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How to Empower Every Student to Talk in Class and Why It Matters

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How to Empower Every Student to Talk in Class and Why It Matters

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How to Empower Every Student to Talk in Class—and Why It Matters

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By creating welcoming, well-facilitated opportunities for in-class discourse, educators can help level the playing field.

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Welcome to Teachinghistory.orgLincoln Bicentennial: A Teachable Moment (updated February 24) In BlogUlysses S. Grant Memorial In Examples of Historical ThinkingHelen Keller Kid’s Museum In Website Reviews

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Last week I tweeted out a request for teachers to find some students willing to write about needless boredom in schools and received a number of replies. (This is a follow-up to my student survey results.)

Sarah, a high school teacher in NJ, collected some great writings. Here are excerpts from two of her 9 th graders.

From Olivia:

If I ever asked a large amount of students to give one word to describe school, I think that about 90 percent of them would simply say: boring.

Fortunately, in the past I have always had fairly good teachers that kept me interested. However, I remember one of my seventh grade teachers being possibly the most boring person I had ever met. Every day our class schedule was the same: read the chapter -> complete worksheets -> copy down immense PowerPoints for the rest of class. Everyone I talked to dreaded going to that class where we had to learn to write fast and continue writing even with hand cramps. I never really learned anything in that class, I just memorized information, took a test on it and then forgot everything. Imagine that cycle for an entire year. It was tremendously boring.

For other teachers, I recommend not making your students copy 20 slide power points with size 8 font~ Sincerely, every student

Ways to keep students (or at least me) interested:

Change up the outline of the class. Do fun activities so that students have something to look forward to in class.

Speak to the students about the topic. Try to stay away from making the students read about the topic because 99 percent will just skim the material and say that they read it. (I am guilty)

Interact with the students one on one.

Try to incorporate students' at home lives with the class. For example, I love how Mrs. G uses Twitter in class! It's a great way to connect with the students on a more personal level.

Only give homework when absolutely necessary. I know that I sound like I am only saying this because students (including me) don't feel like doing it, however, there is a real reason. Unless the homework is a fun activity, most students will try to get it done and over with as fast as possible, even if it means doing in incorrectly. Doing homework incorrectly is worse than not doing the homework at all because when students put false information on homework, it becomes engraved in their knowledge.

From Maggie:

Why Am I Bored?

1. PowerPoint. Yes, I agree that PowerPoint is a very valuable tool, but this only applies in certain situations. When a teacher writes paragraphs upon paragraphs on a single PowerPoint slide, and then proceeds to read them all verbatim to "teach" the class, I completely zone out. To engage their students, a teacher needs to talk to us like we're people. We need examples, and relatable stories that provide the information a permanent residence inside our minds.

2. The Never-Ending Videos. I think that videos are a great tool for teachers to utilize. With sources like YouTube readily available, it is easier than ever to pull up a video on any topic imaginable. However, when a video is more than 20 minutes long (when I say video, I mean something informational, not a movie), it gets harder and harder to pay attention, and easier and easier to spiral downward into the abyss of boredom. Videos, in my opinion, should be used in moderation.

3. The Lackadaisical Attitude. Personally, I feel that if a teacher seems to have no interest in a subject, neither will I. It is so much harder to pay attention when a teacher seems unenthusiastic, and I can't even begin to explain how much more interested I am in class when a teacher really cares about what they are teaching.

How to Avoid Boring Your Students (For Teachers)

1. Like I said before, use PowerPoints wisely. Use them as a guide instead of a word-for-word of what you're going to say.

2. Use relatable examples. Show funny (not too lengthy) videos that somehow correlate with the subject material, and make the information more memorable for your students.

3. Make class enjoyable. Throw around a ball for students to answer questions, or have a little friendly competition.

4. Even if you're having a bad day, try to be positive. You attitude, whether it is unenthusiastic or constructive, tends to rub off on your students.

5. Engage all your students. Even if only one student is raising their hand, try to call on other people, who may not have their hand up, to answer questions. If they do not get the answer correct, try to guide them towards the correct answer instead of just saying, "No," and skipping to another child.

How to Avoid Boredom in Class (For Students)

1. Ask questions. Try as hard as possible to think of logical questions that will benefit the entire class. This will stimulate your mind, and (hopefully) keep you focused on the subject material.

2. Be open-minded, and give each class a chance. Maybe last year your English class was the quintessence of boredom, but that doesn't mean that English this year will be the same. Keep a positive attitude towards all your classes until you have enough time to form a logical opinion of them.

3. Raise your hand! Even if you are really doubtful of your answer, there is still a chance that you are correct. If you are wrong, a teacher could explain your mistake and make the correct answer more memorable.

4. If you are not actively writing, try not to have a pen or a pencil in your hand. This leads to doodling and thus, zoning-out.

5. Keep your head up. Resting you head on the desk will make you focus, but not on class. Instead, you will be fighting boredom, and lack of sleep.

Just a note: This post is not in any way meant to point out all the faults of teachers. Teachers are people too, and of course, like any other person, they make mistakes.

Words of wisdom from our clients.

And please, teachers, take special heed on the PowerPoints. This was the #1 disliked practice in our student survey:
Too much text on each slide; and reading directly from the slide.
BORING!!!

It is not easy to admit that our approach might be needlessly boring. (Please don't write me and say that there is always boredom in life; I simply won't post it. We're talking about needlessly boring and improvable teacher practices here.) That's why I encourage you to use the video/audio function on your phone and watch or just hear yourself and ask: if school weren't required, would people happily sign up for and keep coming to such a class? Lectures got so boring at MIT that attendance dropped to 50 percent in many of them. Why go, given that the course ID online and the Internet has a million resources?

