Background
As a Level I intern, I focused a lot on my teacher self and what it meant to me to be a teacher. I practiced finding my teacher voice and how to keep the flows of lessons going. Now that I am a Level II intern, I have found my place in the classroom and have developed values on what it means to me to be a teacher. There is still plenty of room for improvement for me in the classroom. After watching videos of my lessons last semester, I noticed student that were off task during lessons that I didn’t even realize while I was teaching. Students were not always actively engaged in the lessons that I was giving. Engagement is something that I feel is extremely important when it comes to students’ learning. If students are not engaged in a lesson, then they are not going to retain the information being provided to them. This finding led to my inquiry this semester: What strategies can I implement to maximize student engagement in learning?
My goal this semester is to try different strategies on keeping students engaged as well as strategies to monitor engagement. As a start, I gave all my students a learning style survey to see how all my students like lessons to be delivered to them. By considering their learning styles, I can better tailor my lessons to meet their needs and provide academically rich lessons to them. As for monitoring engagement, I will try techniques like walking around the room, collecting student work, and listening to small group conversations.
As a Level I intern, I focused a lot on my teacher self and what it meant to me to be a teacher. I practiced finding my teacher voice and how to keep the flows of lessons going. Now that I am a Level II intern, I have found my place in the classroom and have developed values on what it means to me to be a teacher. There is still plenty of room for improvement for me in the classroom. After watching videos of my lessons last semester, I noticed student that were off task during lessons that I didn’t even realize while I was teaching. Students were not always actively engaged in the lessons that I was giving. Engagement is something that I feel is extremely important when it comes to students’ learning. If students are not engaged in a lesson, then they are not going to retain the information being provided to them. This finding led to my inquiry this semester: What strategies can I implement to maximize student engagement in learning?
My goal this semester is to try different strategies on keeping students engaged as well as strategies to monitor engagement. As a start, I gave all my students a learning style survey to see how all my students like lessons to be delivered to them. By considering their learning styles, I can better tailor my lessons to meet their needs and provide academically rich lessons to them. As for monitoring engagement, I will try techniques like walking around the room, collecting student work, and listening to small group conversations.
Literature
In this blog, I will share what I have learned from the literature related to my wondering: what strategies can I implement to maximize student engagement in learning?
To find literature for my wondering I asked my collaborating teacher for resources as well as accessed the University of South Florida's online library system to find academic articles. When searching the USF library database I used keywords such as "maximize student engagement" and "student engagement strategies". My CT gave me some resources that her school district provided her with in regards to establishing a deliberate practice each year in the classroom. A deliberate practice is similar to an inquiry. Each teacher has to choose a focus each year and reflect on their findings.
In this blog, I will share what I have learned from the literature related to my wondering: what strategies can I implement to maximize student engagement in learning?
To find literature for my wondering I asked my collaborating teacher for resources as well as accessed the University of South Florida's online library system to find academic articles. When searching the USF library database I used keywords such as "maximize student engagement" and "student engagement strategies". My CT gave me some resources that her school district provided her with in regards to establishing a deliberate practice each year in the classroom. A deliberate practice is similar to an inquiry. Each teacher has to choose a focus each year and reflect on their findings.
APA Citation
|
Key Quotes/Ideas Related to Wondering
|
Specific Ideas for Taking Action in My Classroom
|
Harbour, K. E., Evanovich, L. L., Sweigart, C. A., & Hughes, L. E. (2015). A Brief Review of Effective Teaching Practices That Maximize Student Engagement. Preventing School Failure, 59(1), 5-13. doi:10.1080/1045988X.2014.919136
|
Article focused on three effective teaching behaviors: modeling, opportunities to respond, and feedback. (pg 6-11)
"Given the impact of modeling on students across contexts, teachers who use this practice effectively, providing multiple focused demonstrations of a skill while revealing their thought processes, are likely to see enhanced student engagement and achievement outcomes." "Feedback is one of the most powerful and readily available practices teachers can implement to improve student achievement" |
|
Nagro, S. A., Hooks, S. D., Fraser, D. W., & Cornelius, K. E. (2016). Whole-Group Response Strategies to Promote Student Engagement in Inclusive Classrooms. Teaching Exceptional Children, 48(5), 243-249. doi:10.1177/0040059916640749
|
Whole group response using hand signals (pg 244-245)
|
|
County, District School Board of Pasco. (n.d.). DQ5: Engaging Students. In D. S. County, Marzano Protocol: Lesson Segment Enacted on the Spot (pp. 26-30).
|
|
|
Literature Connections
The main common idea that I found between all three articles was the use of hand signals and gestures during lessons. Not only does this strategy help students assess their learning, it also helps the teacher do an assessment on how the flow of the lesson is going. I plan to use hand signals to have mini check points during whole group lessons to make sure content is understood. If the majority of the class answer the questions right, I can keep the pace of the lesson going. If not, I should revisit the topic before moving on.
