# data[].attributes.body
Includes an Engagement Rubric

# data[].attributes.headline
Pinterest: Middle School Student Engagement

# data[].attributes.subject
Pinterest: Middle School Student Engagement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Discover thousands of images about Student Engagement on Pinterest, a visual bookmarking tool that helps you discover and save creative ideas.

# data[].attributes.body
Highly Engaging Activities

# data[].attributes.body
Video

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
Education Training and Effective Results

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
Classroom Management Strategies To Take Control Of Noisy Students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
Student Engagement & Motivation Strategies & Tips

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Engaging Students | How to Keep Students Engaged!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For Education Training and Effective Results for Today's Youth Visit our website: http://Fighting4Youth.com Keep Students Engaged You might be wondering how to keep students engaged and focused, especially towards the end of the school year. In this video, you not only learn about how to keep them engaged and focused, but also how to get them to want to come to class.

# data[].attributes.body
Article

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Research shows that students whose teachers spend too much time talking are less likely to be engaged during classroom instruction. Luckily, reading instruction can be so much more than lecture, reading practice, memorization, or decoding drills. We, as teachers, can do more to get our students engaged in learning to read.

List of Reading Activities

Here is a list of fourteen student engagement strategies from Reading Horizons Reading Specialist, Stacy Hurst, that you can use to increase student engagement during reading instruction or reading intervention:

1. Partner Pretest

Before teaching a new decoding skill or grammar rule, preface the lesson with a pretest. Let your students know that the test will not be scored, lowering anxiety and increasing student performance. Pair students up for the pretest and have them use the same set of materials for that pretest. If the pretest is on a computer or iPad, have students share the device between the two of them. During the pretest walk around the room so you can gauge student needs and adjust the lesson accordingly. When lesson material matches student ability and understanding, engagement is higher. Make sure that the pretest is similar to the posttest so you can see how much was actually retained during your lesson.

2. Stand Up/Sit Down

Teachers can use this activity to help students learn to differentiate between similar but different reading concepts. For instance, when a teacher is trying to help her students learn the difference between common nouns and proper nouns, she can give examples of each and have students stand up if it is a common noun or sit down if it is a proper noun. This is a great way to see how much of your class is actually grasping the material while getting your students' blood flowing-helping them stay alert.

3. Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down

This activity provides a quick way to gauge if your students are comprehending a story or to test them on different reading skills. Instruct students to put their thumbs up if they agree with a statement or to put their thumbs down if they disagree. When students have a low energy level (i.e. right after lunch) Stand Up/Sit Down may be a better alternative. However, if you need to maintain your students' current energy level Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down is ideal.

4. Secret Answer

This activity is great for students that might not be confident in their answers-students that look around the class when doing Stand Up/Sit Down or Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down to see how the other students' answer before they answer themselves. To give students a secret way to answer, assign different responses a number and have students hold up the number of fingers that correspond to the answer they think is correct. To do this exercise properly, have your students place their hand near their heart (physically) with the appropriate number of fingers raised to indicate their answer. This way, especially if all the students are facing the teacher, it is difficult for students to copy their neighbor's answer.

5. Response Cards

This is a great way to mix things up a bit. Have students create a stack of common responses, including: agree/disagree, true/false, yes/no, greater than/less than, multiple choice options, and common emotions. After students have created their response cards, you can have them use them to respond in a variety of different settings. For example, while reading a book together as a class the teacher may pause and ask her students what they think the character is feeling right now. The students then select one of the common emotion cards from their personal stack of cards and lift it up to answer the question.

6. Think-Pair-Share

This activity allows students to pause and process what they have just learned. After reading a passage in a book, ask your class a question that they must first consider by themselves. After giving them time to think have them discuss the question with their neighbor. Once they've discussed the question, invite students to share their answers with the class. By giving them this time to process, you are enabling them to be more engaged in their learning.

7. Quick Writes

Studies show that the proper ratio of direct instruction to reflection time for students is ten to two. That means that for every ten minutes of instruction teachers need to provide students with two minutes for reflection. This activity is a great way to provide students with that much-needed reflection time! In this activity, ask a question about a reading passage, have students write a response to share with a neighbor or the entire class.

8. One Word Splash

After reading a passage or learning new vocabulary terms, ask your students to write down one word that they feel sums up that material. This might seem overly simplistic but it actually requires higher processing skills that help your students digest what they are reading. This can be done either with a pencil and paper or a dry erase marker and personal whiteboard for each student.

9. Quick Draw

This activity is perfect for visual learners or students that aren't quite writing yet. After reading a part of a story or learning a new concept or topic, have your students draw a picture about what they've just read or learned. For example, after reading part of the story, Jack and the Beanstalk, have your students draw what has happened in the story up to that point. A student may draw a picture of a boy planting seeds with a beanstalk growing in the background.