Here is a practical suggestion: either take voice lessons or do a thorough study of effective monologists, comics, storytellers and public speakers; watch good TED Talks; go to Toastmasters; sit in on a teacher who has great classroom presence in your building, etc. The typical teacher use of voice is not very effective: too much of a monotone, poor use of silence for effect; little crescendo and diminuendo, etc. -- leaving aside the quality of the lessons and assignments. (How odd that voice lessons aren't a core course in teacher prep.) In short, as I keep saying, there is much in our control that we can do to improve student engagement and achievement.

PS: Here -- AE Student Survey 2013-2014 -- is a PDF of our SurveyMonkey student survey, for the many people who requested a look at the questions.
Grant Wiggins is the co-author of Understanding by Design and the author of Educative Assessment and numerous articles on education. He is the President of Authentic Education in Hopewell NJ.

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Attention, Teachers! Why Students Are Bored

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Last week I tweeted out a request for teachers to find some students willing to write about needless boredom in schools and received a number of replies. (This is a follow-up to my student survey results.) Sarah, a high school teacher in NJ, collected some great writings.

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
When I worked with student teachers on developing effective lesson plans, one thing I always asked them to revise was the phrase "We will discuss."
We will discuss the video. We will discuss the story. We will discuss our results.
Every time I saw it in a lesson plan, I would add a note: "What format will you use? What questions will you ask? How will you ensure that all students participate?" I was pretty sure that We will discuss actually meant the teacher would do most of the talking; He would throw out a couple of questions like "So what did you think about the video?" or "What was the theme of the story?" and a few students would respond, resulting in something that looked like a discussion, but was ultimately just a conversation between the teacher and a handful of extroverted students; a classic case of Fisheye Teaching.

The problem wasn't them; in most of the classrooms where they'd sat as students, that's exactly what a class discussion looked like. They didn't know any other "formats." I have only ever been familiar with a few myself. But when teachers began contacting me recently asking for a more comprehensive list, I knew it was time to do some serious research.

So here they are: 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging. If you've struggled to find effective ways to develop students' speaking and listening skills, this is your lucky day.

I've separated the strategies into three groups. The first batch contains the higher-prep strategies, formats that require teachers to do some planning or gathering of materials ahead of time. Next come the low-prep strategies, which can be used on the fly when you have a few extra minutes or just want your students to get more active. Note that these are not strict categories; it's certainly possible to simplify or add more meat to any of these structures and still make them work. The last group is the ongoing strategies. These are smaller techniques that can be integrated with other instructional strategies and don't really stand alone. For each strategy, you'll find a list of other names it sometimes goes by, a description of its basic structure, and an explanation of variations that exist, if any. To watch each strategy in action, click on its name and a new window will open with a video that demonstrates it.

Enjoy!
a.k.a. Chat Stations
Basic Structure: Stations or posters are set up around the classroom, on the walls or on tables. Small groups of students travel from station to station together, performing some kind of task or responding to a prompt, either of which will result in a conversation.

Variations: Some Gallery Walks stay true to the term gallery, where groups of students create informative posters, then act as tour guides or docents, giving other students a short presentation about their poster and conducting a Q&A about it. In Starr Sackstein's high school classroom, her stations consisted of video tutorials created by the students themselves. Before I knew the term Gallery Walk, I shared a strategy similar to it called Chat Stations, where the teacher prepares discussion prompts or content-related tasks and sets them up around the room for students to visit in small groups.
a.k.a. Values Continuum, Forced Debate, Physical Barometer, This or That
Basic Structure: A statement that has two possible responses-agree or disagree-is read out loud. Depending on whether they agree or disagree with this statement, students move to one side of the room or the other. From that spot, students take turns defending their positions.

Variations: Often a Philosophical Chairs debate will be based around a text or group of texts students have read ahead of time; students are required to cite textual evidence to support their claims and usually hold the texts in their hands during the discussion. Some teachers set up one hot seat to represent each side, and students must take turns in the seat. In less formal variations (which require less prep), a teacher may simply read provocative statements students are likely to disagree on, and a debate can occur spontaneously without a text to refer to (I call this variation This or That in my classroom icebreakers post). Teachers may also opt to offer a continuum of choices, ranging from "Strongly Agree" on one side of the room, all the way to "Strongly Disagree" on the other, and have students place themselves along that continuum based on the strength of their convictions.

Basic Structure: Students are divided into 4 groups. Three of these groups are assigned to represent specific points of view. Members of the fourth group are designated as "provocateurs," tasked with making sure the discussion keeps going and stays challenging. One person from each group (the "speaker") sits in a desk facing speakers from the other groups, so they form a square in the center of the room. Behind each speaker, the remaining group members are seated: two right behind the speaker, then three behind them, and so on, forming a kind of triangle. From above, this would look like a pinwheel. The four speakers introduce and discuss questions they prepared ahead of time (this preparation is done with their groups). After some time passes, new students rotate from the seats behind the speaker into the center seats and continue the conversation.

Variations: When high school English teacher Sarah Brown Wessling introduced this strategy in the featured video (click Pinwheel Discussion above), she used it as a device for talking about literature, where each group represented a different author, plus one provocateur group. But in the comments that follow the video, Wessling adds that she also uses the strategy with non-fiction, where students represent authors of different non-fiction texts or are assigned to take on different perspectives about an issue.
a.k.a. Socratic Circles
Basic Structure: Students prepare by reading a text or group of texts and writing some higher-order discussion questions about the text. On seminar day, students sit in a circle and an introductory, open-ended question is posed by the teacher or student discussion leader. From there, students continue the conversation, prompting one another to support their claims with textual evidence. There is no particular order to how students speak, but they are encouraged to respectfully share the floor with others. Discussion is meant to happen naturally and students do not need to raise their hands to speak. This overview of Socratic Seminar from the website Facing History and Ourselves provides a list of appropriate questions, plus more information about how to prepare for a seminar.