The Marzano techniques provided a lot of insight on strategies to keeping students engaged. One of the topics was providing the students the opportunity to make connections to themselves. This makes sense to me because they will have a deeper understanding of the content if they can dig deeper and make connections to their life. Another Marzano strategy was noticing when students are not engaged. This is an important one for me because I feel like sometimes I am so focused on delivering the content, that I don't notice if I have any off-task students.
Thus, the actions I decided to take based on the literature were using hand signals, allowing students to make connections, noticing when students are not engaged, and having students complete exit tickets about the lesson.
The main common idea that I found between all three articles was the use of hand signals and gestures during lessons. Not only does this strategy help students assess their learning, it also helps the teacher do an assessment on how the flow of the lesson is going. I plan to use hand signals to have mini check points during whole group lessons to make sure content is understood. If the majority of the class answer the questions right, I can keep the pace of the lesson going. If not, I should revisit the topic before moving on.
The Marzano techniques provided a lot of insight on strategies to keeping students engaged. One of the topics was providing the students the opportunity to make connections to themselves. This makes sense to me because they will have a deeper understanding of the content if they can dig deeper and make connections to their life. Another Marzano strategy was noticing when students are not engaged. This is an important one for me because I feel like sometimes I am so focused on delivering the content, that I don't notice if I have any off-task students.
Thus, the actions I decided to take based on the literature were using hand signals, allowing students to make connections, noticing when students are not engaged, and having students complete exit tickets about the lesson.
Methods and Procedures
To gain insight into my wondering, I first conducted an interview with my collaborating teacher as well as gave my students a learning survey to better understand what keeps them engaged. My collaborating teacher provided many different ideas and strategies that helped me start planning lessons to keep my students engaged. One of the key things that she pointed out to me was keeping the pace of the lesson going. This topic also came up in my readings. Each week, I collected different pieces of data to better understand my practice and move my inquiry along.
Learning Survey
I gave my students a short nine question learning survey to better understand the ways that they like to have lessons in the classroom. I gave this survey at the beginning of my inquiry so that I could plan future lessons to best suit the needs of my learners. The data collected from this survey includes the student responses. I analyzed this data by creating bar graphs for each question of the students’ responses.
Opportunities to Respond
During three lessons that I taught this semester, I used opportunities to respond (or OTRs). Opportunities to respond include asking questions throughout the lesson and expecting students to respond. A specific form of OTR I used was choral responding. I would ask the class to give me a thumb up for true and false answers or for a thumb up if they got the correct answer on an individual question that was asked. I collected data on this using video recording of my lesson. After each lesson, I went back and watched the lesson to see if students were actively engaged in responding to the questions.
Exit Tickets
During two lessons of this inquiry, I had my students complete exit tickets at the end of the lesson to track their engagement. One form of an exit ticket I used was having students complete a sticky note something that they learned from the lesson and then they walked up to the board and put it on a chart titled “What Stuck with You?”. Another form of exit ticket I used was a piece of paper after a math lesson that asked students various questions about the lesson. For both lessons, I collected the tickets as data at the end of the lesson. I then analyzed the data by sorting the tickets into similar piles based on the student responses.
Hands-On Learning
I used hands-on activities in two of my lessons this semester to see if students responded well to being physically engaged in the lessons. For a science lesson, I had the students cut out and create a foldable to clue into their notebooks. They had to match the foldable with different definitions that we had covered in the lesson. Not only did this enforce what we had just covered, it gave students a different way to make sense of what they learned. To collect data for the science lesson, I recorded a video of the lesson. When I watched the video over, I took notes on how effective the foldable worked and if the students were on task during the assignment. For a math lesson, I had to students use manipulatives to introduce the idea of volume to them. This gave them an opportunity to explore the concept physically. For the math lesson, I collected exit tickets from my students as well as a video recording of the lesson. I analyzed the exit tickets after the lesson and categorized them based on similar responses.
To gain insight into my wondering, I first conducted an interview with my collaborating teacher as well as gave my students a learning survey to better understand what keeps them engaged. My collaborating teacher provided many different ideas and strategies that helped me start planning lessons to keep my students engaged. One of the key things that she pointed out to me was keeping the pace of the lesson going. This topic also came up in my readings. Each week, I collected different pieces of data to better understand my practice and move my inquiry along.
Learning Survey
I gave my students a short nine question learning survey to better understand the ways that they like to have lessons in the classroom. I gave this survey at the beginning of my inquiry so that I could plan future lessons to best suit the needs of my learners. The data collected from this survey includes the student responses. I analyzed this data by creating bar graphs for each question of the students’ responses.