10. Gallery Walk

To help students get some of their energy out, have students do a Gallery Walk to see their peers' work. This activity is a great add on to Quick Writes and Quick Draw. Because students seek approval from their peers they will put more effort into their work when they know it will be viewed by the class.

11. A-Z Topic Summary

Help students connect the dots after finishing a book, a learning module, or a lesson. Have your students complete an A-Z Topic Summary either as individuals or in pairs. If it is an individual activity, have students write either a word or a sentence that connects to the book, module, or lesson for each letter of the alphabet. For example, if you learned about baking they might write a sentence for A such as: "Always preheat the oven before baking." To speed up the activity, you can assign students to work in pairs or assign a letter to each student or pair and have them write a sentence for that letter rather than the whole alphabet.

12. 3-2-1

This quick way to help students process reading or lesson material when you're pressed for time. First, have your students write three facts they learned from something they read or learned in class that day. Next, have students write two questions they still have about the book or topic that wasn't covered or discussed in class. Finally, have your students write one opinion they have about the reading material or lesson. This activity can also help you with your lesson planning for the next lesson on the topic or book.

13. Find Your Match

This is another activity that gets your students up and moving. Create card matches that correlate to a storyline in a book, vocabulary terms, figures of speech, grammar rules, etc. For example, your card matches might include the following concepts (depending on grade level): rhyming words, uppercase/lowercase, antonyms/synonyms, words/definitions, problem/solution, and words/pictures. Hand out one card to each student in the class and then have them get up and find the other student with the matching card.

14. Dictation

One of my very favorite teaching activities is Dictation! It is highly effective in engaging students because it is multisensory explicit phonics instruction -involving: auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile senses. Having a multisensory approach increases working memory and integrates all language skills/modalities. To do Dictation have students listen to a word, repeat the word out loud, write it out on paper, and then have them read the word out loud again.

If you found this helpful, learn more strategies on our list of reading strategies ›

Early Literacy Resources
Early Literacy Lexile Levels Early Reading Comprehension Third Grade Reading structured literacy
Authors: No content items.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
14 Activities That Increase Student Engagement During Reading Instruction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Research shows that students whose teachers spend too much time talking are less likely to be engaged during classroom instruction. The good news is that there are many activities that will enable you to spend less time talking and more time getting your students engaged during reading instruction.

# data[].attributes.body
Dozens of effective engagement strategies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Tips and Strategies for Keeping Students Engaged

4 Student Engagement Tips (From a Student): Find out from one student how relationships, humor, choice, and displaying his work engaged him, and watch his three-minute video highlighting student work and personalized learning. (Edutopia, 2016)

Igniting Student Engagement: A Roadmap for Learning: Explore key strategies like being authentic, introducing units with meaningful launch events, and letting students know what outcomes to expect. (Edutopia, 2015)

The 8 Minutes That Matter Most: Find tips for engaging students during the first and last eight minutes of class. (Edutopia, 2015)

Golden Rules for Engaging Students in Learning Activities: Investigate student engagement practices such as making activities meaningful, fostering efficacy, providing autonomy support, embracing collaborative learning, establishing positive teacher-student relationships, and promoting mastery orientations. (Edutopia, Updated 2015)

New Study: Engage Kids With 7x the Effect: Understand why ensuring that students care about the material and that they know how much you care about them is so critical for effective engagement. (Edutopia, 2014)

Bell Ringer Exercises: Discover ideas for short, focused exercises to help students make the most of classroom time. (Edutopia, 2013)

Find more Edutopia content on this topic on our Student Engagement page, and participate in Edutopia's community to collaborate with others and share tips, strategies, and resources.

Engagement Through Projects

4 Practices for Increasing Student Engagement: Pursue interest- and project-oriented strategies for getting and keeping student attention. (Edutopia, 2016)

Powerful Classroom Lessons: It All Begins With the Hook: Introduce projects by capturing students' interest and pulling them in. (Edutopia, 2015)

Embracing Student Creativity With a Wonder Shelf: Provide math students with manipulatives and art supplies to bring excitement, engagement, and elements of a makerspace into the classroom. (Edutopia, Updated 2015)

6 Rules to Break for Better, Deeper Learning Outcomes: Incorporate deeper learning as you empower students to seek knowledge from many sources, use tools relevant to their lives, and embrace the lessons of failure. (Edutopia, 2014)

6 Engaging End-of-Year Projects: Discover six projects to engage students during the last few weeks of school. (Edutopia, 2012)

Find more Edutopia content on this topic on our Project-Based Learning page.

Engagement Through Technology

Find more Edutopia content on this topic on our Technology Integration page.