Variations: If students are beginners, the teacher may write the discussion questions, or the question creation can be a joint effort. For larger classes, teachers may need to set up seminars in more of a fishbowl-like arrangement, dividing students into one inner circle that will participate in the discussion, and one outer circle that silently observes, takes notes, and may eventually trade places with those in the inner circle, sometimes all at once, and sometimes by "tapping in" as the urge strikes them.
a.k.a. Affinity Diagramming
Basic Structure: Give students a broad question or problem that is likely to result in lots of different ideas, such as "What were the impacts of the Great Depression?" or "What literary works should every person read?" Have students generate responses by writing ideas on post-it notes (one idea per note) and placing them in no particular arrangement on a wall, whiteboard, or chart paper. Once lots of ideas have been generated, have students begin grouping them into similar categories, then label the categories and discuss why the ideas fit within them, how the categories relate to one another, and so on.

Variations: Some teachers have students do much of this exercise-recording their ideas and arranging them into categories- without talking at first. In other variations, participants are asked to re-combine the ideas into new, different categories after the first round of organization occurs. Often, this activity serves as a good pre-writing exercise, after which students will write some kind of analysis or position paper.
a.k.a. Speed Dating
Basic Structure: Students form two circles, one inside circle and one outside circle. Each student on the inside is paired with a student on the outside; they face each other. The teacher poses a question to the whole group and pairs discuss their responses with each other. Then the teacher signals students to rotate: Students on the outside circle move one space to the right so they are standing in front of a new person (or sitting, as they are in the video). Now the teacher poses a new question, and the process is repeated.

Variations: Instead of two circles, students could also form two straight lines facing one another. Instead of "rotating" to switch partners, one line just slides over one spot, and the leftover person on the end comes around to the beginning of the line. Some teachers use this strategy to have students teach one piece of content to their fellow students, making it less of a discussion strategy and more of a peer teaching format. In fact, many of these protocols could be used for peer teaching as well.

Basic Structure: Another great idea from Sarah Brown Wessling, this is a small-group discussion strategy that gives students exposure to more of their peers' ideas and prevents the stagnation that can happen when a group doesn't happen to have the right chemistry. Students are placed into a few groups of 4-6 students each and are given a discussion question to talk about. After sufficient time has passed for the discussion to develop, one or two students from each group rotate to a different group, while the other group members remain where they are. Once in their new group, they will discuss a different, but related question, and they may also share some of the key points from their last group's conversation. For the next rotation, students who have not rotated before may be chosen to move, resulting in groups that are continually evolving.

Basic Structure: Two students sit facing each other in the center of the room; the remaining students sit in a circle around them. The two central students have a conversation based on a pre-determined topic and often using specific skills the class is practicing (such as asking follow-up questions, paraphrasing, or elaborating on another person's point). Students on the outside observe, take notes, or perform some other discussion-related task assigned by the teacher.

Variations: One variation of this strategy allows students in the outer circle to trade places with those in the fishbowl, doing kind of a relay-style discussion, or they may periodically "coach" the fishbowl talkers from the sidelines. Teachers may also opt to have students in the outside circle grade the participants' conversation with a rubric, then give feedback on what they saw in a debriefing afterward, as mentioned in the featured video.

Basic Structure: One student assumes the role of a book character, significant figure in history, or concept (such as a tornado, an animal, or the Titanic). Sitting in front of the rest of the class, the student responds to classmates' questions while staying in character in that role.

Variations: Give more students the opportunity to be in the hot seat while increasing everyone's participation by having students do hot seat discussions in small groups, where one person per group acts as the "character" and three or four others ask them questions. In another variation, several students could form a panel of different characters, taking questions from the class all together and interacting with one another like guests on a TV talk show.
a.k.a. Pyramid Discussion
Basic Structure: Students begin in pairs, responding to a discussion question only with a single partner. After each person has had a chance to share their ideas, the pair joins another pair, creating a group of four. Pairs share their ideas with the pair they just joined. Next, groups of four join together to form groups of eight, and so on, until the whole class is joined up in one large discussion.

Variations: This structure could simply be used to share ideas on a topic, or students could be required to reach consensus every time they join up with a new group.

Whereas the other formats in this list have a distinct shape-specific activities you do with students-the strategies in this section are more like plug-ins, working discussion into other instructional activities and improving the quality and reach of existing conversations.

One of the limitations of discussion is that rich, face-to-face conversations can only happen when all parties are available, so we're limited to the time we have in class. With a tool like Voxer, those limitations disappear. Like a private voice mailbox that you set up with just one person or a group (but SOOOO much easier), Voxer allows users to have conversations at whatever time is most convenient for each participant. So a group of four students can "discuss" a topic from 3pm until bedtime-asynchronously-each member contributing whenever they have a moment, and if the teacher makes herself part of the group, she can listen in, offer feedback, or contribute her own discussion points. Voxer is also invaluable for collaborating on projects and for having one-on-one discussions with students, parents, and your own colleagues. Like many other educators, Peter DeWitt took a while to really understand the potential of Voxer, but in this EdWeek piece, he explains what turned him around.