Opportunities to Respond
During three lessons that I taught this semester, I used opportunities to respond (or OTRs). Opportunities to respond include asking questions throughout the lesson and expecting students to respond. A specific form of OTR I used was choral responding. I would ask the class to give me a thumb up for true and false answers or for a thumb up if they got the correct answer on an individual question that was asked. I collected data on this using video recording of my lesson. After each lesson, I went back and watched the lesson to see if students were actively engaged in responding to the questions.
Exit Tickets
During two lessons of this inquiry, I had my students complete exit tickets at the end of the lesson to track their engagement. One form of an exit ticket I used was having students complete a sticky note something that they learned from the lesson and then they walked up to the board and put it on a chart titled “What Stuck with You?”. Another form of exit ticket I used was a piece of paper after a math lesson that asked students various questions about the lesson. For both lessons, I collected the tickets as data at the end of the lesson. I then analyzed the data by sorting the tickets into similar piles based on the student responses.
Hands-On Learning
I used hands-on activities in two of my lessons this semester to see if students responded well to being physically engaged in the lessons. For a science lesson, I had the students cut out and create a foldable to clue into their notebooks. They had to match the foldable with different definitions that we had covered in the lesson. Not only did this enforce what we had just covered, it gave students a different way to make sense of what they learned. To collect data for the science lesson, I recorded a video of the lesson. When I watched the video over, I took notes on how effective the foldable worked and if the students were on task during the assignment. For a math lesson, I had to students use manipulatives to introduce the idea of volume to them. This gave them an opportunity to explore the concept physically. For the math lesson, I collected exit tickets from my students as well as a video recording of the lesson. I analyzed the exit tickets after the lesson and categorized them based on similar responses.
Findings
As a result of analyzing my data, important things I learned include:
• Hands-on lessons and lessons involving manipulatives had higher levels of engagement in my classroom
• Pacing of the lesson impacts student engagement
• Engagement in lessons directly correlates with content understanding
Learning Statement 1
Hands-on lessons and lessons involving manipulatives had higher levels of engagement in my classroom.
After analyzing my data, I realized that the lessons that I taught had higher levels of engagement if I provided my students with an activity to be hands-on or use manipulatives. The two lessons that I taught that were hands-on had the highest level of student responses in addition to accurate student responses. On the contrary, a lesson I taught where no manipulatives were used had the lowest level of engagement.
Data collected that supports this statement includes the student interest survey that my students filled out. Ten out of my twenty-two students responded to a question asking how they work well with the answer “using hands-on materials”. Based on an exit ticket after a math lesson that used manipulatives, all but one student enjoyed the lesson. Finally, after watching a video recording of my science lesson, students responded well to creating a foldable as a wrap-up assignment.
Learning Survey Responses
(*students could check multiple boxes on survey)
Example of an exit ticket after math lesson
Learning Statement 2
Pacing of the lesson impacts student engagement.
The pacing of a lesson includes the amount of content taught in one lesson as well as the speed in which it is taught. Delivering challenging and dense topics over a long period of time can cause students to become unfocused. Presenting complex topics at a fast pace can cause students to become confused and frustrated. I taught a social studies lesson on the American Revolution and it included a lot of reading followed by notetaking. Of the lessons I taught this semester, it seemed like the hardest to keep students focused on. I tried delivering a whole chapter’s worth of content and notetaking in a 45-minute time frame. Not only did I not allot myself the appropriate amount of time for the lesson, I also didn’t chunk up the reading for a good pace and flow of the lesson. This showed when I analyzed how engaged the students were.
I had two interns take notes while I was delivering the lesson and I had them write down each time a student was off-task during the reading or notetaking. After analyzing those notes, I realized that the lesson did not go as well as I thought it did. The notes supplied me with an alarming amount of comments on how students were not on task the entire time. One student didn’t write a single note down during the lesson, and another had his head down the entire time. I did not notice this off task behavior because I was reading aloud the chapter instead of monitoring the engagement. If I had paced the lesson better, I would have been able to monitor engagement more.
(*Insert picture of notes here*)
Learning Statement 3
Engagement in lessons directly correlates with content understanding.
If students are not actively engaged in the lesson being delivered to them, their understanding of the content will decrease. If students are engaged, they are more likely to understand the content. In addition to feedback I received from my collaborating teacher, I found that my students did not get much out of the lesson where the majority of the class was off-task. During my lesson on the American Revolution, where engagement was low, I found that the content understanding was low as well based on the exit tickets I received from students. I asked my students to write something that stuck out to them about the lesson and the majority of the students just restated the goal that I provided them at the beginning of the lesson. Instead of digging deeper into the content, responses were very vague or completely inaccurate.
