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This presentation will be presented to the Superintendent Hiring Committee for Galloway Township Public Schools on Thursday, July 14th. This presentation highlights Richard Fastnacht's simplistic but challenging vision for the direction of Galloway Township Public Schools and provides a focus on engagement to enhance student achievement within the district.

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For a nine-page summary of Marzano's book, The Engaged Classroom, click on the link below.  Page eight will provide you with a one-page summary of engagement strategies.

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"Hattie Ranking: 252 Influences And Effect Sizes Related to Student Achievement"

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For more information on what a Jigsaw is, visit the following site.

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OVERVIEW

The jigsaw classroom is a research-based cooperative learning technique invented and developed in the early 1970s by Elliot Aronson and his students at the University of Texas and the University of California. Since 1971, thousands of classrooms have used jigsaw with great success.

The jigsaw classroom has a four-decade track record of successfully reducing racial conflict and increasing positive educational outcomes such as improved test performance, reduced absenteeism, and greater liking for school.

Just as in a jigsaw puzzle, each piece - each student's part - is essential for the completion and full understanding of the final product.

If each student's part is essential, then each student is essential; and that is precisely what makes this strategy so effective.

JIGSAW IN 10 EASY STEPS

The jigsaw classroom is very simple to use. If you're a teacher, just follow these steps:

STEP SEVEN

Bring the students back into their jigsaw groups.

STEP EIGHT

Ask each student to present her or his segment to the group.

Encourage others in the group to ask questions for clarification.

STEP NINE

Float from group to group, observing the process.

If any group is having trouble (e.g., a member is dominating or disruptive), make an appropriate intervention. Eventually, it's best for the group leader to handle this task. Leaders can be trained by whispering an instruction on how to intervene, until the leader gets the hang of it.

STEP TEN

At the end of the session, give a quiz on the material.

Students quickly come to realize that these sessions are not just fun and games but really count.

ABOUT ELLIOT ARONSON

Elliot Aronson is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of California in Santa Cruz. He has long-standing research interests in social influence and attitude change, cognitive dissonance, research methodology, and interpersonal attraction. Professor Aronson's experiments are aimed both at testing theory and at improving the human condition by influencing people to change dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors.

Professor Aronson received his B.A. from Brandeis University in 1954, his M.A. from Wesleyan University in 1956, and his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University in 1959. He has taught at Harvard University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Texas, and the University of California. In 1999, he won the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, making him the only psychologist to have won APA's highest awards in all three major academic categories: distinguished writing (1973), distinguished teaching (1980), and distinguished research (1999).

MORE ABOUT
ELLIOT ARONSON

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The jigsaw technique is a cooperative learning approach that reduces racial conflict among school children, promotes better learning, improves student motivation, and increases enjoyment of the learning experience.

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For many students, their school counselor is their emotional confidant. Here are some activities counselors can use to initiate and build relationships with students, staff, and families.

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For many students, their school counselor is their emotional and social guide and confidant. Here are some activities that counselors can initiate to assist students, staff, and parents in the critical area of emotional and social intelligence.

Organize parent education programs.

Throughout the country, local schools and parent organizations have joined forces to host Parent Universities -- daylong events during which parents have the opportunity to attend workshops on such issues as communicating with adolescents, managing stress, and supporting the social-emotional and educational needs of children. Consider hiring translators to accommodate the language needs of non-English speakers in your community.

Adopt a bully prevention program.

According to the American School Counselor Association, one out of every four children is bullied. These youngsters and teens suffer both physical and emotional abuse. They miss school, fear harassment in the bathroom and on the playground, and often feel they have nowhere to turn for assistance. Comprehensive school-based anti-bullying programs have been very successful in raising student, teacher, and parent awareness of the causes and effects of this all-too-common phenomenon. For information and resources for both parents and school staff, visit The Anti-Bullying Network.

Institute service-learning projects.

Participation in school and community-based service projects benefits students academically, socially, and emotionally. The National Youth Leadership Council Web site features resources for schools interested in starting a service-learning component, including examples of model school-based programs.

Start an advisory program for middle schoolers.