A backchannel is a conversation that happens right alongside another activity. The first time I saw a backchannel in action was at my first unconference: While those of us in the audience listened to presenters and watched a few short video clips, a separate screen was up beside the main screen, projecting something called TodaysMeet (update: TodaysMeet has shut down. Use YoTeach! instead.) It looked a lot like those chat rooms from back in the day, basically a blank screen where people would contribute a few lines of text, the lines stacking up one after the other, no other bells or whistles. Anyone in the room could participate in this conversation on their phone, laptop, or tablet, asking questions, offering commentary, and sharing links to related resources without ever interrupting the flow of the presentations. This kind of tool allows for a completely silent discussion, one that doesn't have to move at a super-fast pace, and it gives students who may be reluctant to speak up or who process their thoughts more slowly a chance to fully contribute. For a deeper discussion of how this kind of tool can be used, read this thoughtful overview of using backchannel discussions in the classroom by Edutopia's Beth Holland.
a.k.a. Accountable Talk
Talk moves are sentence frames we supply to our students that help them express ideas and interact with one another in respectful, academically appropriate ways. From kindergarten all the way through college, students can benefit from explicit instruction in the skills of summarizing another person's argument before presenting an alternate view, asking clarifying questions, and expressing agreement or partial agreement with the stance of another participant. Talk moves can be incorporated into any of the other discussion formats listed here.

Whole Brain Teaching is a set of teaching and classroom management methods that has grown in popularity over the past 10 years. One of WBT's foundational techniques is Teach-OK, a peer teaching strategy that begins with the teacher spending a few minutes introducing a concept to the class. Next, the teacher says Teach!, the class responds with Okay!, and pairs of students take turns re-teaching the concept to each other. It's a bit like think-pair-share, but it's faster-paced, it focuses more on re-teaching than general sharing, and students are encouraged to use gestures to animate their discussion. Although WBT is most popular in elementary schools, this featured video shows the creator of WBT, Chris Biffle, using it quite successfully with college students. I have also used Teach-OK with college students, and most of my students said they were happy for a change from the sit-and-listen they were used to in college classrooms.

An oldie but a goodie, think-pair-share can be used any time you want to plug interactivity into a lesson: Simply have students think about their response to a question, form a pair with another person, discuss their response, then share it with the larger group. Because I feel this strategy has so many uses and can be way more powerful than we give it credit for, I devoted a whole post to think-pair-share; everything you need to know about it is right there.

TWO MORE YOU'LL LOVE

Since writing this post, I have learned about two more discussion strategies that teachers are finding to be incredibly effective and powerful for getting students to talk, especially about books and other texts:

This protocol has students come up with their own Thoughts, lingering Questions, and Epiphanies from an assigned reading. Teachers who have used this method say it has generated some of the richest conversations they have ever heard from students!

This strategy places students into one-on-one conversations, getting them to learn each others' names better and create a track record of what they talked about. Excellent for classes where you want to assess for discussion and help students get more comfortable with each other.

So what else do you have? I would like to think this is a pretty complete list, but I'm sure more strategies are out there. If you use a discussion strategy that's not mentioned here, please share it below.

Come back for more.
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The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies

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Here they are: 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging.

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Not about discourse but about self-esteem (a new take on it?)

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Not about discourse but about self-esteem (a new take on it?)

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Nancy Flanagan has written another of her all-too-numerous to count insightful posts. This one is called I'm OK-You Have Self-Esteem. She approaches the concept of self-esteem in a thoughtful and balanced way, and it's another of her "must-reads."

In that post, she mentions a study that came out last year that, as she puts it, "dared to suggest that kids perform better when given the simple assignment of writing for fifteen minutes about their strengths, to re-affirm their competence." I remember reading about it in the New York Times , and also remember thinking to myself that I needed to find out more about what exactly the researchers had the students do. That task has languished on my "to do" list until Nancy's post prompted me to finally get around to doing some digging.

Here is my summary of what the researchers actually did (you can purchase the article here. I don't think the article itself is very helpful, but the online addendum is).

They had students write three-to-five times during one school year about their values.

The first two times, students were given this list of values:
athletic ability, being good at art, being smart or getting good grades, creativity, independence, living in the moment, membership in a social group (such as your community, racial group, or school club), music, politics, relationships with friends or family, religious values, and sense of humor.
The first time, they were asked to circle one; the second time,they were asked to circle the two or three on the list that were most important to them.

Next, they were asked to think about times when those two or three values (the first time, they just wrote about the one they circled) were most important to them, and then to write a few sentences about why they were important to them.

Finally, students were asked to write if they agreed or disagreed with these statements (there were six levels of agreement/disagreement that students could check):
"These values have influenced my life"
"In general, I try to live up to these values"
"These values are an important part of who I am."
In the third, fourth, and/or fifth times, researchers made minor changes such as giving a different list of values, or asking students to write about which values might be most important during a certain time period, like Winter Break.

Though the academic improvement among students wasn't enormous, it was certainly measurable, and appeared to be sustained after they left the class.

The researchers started their experiment at the beginning of the school year, and spaced the exercises out every two or three months.

I'm certainly going to give it a try, and start now. I'm hopeful it will help, and reflecting on values is certainly never going to hurt. I'll also have students share what they wrote with a partner, and invite class-wide discussion. We do reflective writing each Friday, so it should fit right in.

I'll let readers know how it goes.

If you've tried something like this, or are now going to do so, please leave a comment now or in the future, too.

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Useful Writing Exercise For Helping Students Develop Self-Esteem

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Nancy Flanagan has written another of her all-too-numerous to count insightful posts. This one is called I'm OK-You Have Self-Esteem. She approaches the concept of self-esteem in a thoughtful and balanced way, and it's another of her "must-reads."

