What is Engagement in Learning?

What is engagement in learning?  What does it look like?  What would I see kids doing or saying?  How do I know when students are engaged in the learning process?  

Engagement has been a hot topic in education.  In order to get more students learning, we need to get them engaged with the learning.  In order for students to get engaged we need to design learning in such a way that it will inspire curiosity and make the learning fun, purposeful and connected to learning outcome.  As educators we must consider the many elements involved in designing such a learning environment.  All instructional decisions and planning must keep student engagement at the center.  

When considering "an answer" to the question :  What is engagement in learning? I often suggest to my new teachers that they give some consideration to the list of guiding questions below.

Guiding Questions to consider:

• Who is doing most of the talking?  Teacher centered, Student centered?
• Are students asking questions?
• How are students learning?  Collaboratively, Independently?
• Are students provided with opportunities to inquire, collaborate and explore?
• What is the level of questioning? 
• Are all students expected to participate in classroom discussion and respond to questions?
• How is digital learning infused in the learning activities?
• What are students learning and why?
• Can students articulate the learning outcomes?
• Can students “see” the intended learning targets?
• Are quality criteria and exemplars being shared by teachers to help students identify what they are learning, where they are in the learning and what they will do to improve their learning?
• Do students have choice in the way that they show what they have learned?
• Is the focus on process and critical thinking?
• Are students learning through exploration and inquiry based processes?
• Are learning activities varied and connected to real life whenever possible.
• Are students assisted with applying the strategies they have learned to new situations? What is the cognitive level for learning?  
• Are learning environments designed with flexible approaches to space, time, materials and groupings?
• Is learning demonstrated and measured in multiple ways?
• Are teachers mindful of readiness, interest, experiences and learning at all levels?
• Instruction regularly involves using an activating, acquiring and applying paradigm when appropriate.
• Is student voice clear and valued throughout the learning?

This is by no means a comprehensive list of guiding questions, but definitely a place to start.  What questions would you add to this list?  How do you define engagement in learning?  I would love to hear from others on this topic.

The Reflective Practitioner

The first five months of the school year have been crazy busy around SJASD.  I have enjoyed the opportunity to visit and observe in the classrooms of all of our new teachers.  It is always a pleasure to join a class, observe and provide some feedback related to the day's lesson.  The most important part of this process is the debrief - the conversation.  It is such a pleasure to brainstorm and collaborate with our new teachers, looking for improved and engaging ways to get more kids actively involved in the purpose of school - LEARNING.  I am looking forward to my next round of visits in second semester:)

The week of Feb 11-15th, 2013 has been packed with my own professional learning opportunities.  I was fortunate enough to attend the"Navigating Change, Council of School Leaders Annual Provincial Conference ( #cosl2013)  in Winnipeg, Manitoba on February 14th and 15th.  It was here that  I again became the learner and was reminded of the importance of being a reflective practitioner.

The Conference featured three amazing keynote speakers:  Damian Cooper (@cooperd1954), George Couros (@gcouros),  and Michael Fullan.  Each speaker shared a different focus:

Damian Cooper - Redefining Fair:  Leading Teachers to Excellence in Mixed Ability Classrooms.
Damian's focus was on the notion of redefining fairness and specifically that  Fairness is not Sameness.  

He discussed the five imperatives that should guide a teachers' work:

• Curriculum must be meaningful, coherent and relevant
• Instruction must be responsive to students' needs
• Assessment must be informative
• Grading must blend consistency with professional judgement
• Communication about learning must be truthful and transparent

Teachers must consider the idea of being responsive to learner needs.  Our job is not to "cover curriculum" but rather to facilitate excellence and learning from all of our students.  Information that is "google-able" is no longer relevant.  This information is at their fingertips.  We need to plan for and expect deeper understanding.  We need to be flexible with all of our instructional plans.

Damian spoke a considerable amount about the program planning component of teachers' work.  The idea of backwards design is no longer an option, but an imperative.  When planning for a year/term/unit teachers need to approach their planning with the end in mind.  

Step 1: Identify the targeted learning (understandings or skills)

Step 2:  Determine appropriate assessments of those understandings or skills (both formative & summative)

Step 3:  Plan learning experiences & instruction that make such understandings and skills possible.