Engagement Through Social and Emotional Learning

Find more Edutopia content on this topic on our Social and Emotional Learning page.

Examples From Schools That Work

Edutopia's flagship series highlights pedagogies, strategies, and practices from K-12 schools and districts that are improving the way students learn. Below, dive into real-world examples of how educators are engaging students.
Personalized Learning: Enabling Student Voice and Choice Through Projects
Adapt these six tips from Nashville Big Picture High School in Nashville, Tennessee to bring personalized learning projects into your classroom and build student engagement.
Community Partners: Making Student Learning Relevant
Find out how educators at Hood River Middle School in Hood River, Oregon employ local experts to make student learning come to life.
Student-Led Meetings: Empowering Student Voice
See how students at University Park Campus School in Worcester, Massachusetts grow into their power and potential through student-led meetings.
Maker Education: Reaching All Learners
Learn about maker education in Albemarle County Public Schools in Virginia and how it fosters student autonomy, ignites student interest, and empowers students to embrace their own learning.
Morning Meetings: Creating a Safe Space for Learning
Watch teachers at Symonds Elementary in Keene, New Hampshire, and understand how they use morning meetings to develop valuable social-emotional skills, create a culture of respect and trust, and prepare students to learn.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Student Engagement: Resource Roundup | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
4 Student Engagement Tips (From a Student): Find out from one student how relationships, humor, choice, and displaying his work engaged him, and watch his three-minute video highlighting student work and personalized learning. (Edutopia, 2016) Igniting Student Engagement: A Roadmap for Learning: Explore key strategies like being authentic, introducing units with meaningful launch events, and letting students know what outcomes to expect.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kathleen Cushman describes how High Tech High engages students in meaningful projects that lead to deeper learning. Kathleen provides an overview of her own research before analyzing how students are motivated to engage in real-world projects. Finally, Kathleen connects the projects to the CCSS.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In education, student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education. Generally speaking, the concept of "student engagement" is predicated on the belief that learning improves when students are inquisitive, interested, or inspired, and that learning tends to suffer when students are bored, dispassionate, disaffected, or otherwise "disengaged." Stronger student engagement or improved student engagement are common instructional objectives expressed by educators.

In many contexts, however, volunteer programs and community-service requirements (engaging students in public service and learning through public service), student organizing (engaging students in advocacy, community organizing, and constructive protest), and any number of potential student-led groups, forums, presentations, and events (engaging students in community leadership, public speaking, and other activities that contribute to " student engagement may also refer to the ways in which school leaders, educators, and other adults might "engage" students more fully in the governance and decision-making processes in school, in the design of programs and learning opportunities, or in the civic life of their community. For example, many schools survey students to determine their views on any number of issues, and then use the survey findings to modify policies or programs in ways that honor or respond to student perspectives and concerns. Students may also create their own questions, survey their peers, and then present the results to school leaders or the school board to advocate for changes in programs or policies. Some schools have created alternative forms of student governance, "student advisory committees," student appointments to the school board, and other formal and informal ways for students to contribute to the governance of a school or advise superintendents, principals, and local policy makers. These broader forms of "student engagement" can take a wide variety of forms-far too many to extensively catalog here. Yet a few illustrative examples include school-supported positive youth development"). For a related discussion, see student voice.

In education, the term student engagement has grown in popularity in recent decades, most likely resulting from an increased understanding of the role that certain intellectual, emotional, behavioral, physical, and social factors play in the learning process and social development. For example, a wide variety of research studies on learning have revealed connections between so-called "non-cognitive factors" or "non-cognitive skills" (e.g., motivation, interest, curiosity, responsibility, determination, perseverance, attitude, work habits, self-regulation, social skills, etc.) and "cognitive" learning results (e.g., improved academic performance, test scores, information recall, skill acquisition, etc.). The concept of student engagement typically arises when educators discuss or prioritize educational strategies and teaching techniques that address the developmental, intellectual, emotional, behavioral, physical, and social factors that either enhance or undermine learning for students.

It should be noted that educators may hold different views on student engagement, and it may be defined or interpreted differently from place to place. For example, in one school observable behaviors such as attending class, listening attentively, participating in discussions, turning in work on time, and following rules and directions may be perceived as forms of "engagement," while in another school the concept of "engagement" may be largely understood in terms of internal states such as enthusiasm, curiosity, optimism, motivation, or interest.