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NAEP statistics on discussion and achievement

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NAEP statistics on discussion and achievement

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Most of the LEARN NC Content has been archived using the Wayback Machine. Instructions for how to access that content is below, including links to frequently requested materials.

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Strategies for student centered discussion

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Strategies for student centered discussion

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From Teaching Channel

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Teaching Channel video on pinwheel discussions

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Teaching Channel video on pinwheel discussions

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Pinwheel Discussions: Texts in Conversation

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What a fun way to get high school students to discuss literature. The Pinwheel Discussions lesson plan puts students in roles that will force them to be engaged and effectively discuss the readings.

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Want more resources? Check this one out:

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Out of England comes Student Education Trust

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Out of England comes Student Education Trust

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Benefits Of Educational Toys That Your Kid Must Grab

PreK-12 Federal Funding Resources

10 Ways To Take Care Of Your Child's Mental Health

Why do we want learners of all ages to be engaged during instruction? Because involved students learn more efficiently and are more successful at remembering what they learned. In addition, students who are engaged in learning are more likely to become passionate about learning in general. Student engagement is one byproduct of effective instruction that has major pay offs. Now that you know how to measure your students' level of engagement, how can you increase the amount of time that students in your class are engaged in your instruction? Here are some suggestions...

Do you have any other suggestions?

Embed this Infographic on your site or blog!

Copy code The code has been copied to clipboard!

Stay up to date on the latest eLearning news, articles, and free resources sent straight to your inbox!

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7 Ways to Increase Student Engagement in the Classroom Infographic - e-Learning Infographics

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Why do we want learners of all ages to be engaged during instruction? Because involved students learn more efficiently and are more successful at remembering what they learned. In addition, students who are engaged in learning are more likely to become passionate about learning in general.

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Stuck in the Middle: Strategies to Engage Middle-Level Learners

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Stuck in the Middle: Strategies to Engage Middle-Level Learners

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Larry Ferlazzo on The Best Posts on Student Engagement

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Larry Ferlazzo on The Best Posts on Student Engagement

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The question of the week at my Education Week Teacher blog is What Does "Student Engagement" Look Like?

In preparation for the response I'll be posting on Sunday, I thought it would be useful to publish a related "The Best..." list here.

Here are my choices for The Best Posts & Articles On Student Engagement (feel free to add others):
The Best Posts & Articles On "Motivating" Students The Best Posts On Students Setting Goals The Best Resources For Learning About "Flow" How Reading Strategies Can Increase Student Engagement
Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement is by Heather Wolpert-Gawron.

Engaging Students...Dangling the Carrot is from Learning First.
Charting the Path from Engagement to Achievement: A Report on the 2009 High School Survey of Student Engagement Intriguing Gallup Student Poll Results, But Not Something I'd Quote A Lot
Resilience, Research, and Educational Reform is by Sara Truebridge at ASCD.

Wikipedia has a pretty interesting page on "student engagement."

Strengthening Student Engagement: What Do Students Want(and what really motivates them)? is from Educational Leadership.

A related resources is Chart: Useful Summary Of The Differences Between Parent Involvement & Parent Engagement.

How Poverty Affects Classroom Engagement is by Eric Jensen.
Intriguing New Study On Student Engagement
Good Time: 4 Ways to Reawaken Student Engagement is from Edutopia.

Ways to Cultivate 'Whole-Class Engagement' is one of my posts at Education Week Teacher.

How Engaged Are Students and Teachers in American Schools? is from MindShift.

More Than Half of Students 'Engaged' in School, Says Poll is from Education Week.

Updated Personalization vs. Differentiation vs. Individualization Chart Version 3 is from Personalize Learning.

Sobering graphic - Change in enthusiasm by grade level. http://t.co/ZIQ3gQlDMv #eli2013 #edchat #teaching pic.twitter.com/gJdlZBNIQw

- Jim Cash (@cashjim) November 5, 2013

It Doesn't Matter If It's "Effective" If Students Won't Do It
New Study: Engage Kids with 7x the Effect is from Edutopia.

Want to Take Over My Class? Be My Guest! is from Edutopia.

Dispelling the Myths: The Truth about Student Engagement is from the Alabama Best Practices Center.

A1: Interesting graphic on engagement #satchat pic.twitter.com/RYaf8QNW3Z

- Jay Billy (@JayBilly2) November 8, 2014

RT @Lucas_Leavitt: How engaged were your students today? How engaged will they be tomorrow? pic.twitter.com/OAoNJv25fG

- Marzano Research (@MarzanoResearch) December 4, 2014

The Best Ways To Engage Students In Learning is the title of one of my Education Week Teacher columns.

Golden Rules for Engaging Students in Learning Activities is from Edutopia.
Student Motivation And Clickbait
Measuring student engagement could help teachers, administrators adapt strategies might or might not be useful.

Dylan Wiliam's 5 key strategies for AfL. #edchatie #edchat pic.twitter.com/j4piHLu6dk #pedagoofriday #satchat #sunchat

- Teacher (@Primary_Ed) June 5, 2015

Very Interesting: Poll Finds That Students' Feeling Engaged & Hopeful Are Top Indicators Of Successful School Quote Of The Day: Make [School] Work Meaningful
A Recipe for Making Cold Call Feel Positive is by Doug Lemov.
Statistic Of The Day: Are Most High School Students Not Engaged At School?

Quote Of The Day: The Value Of Employees (& Students) Feeling "Ownership"

Statistic Of The Day: The Older Kids Get, The Less They Want To Go To School

Student Engagement: Is It Authentic or Compliant? is by Peter DeWitt.

Engaged Reading as a Collaborative Transformative Practice is an intriguing study.
Why Did My History Lesson Go So Well Yesterday?
Encouraging Positive Student Engagement and Motivation: Tips for Teachers comes via Pearson.