(*insert picture of chart*)
As a result of analyzing my data, important things I learned include:
• Hands-on lessons and lessons involving manipulatives had higher levels of engagement in my classroom
• Pacing of the lesson impacts student engagement
• Engagement in lessons directly correlates with content understanding
Learning Statement 1
Hands-on lessons and lessons involving manipulatives had higher levels of engagement in my classroom.
After analyzing my data, I realized that the lessons that I taught had higher levels of engagement if I provided my students with an activity to be hands-on or use manipulatives. The two lessons that I taught that were hands-on had the highest level of student responses in addition to accurate student responses. On the contrary, a lesson I taught where no manipulatives were used had the lowest level of engagement.
Data collected that supports this statement includes the student interest survey that my students filled out. Ten out of my twenty-two students responded to a question asking how they work well with the answer “using hands-on materials”. Based on an exit ticket after a math lesson that used manipulatives, all but one student enjoyed the lesson. Finally, after watching a video recording of my science lesson, students responded well to creating a foldable as a wrap-up assignment.
Learning Survey Responses
(*students could check multiple boxes on survey)
Example of an exit ticket after math lesson
Learning Statement 2
Pacing of the lesson impacts student engagement.
The pacing of a lesson includes the amount of content taught in one lesson as well as the speed in which it is taught. Delivering challenging and dense topics over a long period of time can cause students to become unfocused. Presenting complex topics at a fast pace can cause students to become confused and frustrated. I taught a social studies lesson on the American Revolution and it included a lot of reading followed by notetaking. Of the lessons I taught this semester, it seemed like the hardest to keep students focused on. I tried delivering a whole chapter’s worth of content and notetaking in a 45-minute time frame. Not only did I not allot myself the appropriate amount of time for the lesson, I also didn’t chunk up the reading for a good pace and flow of the lesson. This showed when I analyzed how engaged the students were.
I had two interns take notes while I was delivering the lesson and I had them write down each time a student was off-task during the reading or notetaking. After analyzing those notes, I realized that the lesson did not go as well as I thought it did. The notes supplied me with an alarming amount of comments on how students were not on task the entire time. One student didn’t write a single note down during the lesson, and another had his head down the entire time. I did not notice this off task behavior because I was reading aloud the chapter instead of monitoring the engagement. If I had paced the lesson better, I would have been able to monitor engagement more.
(*Insert picture of notes here*)
Learning Statement 3
Engagement in lessons directly correlates with content understanding.
If students are not actively engaged in the lesson being delivered to them, their understanding of the content will decrease. If students are engaged, they are more likely to understand the content. In addition to feedback I received from my collaborating teacher, I found that my students did not get much out of the lesson where the majority of the class was off-task. During my lesson on the American Revolution, where engagement was low, I found that the content understanding was low as well based on the exit tickets I received from students. I asked my students to write something that stuck out to them about the lesson and the majority of the students just restated the goal that I provided them at the beginning of the lesson. Instead of digging deeper into the content, responses were very vague or completely inaccurate.
(*insert picture of chart*)
Conclusion
As this inquiry comes to an end, I have learned how important student engagement is in the classroom. I would even venture to say that student engagement is just as important as the content being delivered. The two go hand in hand. I have learned that it is not the students’ fault if they are engaged. It is my responsibility as their teacher to appeal to all of my students learning styles. This year I had students who preferred hands-on learning. The more hands-on activities I provide for my students, the more engaged they will be.
In the future, I will continue to evaluate myself on delivering engaging lessons to my students. Since the makeup of my classroom will change year after year, I will have to adapt my lessons to appeal to the set of learners I have each year. Even though I had a group of hands-on learners this year, doesn’t mean the same lessons will appeal to my learners next year, who may be more visual. It is my responsibility to remain flexible in my teaching practice and to deliver the most engaging lessons possible to my students.
As this inquiry comes to an end, I have learned how important student engagement is in the classroom. I would even venture to say that student engagement is just as important as the content being delivered. The two go hand in hand. I have learned that it is not the students’ fault if they are engaged. It is my responsibility as their teacher to appeal to all of my students learning styles. This year I had students who preferred hands-on learning. The more hands-on activities I provide for my students, the more engaged they will be.
In the future, I will continue to evaluate myself on delivering engaging lessons to my students. Since the makeup of my classroom will change year after year, I will have to adapt my lessons to appeal to the set of learners I have each year. Even though I had a group of hands-on learners this year, doesn’t mean the same lessons will appeal to my learners next year, who may be more visual. It is my responsibility to remain flexible in my teaching practice and to deliver the most engaging lessons possible to my students.