Proponents of small-group advisories for middle schools believe such programs provide adolescents with the ongoing support and connections they need to help them grow and thrive during these turbulent years. MiddleWeb, a Web resource for educators and parents, features several articles on middle school advisories, including an FAQ (frequently asked questions and their answers) written by advisory advocate Jim Burns.

Create an environment of accessibility.

At one New Jersey middle school, counselors stand in the school corridor between classes in order to acknowledge students and maintain a high profile. Their aim is to remind students that counselors are among the adults at school available to help them and to listen. At a California school, a counselor makes a point of visiting every class every two weeks.

Resources

American Psychological Association. The association offers free brochures on such topics as violence prevention, how to choose a psychologist, and commonsense ways to assess online mental health information.

Blueprints for Violence Prevention. This interactive Web site features detailed information on model programs for violence prevention, including school-based programs that focus on bullying prevention, classroom-based social-emotional learning curriculum, and more.

Educating Minds and Hearts: Social Emotional Learning and the Passage into Adolescence. Editor Jonathan Cohen has gathered a wealth of information from different experts. The thread that ties the different chapters together is the use of fictional characters "Raffi" and "Maura" as springboards for experts to talk about how particular social and emotional learning programs affect middle school students. 1999. Published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Education World. Visit the School Counselors' section of this site for hundreds of articles and resources covering such critical topics as dealing with grief and loss, suicide prevention, depression, and fostering self-esteem. Many of the referenced articles are from the ERIC database of resources.

In the Mix. This PBS-sponsored Web site for educators features lesson plans and discussion guides for a variety of health and fitness subjects, including anger management, drug and alcohol abuse (including a lesson designed to help teens interpret alcohol advertising messages), depression, and self-image. Lessons are typically designed for middle and high school students and include a PBS "In the Mix" video component.

Promoting Social and Emotional Learning: Guide for Educators. This book by Rutgers University Psychology Professor Maurice Elias and others takes the best information about attempts in schools to give students the skills to be emotionally intelligent individuals. 1997. Published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Suicide Awareness Voices of Education. Among this site's many resources is a thoughtful "Guide for Young People" on depression -- its causes and the importance of seeking adult help for friends and classmates.

Waging Peace in Our Schools. This book by Linda Lantieri and Janet Patti tells the story of the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP), which was begun in New York City schools in 1985 and is now in more than 350 schools nationwide. The book serves as a practical guide to many of the successful strategies used by RCCP to produce emotionally intelligent children. 1996. Published by Beacon Press.

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Emotional Intelligence: What School Counselors Can Do

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For many students, their school counselor is their emotional and social guide and confidant. Here are some activities that counselors can initiate to assist students, staff, and parents in the critical area of emotional and social intelligence.

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Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports: "One of the foremost advances in school-wide discipline is the emphasis on school-wide systems of support that include proactive strategies for defining and teaching appropriate student behaviors to create positive school environments."

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Topic Page: When schools implement PBIS, they start by implementing it school-wide. Three critical features – systems, practices, and data – work together to promote positive, predictable, safe environments for everyone in all school settings.

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Classroom activities that incorporate physical movement have a positive impact on students' energy levels.

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Principal Kafele is an educational leader with a passion for meeting the needs of his diverse population. In his YouTube video, "You can't teach them if you don't know them," he challenges us to reflect on what we know about our students.

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Principal Kafele says, "You can't teach them if you don't know them!"

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In our busy school lives, we sometimes lose sight of the necessity of making authentic connections with others (adults included).

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Wolley Plays Educational Games For Kids , Babies & Toddlers

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Everyone works with children role at school teacher and more must watch.

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Responsive Classroom is an evidence-based approach to teaching that focuses on engaging academics, positive community, effective management, and developmental awareness." Click the link above to learn more about the principles of Responsive Classroom.

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The Responsive Classroom approach is informed by the work of educational theorists and the experiences of exemplary teachers. Read more!

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This is a great discussion strategy for grades 4-8. Students move around the room to deepen conversations.