Under Pressure is from The Until I Know Better blog, and has lots of good student engagement ideas.
"Everyone Is A Teacher" Is A New Engagement Strategy I'm Using & It Seems To Be Working New Study Finds That Threats & Using Guilt Tend Not To Produce Student Engagement - Duh! Intriguing New Study On "Student Engagement" & How To Define It
8 Ways to Increase the Engagement in Your Classroom appeared at Corwin.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous "The Best..." lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

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The Best Posts & Articles On Student Engagement

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The question of the week at my Education Week Teacher blog is What Does "Student Engagement" Look Like? In preparation for the response I'll be posting on Sunday, I thought it would be useful to publish a related "The Best..." list here.

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"Teens find it most interesting and exciting when there is a little bit of talking involved. Discussions help clear the tense atmosphere in a classroom and allow students to participate in their own learning."

2. Working with technology

"I believe that when students participate in "learning by doing" it helps them focus more. Technology helps them to do that. Students will always be extremely excited when using technology."

"We have entered a digital age of video, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and they [have] become more of a daily thing for teens and students. When we use tech, it engages me more and lets me understand the concept more clearly."

3. Connecting the real world to the work we do/project-based learning

"I believe that it all boils down to relationships. Not relationships from teacher to student or relationships from student to student, but rather relations between the text and the outside world. For example, I was in a history class last year and my teacher would always explain what happens in the Medieval World and the Renaissance. And after every lesson, every essay, every assignment, he asked us, "How does this event relate to current times?" It brought me to a greater thinking, a kind of thinking where I can relate the past to the present and how closely they are bonded together."

"If you relate the topic to the students' lives, then it makes the concept easier to grasp."

"Students are most interested when the curriculum applies to more than just the textbook. The book is there -- we can read a book. If we're given projects that expand into other subjects and make us think, it'll help us understand the information."

"What I think engages a student most is interactions with real-life dilemmas and an opportunity to learn how to solve them. Also, projects that are unique and one of a kind that other schools would never think of. Also something challenging and not easy, something to test your strengths as a student and stimulate your brain, so it becomes easier to deal with similar problems when you are grown up and have a job. Something so interesting that you could never ever forget."

"I like to explore beyond the range of what normal textbooks allow us to do through hands-on techniques such as project-based learning. Whenever I do a project, I always seem to remember the material better than if I just read the information straight out of a textbook."

"I, myself, find a deeper connection when I'm able to see what I'm learning about eye-to-eye. It's more memorable and interesting to see all the contours and details of it all. To be able to understand and connect with the moment is what will make students three times more enthusiastic about learning beyond the black and white of the Times New Roman text."

4. Clearly love what you do

"Engaging students can be a challenge, and if you're stuck in a monotone, rambling on and on, that doesn't help...instead of talking like a robot, teachers should speak to us like they're really passionate about teaching. Make sure to give yourself an attitude check. If a teacher acts like this is the last thing they want to be doing, the kids will respond with the same negative energy. If you act like you want to be there, then we will too."

"I also believe that enthusiasm in the classroom really makes a student engaged in classroom discussions. Because even if you have wonderful information, if you don't sound interested, you are not going to get your students' attention. I also believe that excitement and enthusiasm is contagious."

"It isn't necessarily the subject or grades that really engage students but the teacher. When teachers are truly willing to teach students, not only because it is their job, but because they want to educate them, students benefit. It's about passion. That extra effort to show how it will apply to our own future."

5. Get me out of my seat!

"When a student is active they learn in a deeper way than sitting. For example, in my history class, we had a debate on whether SOPA and PIPA were good ideas. My teacher had us stand on either ends of the room to state whether we agree or disagree with the proposition. By doing this, I was able to listen to what all my classmates had to say."

6. Bring in visuals

"I like to see pictures because it makes my understanding on a topic clearer. It gives me an image in my head to visualize."

"I am interested when there are lots of visuals to go with the lesson. Power Points are often nice, but they get boring if there are too many bullet points. Pictures and cartoons usually are the best way to get attention."

7. Student choice

"I think having freedom in assignments, project directions, and more choices would engage students...More variety = more space for creativity."

"Giving students choices helps us use our strengths and gives us freedom to make a project the way we want it to. When we do something we like, we're more focused and enjoy school more."

"Another way is to make the curriculum flexible for students who are more/less advanced. There could be a list of project choices and student can pick from that according to their level."

8. Understand your clients -- the kids

"Encourage students to voice their opinions as you may never know what you can learn from your students."

"If the teacher shows us that they are confident in our abilities and has a welcoming and well-spirited personality towards us, we feel more capable of doing the things we couldn't do...What I'm trying to say is students are more engaged when they feel they are in a "partnership" with their teacher."

"Personally, I think that students don't really like to be treated as 'students.' Teachers can learn from us students. They need to ask for our input on how the students feel about a project, a test, etc. Most importantly, teachers need to ask themselves, "How would I feel if I were this student?" See from our point of view and embrace it."

"Students are engaged in learning when they are taught by teachers who really connect with their students and make the whole class feel like one big family. Teachers should understand how the mind of a child or teenager works and should be able to connect with their students because everyone should feel comfortable so that they are encouraged to raise their hands to ask questions or ask for help."

"Teachers should know that within every class they teach, the students are all different."

9. Mix it up!

"I don't like doing only one constant activity...a variety will keep me engaged in the topic. It's not just for work, but also for other things such as food. Eating the same foods constantly makes you not want to eat!"

"Fun experiments in science class...acting out little skits in history...if students are going to remember something, they need visuals, some auditory lessons, and some emotions."

