is this Kahoot I completed with my high school sophomores to help them review for an upcoming quiz. I chose this activity in part because I have many students who are involved in sports and love competition—they, as expected, loved this activity and were very invested in it!
Astin, Alexander. "W. 1999.“Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education.”." Journal of College Student Personnel 25.4: 297-308.
Gonzalez, M. L., et al. “Educating Latino students: A guide to successful practice.” Choice Reviews Online, vol. 36, no. 03, 1 Nov. 1998, https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.36-1702.
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