While the concept of student engagement seems straightforward, it can take fairly complex forms in practice. The following examples illustrate a few ways in which student engagement may be discussed or addressed in schools:

Intellectual engagement: To increase student engagement in a course or subject, teachers may create lessons, assignments, or projects that appeal to student interests or that stimulate their curiosity. For example, teachers may give students more choice over the topics they are asked to write about (so students can choose a topic that specifically interests them) or they may let students choose the way they will investigate a topic or demonstrate what they have learned (some students may choose to write a paper, others may produce short video or audio documentary, and still others may create a multimedia presentation). Teachers may also introduce a unit of study with a problem or question that students need to solve. For example, students might be asked to investigate the causes of a local environmental problem, determine the species of an unknown animal from a few short descriptions of its physical characteristics and behaviors, or build a robot that can accomplish a specific task. In these cases, sparking student curiosity can increase "engagement" in the learning process. For related discussions, see authentic learning , community-based learning , differentiation , personalized learning , project-based learning , and .

Emotional engagement: Educators may use a wide variety of strategies to promote positive emotions in students that will facilitate the learning process, minimize negative behaviors, or keep students from dropping out. For example, classrooms and other learning environments may be redesigned to make them more conducive to learning, teachers may make a point of monitoring student moods and asking them how they are feeling, or school programs may provide counseling, peer mentoring, or other services that generally seek to give students the support they need to succeed academically and feel positive, optimistic, or excited about school and learning. Strategies such as advisories , for example, are intended to build stronger relationships between students and adults in a school. The basic theory is that students will be more likely to succeed if at least one adult in the school is meeting with a student regularly, inquiring about academic and non-academic issues, giving her advice, and taking an interest in her out-of-school life, personal passions, future aspirations, and distinct learning challenges and needs.

Behavioral engagement: Teachers may establish classroom routines, use consistent cues, or assign students roles that foster behaviors more conducive to learning. For example, elementary school teachers may use cues or gestures that help young students refocus on a lesson if they get distracted or boisterous. The teacher may clap three times or raise a hand, for example, which signals to students that it's time to stop talking, return to their seats, or begin a new activity. Teachers may also establish consistent routines that help students stay on task or remain engaged during a class. For example, the class may regularly break up into small groups or move their seats into a circle for a group discussion, or the teacher may ask students on a rotating basis to lead certain activities. By introducing variation into a classroom routine, teachers can reduce the monotony and potential disengagement that may occur when students sit in the same seat, doing similar tasks, for extended periods of time. Research on brain-based learning has also provided evidence that variation, novelty, and physical activity can stimulate and improve learning. For a related discussion, see classroom management .

Physical engagement: Teachers may use physical activities or routines to stimulate learning or interest. For example, "kinesthetic learning" refers to the use of physical motions and activities during the learning process. Instead of asking students to answer questions aloud, a teacher might ask students to walk up to the chalkboard and answer the question verbally while also writing the answer on the board (in this case, the theory is that students are more likely to remember information when they are using multiple parts of the brain at the same time-i.e., the various parts dedicated to speaking, writing, physical activity, etc.). Teachers may also introduce short periods of physical activity or quick exercises, particularly during the elementary years, to reduce antsy, fidgety, or distracted behaviors. In addition, more schools throughout the United States are addressing the physical needs of students by, for example, offering all students free breakfasts (because disengagement in learning and poor academic performance have been linked to hunger and malnutrition) or starting school later at a later time (because adolescent sleep patterns and needs differ from those of adults, and adolescents may be better able to learn later in the morning).

Social engagement: Teachers may use a variety of strategies to stimulate engagement through social interactions. For example, students may be paired or grouped to work collaboratively on projects, or teachers may create academic contests that students compete in-e.g., a friendly competition in which teams of students build robots to complete a specific task in the shortest amount of time. Academic and co-curricular activities such as debate teams, robotics clubs, and science fairs also bring together learning experiences and social interactions. In addition, strategies such as demonstrations of learning or capstone projects may require students to give public presentations of their work, often to panels of experts from the local community, while strategies such as community-based learning or service learning (learning through volunteerism) can introduce civic and social issues into the learning process. In these cases, learning about societal problems, or participating actively in social causes, can improve engagement.

Cultural engagement: Schools may take active steps to make students from diverse cultural backgrounds-particularly recently arrived immigrant or refugee students and their families-feel welcomed, accepted, safe, and valued. For example, administrators, teachers, and school staff may provide special orientation sessions for their new-American populations or offer translation services and informational materials translated into multiple languages. Students, families, and local cultural leaders from diverse backgrounds may be asked to speak about their experiences to students and school staff, and teachers may intentionally modify lessons to incorporate the history, literature, arts, and perspectives of the student ethnicities and nationalities represented in their classes. School activities may also incorporate multicultural songs, dances, and performances, while posters, flags, and other educational materials featured throughout the school may reflect the cultural diversity of the students and school community . The general goal of such strategies would be to reduce the feelings of confusion, alienation, disconnection, or exclusion that some students and families may experience, and thereby increase their engagement in academics and school activities. For related discussions, see dual-language education , English-language learner , multicultural education , and .