"Also, you can't go wrong with some comedy. Everyone loves a laugh...another thing that engages me would be class or group games. In Language Arts I've played a game of "dodge ball. We throw words at each other, one at a time. If they could get the definition, the person who threw the word would be out...Students remember the ones they got wrong, and of course, the ones they already knew."

10. Be human

"Don't forget to have a little fun yourself."

I'd like to end this post with one more quote, this one from my student, Sharon: "The thing is, every student is engaged differently...but, that is okay. There is always a way to keep a student interested and lively, ready to embark on the journey of education. 'What is that way?' some teachers may ask eagerly. Now, read closely... Are you ready? That way is to ask them. Ask. Them. Get their input on how they learn. It's just as simple as that."

Go on. Try it. Ask.

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A while back, I was asked, "What engages students?" Sure, I could respond, sharing anecdotes about what I believed to be engaging, but I thought it would be so much better to lob that question to my own eighth graders.

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A research article about engaging students with YAL

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A research article about engaging students with YAL

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Fisher and Frey write about motivation and a meaningful task

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Fisher and Frey write about motivation and a meaningful task

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English Journal article

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This Facebook page is filled with ideas! (https://www.facebook.com/ClockWatchers)

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Clock Watchers. 375 likes. Clock Watchers provides a framework for motivating and engaging the disengaged learner. Read this book and get excited once again about the teaching profession. View video...

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Even though this article focuses in on talk in the math classroom, it has insights that are applicable to all.

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Want to see HIGHLY ENGAGED students? Check out these videos.

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We share evidence and practitioner-based learning strategies that empower you to improve K-12 education.

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Here's a story about a teacher who fueled engagement through having students produce TED talks

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Photo credit: TEDxYerevan via flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

I instituted 20 Time in my classroom this year. I gave my students one day a week to work on anything they wanted as long as they were passionate about it. Here is a link to their blogs where they documented their journey. At the end of the year, they each needed to give an oral presentation focusing on what they had learned, not what they had accomplished.

As part of 20 Time, I decided to take on a project of my own. I wanted to see if I could organize a TEDx event that would allow my students to share their experiences with the world. After filling out the paperwork and submitting my application, TEDxGrossePointeSouthHS was approved for June 7. This event really took 20 Time to another level. Here are just a few things that stood out to me as I reflect on this awesome time with my students.

3 Powerful Observations

One of the things I saw as my students worked on their projects and prepared for their talks was the value they found in their work. Students wanted to complete the projects because they meant so much to them, and they wanted to make sure they created the best talk possible. They'd ask my opinion on the slides they were considering and how to engage the audience. I've seen years of classroom presentations, but I never had students come to me asking for presentation help. It was really remarkable and a wonderful teachable moment.

Another thing I saw with my students as they prepared for the TEDx event was the support they offered one another. They took all of the different projects seriously and were willing to help each other out. They'd listen to their classmates' talks in the hallway and offer suggestions on how to improve them. They cared about their peers' work in a way that I generally do not see in projects. The students understood that they were all trying to do something amazing, and came together to make sure everyone had the support he or she needed to create an awesome event.

The last thing that really sticks out for me was the element of pride I saw. Sometimes, students complete their work and are ready to move on to the next project. They are almost indifferent about their final project because it was something they had to accomplish to get a grade. While 20 Time was that way for some students, the majority worked hard on projects that filled them with pride when they were done. You could see it in their slides and hear it in their voices when they spoke. They had that glimmer in their eye as they talked about all of the effort that went into the project and the payoff at the end. This sense of pride is missing in education, and I'm excited to see that 20 Time gives students a place to have that wonderful feeling.

The Big Event

Organizing a TEDx event is not a simple task, so I turned to my students for support. My kids were so excited to be on the organizing team that they took over some major parts of the event. Some students designed the logo and brochure while others figured out the stage design and worked as stage managers. I was very proud of everyone who stepped up to take ownership of a big project that would allow friends to share their thoughts at TEDxGrossePointeSouthHS. The school year was a long one for these students who chose to invest their time and energy on a big project, and the TEDx event was the best payoff. They will all have amazing memories that will help define their high school experience. This is something I've always strived to accomplish in my classroom, and 20 Time helped me reach that goal this year.

I chose 19 great talks that displayed my students' passion and showed what they had learned over the course of the school year. This was not an easy process, but for me, these talks really speak to what is possible when students are given a chance to explore what they are passionate about and are allowed to share it with the community. Check out this video playlist of all the talks.

I think one of the best part of this entire project was the fact that students had a platform to share their thoughts with such an large audience. They were not speaking just to me or to their class, but to the entire world. The event was livestreamed and accumulated over 1,000 views from all over the world. At the end of the event, students shared on their blogs how scared they were about giving the talk, but how beneficial it was for them in the long term. They had an experience that will be with them for many years, and they'll have something to share online with their friends and family. (To capture some of the feeling, visit this Flickr album of TEDxGrossePointeSouthHS.)

The Cherry on Top

For me and for my students, 20 Time was a powerful classroom experience. I learned about myself as a teacher as I observed how my students engaged in the materials they were interested in for their chosen project versus how they engaged in the curriculum material. They spent time understanding what it meant to be passionate about something and how to pursue their goals despite the obstacles that might be thrown at them. The TEDx event was just a little extra cherry on top of the amazing frosted cake that was 20 Time. I encourage all educators to explore 20 Time and consider adding the cherry of a TEDx event on top if you really want to give your students a life-long memory.

For those interested in hosting their own TEDx event, check out the TEDx page to see which event fits your school or community.