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Sarah Brown Wessling uses movement during small group discussion to help students deepen their conversations. Sarah asks only some students in each small group to move with each topic switch, allowing those students to carry the conversation from their previous group to the new group. By the end of…

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An evocative video on Culturally Responsive Teaching...Our kids need us!

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Culturally Responsive Teaching - Listen to the Silence

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Teach Like a Champion is about the belief that solutions to education challenges exist in the classroom of real-life teachers. The exceptional practitioners of the art of teaching are true experts.

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We study great teachers from around the world, capture and describe what they do, then create training resources so others can replicate their excellence.

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This one and half minute video gives you interesting and meaningful hooks for your lessons.

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. How could you use an object to pique students' interest?

2. How could you start your lessons in different ways for different purposes?

3. How does Ms. Alcala use her warm-up as both an assessment and a teaching opportunity?

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Enjoy your first video for free. Subscribe for unlimited access. Have questions about subscribing? Click Here to learn more. Enjoy your first video for free. Subscribe for unlimited access. Have questions about subscribing? Click Here to learn more. How could you use an object to pique students' interest?

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This video does a good job describing Friendly Controversy and Inconsequential Competition in three minutes.

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Friendly Controversy and Inconsequential Competition HD

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"The idea of 'boring content' is a myth...If teachers assert to their students that certain content areas are boring, the students will believe it and become disengaged almost immediately." Here's a strategy to address 'boring.'

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The following is an imagined scenario in my eleventh grade English classroom:The following represent three key techniques to avoid when strategizing with

"Without Apology" "Ms. Driggers, why do we have to read early American poetry? It's just a bunch of stuff written by old white men and in words I can't understand. It's so boring!"

How do I respond to this student? Before I do anything else, I need to take a step back and remember my job as an educator, and my number one goal: to make learning fun and engaging. I have to make the study of early American poetry matter to these students.

The wrong thing to do would be to say, "I know this may be difficult for you, Marshall, but we are required to study this topic, so even though it isn't the most exciting thing in the world, I will help you through it" because this reinforces the fact that I find the content boring, which makes Marshall check out of it completely.

First, by assuming the worst about a particular unit of study, the teacher is showing her lack of enthusiasm and confidence in the subject mastery. The lack of confidence exhibited by a teacher can transfer to a student, and hinder them by not allowing them to reach their full potential on their own.

Second, the idea of the blame game is something that goes on around many classrooms across the country. Simply put, teachers are placing blame on a number of factors for having to teach a certain piece of content. For example, "I'm sorry class, but the state requires that we learn this for the end-of-course examinations, so they made me do it", is an example of blaming it.

Finally, making content too accessible for students can be a bad thing. Sure, as a teacher, it is important to get students engaged in the material, but substituting the study of early American poetry, for example, with songs about America is completely wrong. It would, however, be completely fine to introduce the study of early American poetry with a song of the same genre and time-period. As a teacher, having a sense of continuity is very important, and if teachers make content too relatable or accessible, he or she may lose their classroom engagement and involvement altogether.

So, how does it work?

To find success with this strategy in the classroom, teachers should focus on two outside concepts for learning: integrated knowledge and activation of prior knowledge.

Peter Smagorinsky, author of
Teaching English By Design, defines integrated knowledge as "exploration through a set of questions over a period of time, within related texts" (123). Integrated knowledge is also beneficial because it allows students to "actively participate [in the study of texts] while helping them construct their own knowledge about a topic with contributions and compositions" (123).

Essentially, by having students construct their own knowledge, I am allowing them to make learning personal. Using this strategy within the strategy would be helpful for students and teachers because there is active participation happening amongst classmates and student-teacher interaction.

The
activation of prior knowledge is also essential when developing this strategy for classroom use. According to Jeanne Ormrod, author of Educational Psychology Developing Learners, activation of prior knowledge is defined as "a process of reminding learners of things they already know relative to a new topic" (201). By asking students to draw on what they already know about early America (characteristically), and the main components of a poem (which they learned in ninth grade), the teacher is already engaging the students in critical thinking by asking them to narrow their focus in the instruction to two specific things. Further, the teacher can enhance this strategy by providing questions (much like integrated knowledge) to get students actively thinking.