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In education, student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education. Generally speaking, the concept of "student engagement" is predicated on the belief that learning [...]

# data[].attributes.body
Engaging tasks and questions

# data[].attributes.body
for engagement

# data[].attributes.body
Excellent source of free, standards-based lessons. Wonderful ideas to copy and incorporate in your own lessons.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Share My Lesson | Free Lesson Plans & Teacher Resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Share My Lesson is a community of teachers, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel, specialized instructional support personnel, higher education faculty, and parents and caregivers who contribute content, collaborate, and stay up to date on the issues that matter to students and educators everywhere.

# data[].attributes.body
Many cheap or free items

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
World's most popular online marketplace for original educational resources with more than four million resources available for use today.

# data[].attributes.headline
Golden Rule for Engaging Students in Learning Activities

# data[].attributes.subject
Golden Rule for Engaging Students in Learning Activities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
1. Make It Meaningful

In aiming for full engagement, it is essential that students perceive activities as being meaningful. Research has shown that if students do not consider a learning activity worthy of their time and effort, they might not engage in a satisfactory way, or may even disengage entirely in response (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). To ensure that activities are personally meaningful, we can, for example, connect them with students' previous knowledge and experiences, highlighting the value of an assigned activity in personally relevant ways. Also, adult or expert modeling can help to demonstrate why an individual activity is worth pursuing, and when and how it is used in real life.

2. Foster a Sense of Competence

The notion of competence may be understood as a student's ongoing personal evaluation of whether he or she can succeed in a learning activity or challenge. (Can I do this?) Researchers have found that effectively performing an activity can positively impact subsequent engagement (Schunk & Mullen, 2012). To strengthen students' sense of competence in learning activities, the assigned activities could:

Be only slightly beyond students' current levels of proficiency

Make students demonstrate understanding throughout the activity

Show peer coping models (i.e. students who struggle but eventually succeed at the activity) and peer mastery models (i.e. students who try and succeed at the activity)

Include feedback that helps students to make progress

3. Provide Autonomy Support

We may understand autonomy support as nurturing the students' sense of control over their behaviors and goals. When teachers relinquish control (without losing power) to the students, rather than promoting compliance with directives and commands, student engagement levels are likely to increase as a result (Reeve, Jang, Carrell, Jeon, & Barch, 2004). Autonomy support can be implemented by:

Welcoming students' opinions and ideas into the flow of the activity

Using informational, non-controlling language with students

Giving students the time they need to understand and absorb an activity by themselves

4. Embrace Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning is another powerful facilitator of engagement in learning activities. When students work effectively with others, their engagement may be amplified as a result (Wentzel, 2009), mostly due to experiencing a sense of connection to others during the activities (Deci & Ryan, 2000). To make group work more productive, strategies can be implemented to ensure that students know how to communicate and behave in that setting. Teacher modeling is one effective method (i.e. the teacher shows how collaboration is done), while avoiding homogeneous groups and grouping by ability, fostering individual accountability by assigning different roles, and evaluating both the student and the group performance also support collaborative learning.

5. Establish Positive Teacher-Student Relationships

High-quality teacher-student relationships are another critical factor in determining student engagement, especially in the case of difficult students and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds (Fredricks, 2014). When students form close and caring relationships with their teachers, they are fulfilling their developmental need for a connection with others and a sense of belonging in society (Scales, 1991). Teacher-student relationships can be facilitated by:

Caring about students' social and emotional needs

Displaying positive attitudes and enthusiasm

Increasing one-on-one time with students

Treating students fairly

Avoiding deception or promise-breaking

6. Promote Mastery Orientations

Finally, students' perspective of learning activities also determines their level of engagement. When students pursue an activity because they want to learn and understand (i.e. mastery orientations), rather than merely obtain a good grade, look smart, please their parents, or outperform peers (i.e. performance orientations), their engagement is more likely to be full and thorough (Anderman & Patrick, 2012). To encourage this mastery orientation mindset, consider various approaches, such as framing success in terms of learning (e.g. criterion-referenced) rather than performing (e.g. obtaining a good grade). You can also place the emphasis on individual progress by reducing social comparison (e.g. making grades private) and recognizing student improvement and effort.

Research

Anderman, E. M., & Patrick, H. (2012). Achievement goal theory, conceptualization of ability/intelligence, and classroom climate. In S. Christenson, A. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Student Engagement (pp. 173-191). New York, NY: Springer.

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227-268.

Fredricks, J. A. (2014). Eight Myths of Student Disengagement: Creating Classrooms of Deep Learning. Los Angeles: Corwin.

Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59-109.