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Student Passion and TEDx Talks | Edutopia

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Photo credit: TEDxYerevan via flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) I instituted 20 Time in my classroom this year. I gave my students one day a week to work on anything they wanted as long as they were passionate about it. Here is a link to their blogs where they documented their journey.

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A blog about how to nurture intrinsic motivation (and engagement) in writers

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It's the first writing conference, four weeks into the year, with this blond senior. He stiffly leans back from me as far as the metal desk will allow, exuding cynicism, too cool for meeting with teachers about his writing. I can see he doesn't trust me yet or know why we conference, and he's afraid. He says, "So, what is this meeting about then?" And we begin.

The Power of Teacher Enthusiasm

Conferencing and portfolios work for me. Over the last 13 years of teaching English, I've developed a system of folders for work, held regular quarterly conferences with every student, and instituted cover letters in which students introduce, explain, and critique their writing at the end of the year. I also teach California State University's Expository Reading and Writing Course, a curriculum for high school seniors that encourages teachers to coach writing and students to write for real audiences. After the course, students report growth in their writing -- new confidence, success in their next-year college classes, higher EPT scores, and perhaps most importantly, ownership of their writing. Scholarship from the 1980s to the present supports my own findings and reiterates that portfolios and writing conferences can sometimes be very successful.

But I wish the research would point to these systems as consistent and universal means of student growth. It does not. The research suggests that these practices improve student writing only along with the qualifier of enthusiastic teachers who create meaningful systems for their own classrooms. It worked in my classroom, but I was bothered that the research was so tepid. I kept doing portfolios and conferences in my classroom, noting anecdotal and statistical success for my students.

Then, two years ago, I read Daniel Pink's Drive and Carol Dweck's Mindset, and I realized that a system of portfolios and conferences was not enough to change student engagement on its own. The way I thought and talked with my students about their writing and learning had also changed. The words out of my mouth in the classroom changed the way students thought about their writing even more than portfolios and conferencing.

Intrinsic Motivation

Pink's argues that employees -- and students -- after their basic needs are met, are motivated by autonomy, purpose, and mastery. Humans want some control over our tasks, we want real tasks that connect to our world, and we want the opportunity to improve. Extrinsic motivation (grades, bonuses, stickers, prizes) actually inhibit students from succeeding on cognitively difficult tasks like, say, writing. I'd been teaching writing all wrong! I'd dangled the carrots of prizes and threatened with the sticks of docked points for misplaced modifiers.

But sometimes, I also got it right. Before, I'd let students choose prompts and readings as much as possible, providing autonomy. After reading Pink, I learned to unbend myself, make deadlines more flexible, and shape the writing process more to fit the student. Now, my students feel more control over their process.

Before, I'd encouraged my students to write for real audiences as summative assessments. Now, I encourage students to write to real people for real purposes throughout the school year -- their own blogs, each other, me, their principal, their Congressional representatives, and the world.

Before, I'd embedded grammar instruction in writing process and had students keep their work to casually notice their progress once a year. Now, I conference four times a year with students about portfolios of their work -- an ongoing conversation about writing goals of their choosing. I explicitly teach metacognition, or how to talk and write about their writing.

Growth Mindset

Carol Dweck's also made me question the feedback I was giving. Dweck found that praising students for intelligence actually made kids less likely to take academic risks because, on some level, they feared losing the label of "smart" if they did poorly. And since avoiding academic risks means avoiding learning, praising students' intelligence eventually impaired their success in school (and life happiness as well, since they felt intelligence was out of their own control). Students praised for working through difficult material wanted to show they could do so again, with the cumulative effects of long-term academic success, confidence in trying situations, and happier outlooks. Dweck called these mindsets fixed and growth, and started a movement to instill growth mindset in students. She has also talked about the amazing power of yet. She argues that we do a disservice to students by giving them only positive feedback on their writing. Although we don't want to crush their dreams, they can handle -- and even need -- room for growth and mastery. Hence the power of yet: "Your sentence structure does not yet match the tone you are trying to achieve." Yet allows negative feedback while also transmitting trust that they will get there.

I had a realization several years ago that my goal is not a good essay from Student A, but rather for Student A to know that she's in charge of her progress as a writer and feel confident to keep writing for the rest of her life. To that end, I must teach writing process, self-confidence through intrinsic motivation, metacognition, and the willingness to write badly, much more than I need to teach themes, metaphor, or prepositional phrases.

Reading the Common Core Language Arts documents and support, one notices the words "choice," "audience," "purpose," "metacognition," and "growth" throughout. Recently, I presented nurturing intrinsic motivation in writing to a classroom of other educators. They had no problem brainstorming ways to improve intrinsic motivation and growth mindset in our classrooms. Students want the same freedom in writing that we do, and teachers know how to provide it when given the opportunity.

The Payoff: Engagement and Ownership

It's the fifth meeting since September with that blond senior. Now his knees are tucked under him so he can arch across the desk and dissect the same sentence a foot away from me. We have gone from a distant "What is this meeting about then?" to an eager "Can I schedule a conference right now? I think I've smoothed the transitions, but I need to play with the syntax in the conclusion. Hear me out." Perhaps more importantly, I didn't schedule it, and I'm not doing most of the talking. He's found his voice and his reason to write.

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Nurturing Intrinsic Motivation and Growth Mindset in Writing | Edutopia

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It's the first writing conference, four weeks into the year, with this blond senior. He stiffly leans back from me as far as the metal desk will allow, exuding cynicism, too cool for meeting with teachers about his writing. I can see he doesn't trust me yet or know why we conference, and he's afraid.

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Even though Jeff's focus in on English language learners, he has great resources for helping students have high level discourse.