9. Collaborating together has been “an engaging experience.” (:

9. Collaborating together has been “an engaging experience.” (:

This we believe (NMSA, 2010).

* Ongoing professional development reflects best educational practices. Professional Development

This year, my friend, who teaches science and health as part of the resource schedule, and I are collaborating on the topic of “student engagement.” My friend is using chapters from a Marzano text, The Art and Science of Teaching (2007). I am using resources online including: edutopia.org, ascd.org, and amle.org. About once a month we talk about engagement, sharing our experiences and information we have found from different authors’ works.

This week we were talking about what “student engagement” looks like in our classrooms and how it relates to behavior and achievement.

Andrea’s classroom looks like this.

Student engagement has as many different looks as there are faces in the classroom. Sometimes engagement is a wide-eyed focus on a video clip being shown, the book being read aloud, or the dialogue going on in the classroom. Frequently, engagement is seen when students are eagerly raising their hands to ask questions or share ideas about and personal connections to the lesson topic, or when they just blurt out their thoughts when they just can’t contain their enthusiasm. Engagement is students stopping me in the hallway to ask what we are going to do the next time their class has resource time, or if their class is going to do the same thing that another class on their grade level has done. My favorite evidence of engagement is when groups of students groan or beg for more time when I tell them we need to put away materials and wrap up the lesson for the day. Frequently when this happens, students ask if we can continue the same activity the next time we are together. Most of all engagement shows in smiling faces when our time together is over; the students have enjoyed the lesson and made connections to the concepts and I feel like I have accomplished the lesson objectives.

Nancy’s classroom looks like this.

When students are most engaged, they have a task. Some need direction, others need to work on their own. All students need time to consider information, ponder topics, and create evidences of their own learning. My best days include multiple ways of experiencing content: video clips, explore equations in calculators, games, and examining various problems associated with content. This week we are looking at the relationships between linear, quadratic, and exponential functions. For linear graphs we look at salaries over time; using straws and pompoms we “shot cannons” along the chalk tray, and for exponential functions we conducted an exponential decay activity using M&M’s. What I find is that intentional grouping can assist student productivity. I also find that allowing students to struggle and helping them accept struggling as a good thing, helps learning take place. Finally, when students have the opportunity to create their own evidences of learning, there is a deeper understanding of contenta and how math connects to their world.

Summary

We agree that the more engaged a student is, the better he or she behaves. We also agree that the more engaged a student is, followed by opportunities to communicate about their learning, the more likely the student is to retain information learned and make connections to related topics in the future. We believe, as do multiple authors, that building relationships and supporting young adolescents intellectually, socially, and emotionally are important reference points for student engagement. We agree that learning is interactive and then when students have choice, they are more engaged. We agree that collaborating together has been “an engaging experience.” (:

Advice

1)   On the AMLE.org website you can search for resources based on specific topics such as student engagement, or advisory, or teaming. There are podcasts, webinars, and research summaries that provide much “food for thought.”  When choosing a topic, consider the resources from our national organizations to find information.

2)   Consider your PDP as a tool for growing professionally. You may want to collaborate with a colleague to share ideas and insights.

3) Consider joining twitter accounts that address your topic or your grade level. This week I saw where Australia educators hosted a one-hour Adolescent Success

4) Give students opportunities to work in various groupings, from pairs to small groups. Research and implement cooperative learning strategies such as those available in the free articles at the following link to the Kagan Publishing and Professional Development website: http://www.kaganonline.com/free_articles/dr_spencer_kagan/ . You can also search for articles on the websites of content area professional organizations such as the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) like this article, Cooperative Learning in the Science Classroom, available at: http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=52116 .

5) Give students as many choices as possible when assigning tasks. Think about whether students can choose to work alone or with a partner or group and if students can select the format the product may take (poster, skit, story, model) from a list of choices. The more choices students can make for themselves, the more likely they are to take ownership of their work and the concepts and succeed at the task you have assigned.

Andrea Valdovinos is a science elective teacher in Jacksonville, Florida. Both of us finished our degrees from the University of Florida. (Go Gators!)