Reeve, J., Jang, H., Carrell, D., Jeon, S., & Barch, J. (2004). Enhancing students' engagement by increasing teachers' autonomy support. Motivation and Emotion, 28(2), 147-169.

Scales, P. C. (1991). Creating a developmental framework: The positive possibilities of young adolescents. In A portrait of young adolescents in the 1990s: Implications for promoting healthy growth and development. ERIC.

Schunk, D. H., & Mullen, C. A. (2012). Self-Efficacy as an engaged learner. In S. Christenson, A. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 219-235). Boston, MA: Springer US.

Wentzel, K. R. (2009). Peers and academic functioning at school. In K. Rubin, W. Bukowski, & B. Laursen (Eds.), Handbook of peer interactions, relationships, and groups. Social, emotional, and personality development in context (pp. 531-547). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Golden Rules for Engaging Students in Learning Activities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In aiming for full engagement, it is essential that students perceive activities as being meaningful. Research has shown that if students do not consider a learning activity worthy of their time and effort, they might not engage in a satisfactory way, or may even disengage entirely in response (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004).

# data[].attributes.body
A primer on Marzano's and Pickering's book

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Marzano Research | The Highly Engaged Classroom, Tips

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Research has shown that providing choices to students of all age levels often increases their intrinsic motivation. Choice in the classroom has also been linked to increases in student effort, task performance, and subsequent learning. However, to reap these benefits, a teacher should create choices that are robust enough for students to feel that their decision has an impact on their learning.

# data[].attributes.body
Educational Leadership Article

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
September 1995 | Volume 53 | Number 1
Strengthening Student Engagement Pages 8-12

(and what really motivates them)?

Richard Strong, Harvey F. Silver and Amy Robinson

How, then, would we define engagement? Perhaps the best definition comes from the work of Phil Schlecty (1994), who says students who are engaged exhibit three characteristics: (1) they are attracted to their work, (2) they persist in their work despite challenges and obstacles, and (3) they take visible delight in accomplishing their work.

Most teachers have seen these signs of engagement during a project, presentation, or lively class discussion. They have caught glimpses of the inspired inner world of a child, and hoped to sustain this wonder, enthusiasm, and perseverance every day. At the same time, they may have felt stymied by traditions of reward and punishment. Our challenge is to transcend these very real difficulties and provide a practical model for understanding what our students want and need.

Goals and Needs: The SCORE

As the responses to our questions showed, people who are engaged in their work are driven by four essential goals, each of which satisfies a particular human need:

Success (the need for mastery),

Curiosity (the need for understanding),

Originality (the need for self-expression),

Relationships (the need for involvement with others).

These four goals form the acronym for our model of student engagement- SCORE. Under the right classroom conditions and at the right level for each student, they can build the motivation and Energy (to complete our acronym) that is essential for a complete and productive life. These goals can provide students with the energy to deal constructively with the complexity, confusion, repetition, and ambiguities of life (the drive toward completion).

Rethinking Motivation

The concept of "score" is a metaphor about performance, but one that also suggests a work or art, as in a musical score. By aiming to combine achievement and artistry, the SCORE model can reach beyond strict dichotomies of right/wrong and pass/fail, and even bypass the controversy about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, on which theories of educational motivation have long been based.

Extrinsic motivation-a motivator that is external to the student or the task at hand-has long been perceived as the bad boy of motivational theory. In Punished by Rewards, Alfie Kohn (1995) lays out the prevailing arguments against extrinsic rewards, such as grades and gold stars. He maintains that reliance on factors external to the task and to the individual consistently fails to produce any deep and long-lasting commitment to learning.

Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, comes from within, and is generally considered more durable and self-enhancing (Kohn 1993). Still, although intrinsic motivation gets much better press, it, too, has its weaknesses. As Kohn argues, because intrinsic motivation "is a concept that exists only in the context of the individual," the prescriptions its proponents offer teachers, are often too radically individualized, or too bland and abstract, to be applied in classroom settings (See "Punished by Rewards? A Conversation with Alfie Kohn," p. 13).

Perhaps it is the tradition of separating extrinsic and intrinsic motivation that is flawed. Robert Sternberg and Todd Lubart recently addressed this possibility in Defying the Crowd (1995). They assert that any in-depth examination of the work of highly creative people reveals a blend of both types of motivation.

Knowing the SCORE

After taking into consideration the needs and drives we've mentioned, our model poses four important questions that teachers must ask themselves in order to score the level of engagement in their classrooms.

1. Under what conditions are students most likely to feel that they can be successful?

2. When are students most likely to become curious?

3. How can we help students satisfy their natural drive toward self-expression?

4. How can we motivate students to learn by using their natural desire to create and foster good peer relationships?

Much of what we will discuss is already taking place in classrooms across the country. The point of our SCORE model of engagement is first to help teachers discover what they are already doing right and then to encourage the cultivation of everyday classroom conditions that foster student motivation and success.