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The following is an imagined scenario in my eleventh grade English classroom:The following represent three key techniques to avoid when strategizing with "Without Apology" "Ms. Driggers, why do we have to read early American poetry? It's just a bunch of stuff written by old white men and in words I can't understand.

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Students share their perspectives on the importance of self-efficacy in helping them reach their goals.

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Self-Efficacy In Students' Everyday Lives

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"Rubrics are multidimensional sets of scoring guidelines that can provide consistency in evaluating student work...Rubrics are great for students: they let students know what is expected of them and demystify grades by clearly stating, in age-appropriate vocabulary, the expectations for a product."

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Student engagement is enhanced when students have choice. This video is one school's success story using personalized learning projects.

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Personalized Learning: Enabling Student Voice and Choice Through Projects

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Adapt these six tips to bring personalized learning projects into your classroom and build student engagement.

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"To engage students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, we must see them as capable learners...Approaching a student's education in culturally and linguistically responsive ways rather than emphasizing deficits has the potential to truly engage all students in learning both in school and beyond."

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To engage students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, we must see them as capable learners.

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The National Council of School Psychologists developed this resource to support student self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is 'the ability to define a goal, persevere, and see oneself as capable."

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Paraprofessionals are an essential resource to ensure high levels of student engagement in our most academically fragile students. Here are some recommended strategies and uses for paraprofessionals. This guide was created by New Jersey Positive Behavior Supports in Schools.

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"An 'enabled' learner can grasp macro views, uncover micro details, ask questions, plan for new knowledge and transfer thinking across divergent circumstances...(this happens) by setting a tone for learning that suggests possibility, and by creating a culture of can."

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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In this strategy guide, you will learn about a number of specific methods that will promote self-assessment and contribute to a richer understanding of student learning.

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About this Strategy Guide

In this Strategy Guide, you'll learn about a number of specific methods that will promote self-assessment and contribute to a richer understanding of student learning.

Research Basis

Because of their diverse literacy needs, our students need us to differentiate the product, process and content of learning according to their learning style, interest and readiness. Yet, recognizing student growth and literacy needs requires more than one voice and more than one snapshot. Research has reminded us of the value of continued assessment and of students as partners in their own assessment. This heightened metacognition leads to increased engagement across content areas and remains a key characteristic of life-long learning. Motivation to learn increases when students are asked to critically analyze their own learning.  And, if continued assessment informs instruction, students and teachers benefit from student feedback about what a student does and does not understand.

So, how can we promote self-assessment that is respectful, meaningful and informative to us and to students? Several self-assessment tools can provide a window into student understanding and needs.

Strategy in Practice

Assessment, and specifically self-assessment, allows us to tap into student differences in order to see how our teaching can respond to their needs. Several simple, transferable methods can be used at any point in a unit in order to promote reflection on learning and inform our instruction.

Student Created Rubrics: Ask students to contribute to the creation of a rubric that defines success. A reading response task, a multi-modal presentation, or a group discussion leads to higher levels of learning when students are included in defining success.

Learning Contract: Ask students to create and agree to a learning contract at the beginning of a unit. The learning contract can define the learning goals, the "photo album" of evidence of learning, and agreed upon activities. At numerous times during the unit, ask students to revisit the contract, record new learning or muddy points and to get feedback from you or other peers.

Muddy Point Board: Designate an area in the room or a board for students to pin questions, muddy points, or topics they'd like the class to revisit. Asking students to periodically pick a question or comment from the board to discuss can build student ownership of learning.

Nameless Voice: Ask students to anonymously submit sample work to share with the class. Sample paragraphs on the overhead, a visual vocabulary card, or a ticket out the door quick write can all be samples of student work that the class or individual students can use. Ask students to write or discuss how the nameless voice is similar or different to their understanding.

Letter to a Future Student: At the conclusion of a unit, ask students to write a letter to a future student in the class explaining what they've learned in a unit or what to do when a text is difficult or what I've learned about my own learning that might help you, etc. Regardless of the topic, the medium provides useful feedback on student thinking and learning while promoting reflection on learning.

Related Resources

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Promoting Student Self-Assessment | Read Write Think