Convincing Kids They Can Succeed

Students want and need work that enables them to demonstrate and improve their sense of themselves as competent and successful human beings. This is the drive toward mastery. But success, while highly valued in our society, can be more or less motivational. People who are highly creative, for example, actually experience failure far more often than success.

Before we can use success to motivate our students to produce high-quality work, we must meet three conditions:

1. We must clearly articulate the criteria for success and provide clear, immediate, and constructive feedback.

2. We must show students that the skills they need to be successful are within their grasp by clearly and systematically modeling these skills.

3. We must help them see success as a valuable aspect of their personalities.

All this seems obvious enough, but it is remarkable how often we fail to meet these conditions for our students. Take skills. Can you remember any crucial skills that you felt you did not successfully master because they were not clearly taught? Was it finding themes in literature? Reading and interpreting primary texts? Thinking through nonroutine math problems? Typically, skills like these are routinely assigned or assumed, rather than systematically modeled or practiced by teachers.

So how can we help students master such skills? When teaching your students to find themes, for example, deliberately model interpretation. Ask your students to give you a poem you have never seen, and then interpret it both for and with them. If they are reading primary texts, use what we call the "main idea" strategy. Teach them how to find the topic (usually a noun or noun phrase), the main idea (a sentence that states the text's position on the topic), and reasons or evidence to support the main idea. If students are concerned about writer's block, remember that perhaps the most difficult task of a teacher is to teach how to think creatively. Model the process of brainstorming, demonstrating that no idea is unworthy of consideration.

These are not revolutionary ideas. They simply illustrate how easily classroom practices can be improved, thus increasing the chance that your students will succeed.

But what of the criteria for success? Teachers define success in many ways. We must not only broaden our definition, but also make sure the definition is clear to everyone. In this way, students will know when they have done a good job, and they will know how to improve their work.

To achieve this clarity, we can present examples of work that illustrate high, average, and low levels of achievement. Such exemplars can significantly motivate students, as well as increase their understanding of their own ability to achieve.

Arousing Curiosity

Students want and need work that stimulates their curiosity and awakens their desire for deep understanding. People are naturally curious about a variety of things. Einstein wondered his whole life about the relationships among gravity, space, and electromagnetic radiation. Deborah Tannen, the prominent linguistic psychologist, has spent years pondering the obstacles that prevent men and women from conversing meaningfully.

How can we ensure that our curriculum arouses intense curiosity? By making sure it features two defining characteristics: the information about a topic is fragmentary or contradictory, and the topic relates to students' personal lives.

It is precisely the lack of organization of a body of information that compels us to understand it further. This may explain why textbooks, which are highly organized, rarely arouse student interest. We have stimulated students' curiosity by using a strategy called "mystery." We confront the class with a problem-for example, "What killed off the dinosaurs?"-and with the actual clues that scientists or historians have used to try to answer that question and others. Clues might include:

Mammals survived the changes that killed the dinosaurs.

Chickens under stress lay eggs with thinner shells than do chickens not under stress.

While flowering plants evolved, dinosaurs increased in population and in number of species.

Some flowering plants contain alkaloids.

Students then work together in groups, retracing the steps scientists took in weighing the available evidence to arrive at an explanation. We have seen students work diligently for several days dealing with false hypotheses and red herrings, taking great delight when the solutions begin to emerge.

As for topics that relate to students' lives, the connection here cannot be superficial; it must involve an issue or idea that is both manageable and unresolved. We must ask, With what issues are adolescents wrestling? How can we connect them to our curriculum? Figure 1 illustrates some possibilities for adolescents.

Encouraging Originality

Students want and need work that permits them to express their autonomy and originality, enabling them to discover who they are and who they want to be. Unfortunately, the ways schools traditionally focus on creativity actually thwart the drive toward self-expression. There are several reasons for this.

First, schools frequently design whole programs (art, for example) around projects that teach technique rather than self-expression. Second, very often only students who display the most talent have access to audiences, thus cutting off all other students from feedback and a sense of purpose. Finally, and perhaps most destructive, schools frequently view creativity as a form of play, and thus fail to maintain the high standards and sense of seriousness that make creative work meaningful.

How, then, should self-expression be encouraged? There are several ways.

Connect creative projects to students' personal ideas and concerns. One of our favorite teachers begins her study of ceramics by having students examine objects found in the homes of a variety of ancient civilizations. She then asks the class to design a ceramic object that expresses their feeling about their home.

Expand what counts as an audience. One of the most successful creative projects we have seen involved an audience of one. Each student in a middle school class was linked to an older member of the community and asked to write that person's "autobiography."

Consider giving students more choice. The medium of expression, for example, is often as important to an artist as the expression itself. What would have happened to the great tradition of American blues if the early musicians were forced to adhere to traditions of European music? This is one more argument for instructional methods that emphasize learning styles, multiple intelligences, and cultural diversity.

Use the "abstracting" strategy to help students fully understand a genre and to maintain high standards (Marzano et al. 1992). Too often, students prefer video art to a book because they perceive it as less demanding or requiring less commitment. Teaching students to abstract the essence of a genre will change their perceptions.

Begin by studying examples of high-quality work within a genre (the science-fiction story, poster art, sonnets, frontier diaries, television news programs, and so on). Examine the structure of the works and the standards by which they are judged. Then, ask students to produce their own work in that genre that expresses their own concerns, attempting to meet the high standards embodied in the original work. Finally, have the students ask themselves four questions about their work: How good is my technique? Does my work truly express my own concerns? Does it demonstrate my understanding of the genre in which I am working? Does it successfully relate to its audience?

Some people worry that the stringency of this model might actually block self-expression, but our experience is precisely the opposite. Students' drive toward self-expression is ultimately a drive to produce work that is of value to others. Lower standards work to repress, not to enhance, the creation of high-quality work.

Fostering Peer Relations

Students want and need work that will enhance their relationships with people they care about. This drive toward interpersonal involvement is pervasive in all our lives. Further, most of us work hardest on those relationships that are reciprocal-what you have to offer is of value to me, and what I have to offer is of some value to you. In general, unbalanced, nonreciprocal relationships prove transient and fail to generate much energy or interest.

How does this insight apply to life in the classroom? Consider a student's perception of homework. The only relationship that can be advanced through the typical homework assignment is the one between student and teacher. And this relationship is essentially unbalanced. Students do not feel that the teacher needs their knowledge, and the teacher, with possibly 145 students a day, probably isn't seeking a deep relationship either.

But suppose student work is complementary: one student's job is to learn about tortoises, another's is to learn about snakes, and a third student is boning up on lizards. After they do their research, they jointly develop a poster comparing and contrasting these three reptile types. The students actually need one another's knowledge.

Annemarie Palincsar Brown has applied this "jigsaw" strategy to inner-city students using in-classroom computer networks (Brown et al. 1993). She found that it significantly improved their motivation, reading, and writing. Elizabeth Cohen (1994) builds reciprocal groups by asking students with different talents and abilities to work on one project that requires all of their gifts.

Orchestrating Classroom Performance

As teachers, the first thing we should try to "score" is our own performance. Different people value the four goals we have discussed to different degrees in different situations. Which ones are particularly important to you? How does this preference affect the way you run your classroom? By observing and understanding how classroom conditions can create or repress student engagement, we can gradually move toward a more successful, curious, creative, and reciprocal school system.

All students, to some extent, seek mastery, understanding, self-expression, and positive interpersonal relationships. But they are all different as well. Imagine what could happen if we engaged our students in a discussion of these four types of motivation. What might they tell us about themselves and their classrooms? Could we actually teach them to design their own work in ways that match their own unique potential for engagement?

Last, we can score the change process itself. What professional conditions block teachers' motivation? We can redesign staff development to promote understanding and respect among school staff members.

By seeking to break down boundaries between teacher and teacher, teacher and student, student and the learning process, we will learn what students want and need. As a result, more and more teachers may go to bed at night remembering the images of wonder, enthusiasm, and perseverance on the faces of their students.

References

Brown, A., D. Ash, M. Rutherford, K. Nakagawa, A. Gordon, and J. Campione. (1993). "Distributed Expertise in the Classroom." In Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations, edited by G. Salomon. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Cohen, E. G. (1994). Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom. 2nd Edition. New York: Teachers College Press.

Kohn, A. (1993). Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Marzano, R., D. Pickering, D. Arredondo, G. Blackburn, R. Brandt, and C. Moffett. (1992). Dimensions of Learning. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Schlecty, P. (January 1994). "Increasing Student Engagement." Missouri Leadership Academy.

Sternberg, R. J., and T. I. Lubart. (1995). Defying the Crowd: Cultivating Creativity in a Culture of Conformity. New York: The Free Press.

Richard Strong is Vice President and Director of Curriculum Development, Harvey F. Silver is Vice President and Director of Program Development, and Amy Robinson is Director of Research and Publishing, Hanson Silver Strong and Associates Inc., 34 Washington Rd., Princeton Junction, NJ 08550.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Strengthening Student Engagement: What Do Students Want

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
September 1995 | Volume 53 | Number 1 Strengthening Student Engagement Pages 8-12 (and what really motivates them)? Richard Strong, Harvey F. Silver and Amy Robinson How, then, would we define engagement?