George Couros -  George's focus was around Technology and its implications in education for both leaders and learners.  He talked about the use of Twitter as a means to developing a professional learning network as well as the idea of blogging as a means to consolidate our own professional learning experiences.  Some of the "sticky points" for me after listening to George were:

• Start with the "why" of technology 
• Learning is creation, not consumption
• We must do what's best for kids
• Learning and sharing are synonymous
• The biggest shift is in the mindset of leaders, teachers, students
• The learning culture needs to be participatory
• Data does not move people, stories do
• Principals need to believe it
• The longer you wait, the harder it will be.  We need to go ahead and Jump - "Here goes something, I guess"

George's talk challenged me to rethink my own blogging practice.  This should be the place where I consolidate my own learning.  I myself need to be a learner and need to push myself to do the things that I believe in.  I am not as eloquent as George and his posts on the The Principal of Change blogspot, but who's comparing:)  As a result of my learning experiences last week,  I realized that I needed to get back to my blog.  This will be the place where I will consolidate my own learning, perhaps share a thing or two, and just be reflective of all the "goings on" of my work connected to teaching and learning.

Learn together, Lead together

Food for thought...

Today I had the privilege of listening to and learning with Penny Kittle.  Penny Kittle is a classroom teacher and literacy coach from Kennett High School in North Conway, New Hampshire.  The focus of today's learning was on reading and writing workshops.  Her presentation made us laugh, cry, think, cry and reflect.  Not sure that there is much more to say.

It is always so wonderful to leave a professional development session with some inspiring new ideas that will assist me with my ongoing journey to becoming a more effective, relevant and contemporary educator.  Through my experiences I have come to realize that I have not "made it".  I am always looking to improve and update  my craft in ways that may inspire more of my learners.  Today, I came away with a few new tools and strategies that I look forward to sharing with others.  Many of the ideas are so simple but yet so brilliant.

Thank you to Penny for facilitating a day of reflection and personal growth.

Check out Penny's Website here:  Penny Kittle and you can follow her on Twitter @pennykittle

Have a look at some of my Twitter reflections from the day.  As Penny put it, "Twitter is armchair PD for educators".

When considering reading instruction....

Our initial pre assessment for reading should be to find out ARE THEY READING? 

When considering writing instruction...

Our initial pre assessment for writing should be to identify:  WHAT CAN THESE WRITERS DO?

Then:  WHAT DO THESE WRITERS KNOW?

If our kids are not engaged, they are disengaged!

As a follow up to my last post, I will share some of the Web 2.0 tools that were introduced to me by Heidi Hayes Jacobs.  She suggests that in order to upgrade our teaching practices, we must use the contemporary tools that are currently readily available.

Gapminder - a place where statistics and world data come alive.

Example:  Life Expectancy vs. Income Per Person

Museum Box - This site provides the tools for you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. What items, for example, would you put in a box to describe your life; the life of a Victorian Servant or Roman soldier; or to show that slavery was wrong and unnecessary? You can display anything from a text file to a movie.

Timetoast - Timetoast allows people to create interactive timelines, which they can share anywhere on the web. Anyone can join Timetoast and start creating and sharing their own timelines, all they need is a valid email address. It's completely free!

Google Lit Trips - Google Lit Trips are free downloadable files that mark the journeys of characters from famous literature on the surface of Google Earth. At each location along the journey there are placemarks with pop-up windows containing a variety of resources including relevant media, thought provoking discussion starters, and links to supplementary information about “real world” references made in that particular portion of the story. The focus is on creating engaging and relevant literary experiences for students.

Wordle - Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

These are just a few ideas to get you thinking about a possible "upgrade". 

When people are having fun, they will be engaged.

For a little inspiration....

Check out thefuntheory.com

Would you take the stairs?

How can we prepare our learners for their future?

Last school year, I had a the privilege of attending a workshop facilitated by Heidi Hayes Jacobs.  Her presentation was inspiring and invigorating to say the least.  She made a point of highlighting all the reasons why it is necessary for educators of today to "upgrade" their current practice.

She started off the session with a few reflection questions:

How can we prepare our learners for THEIR future?  

What year are you preparing your learners for?

She reminded us that all of the instructional decisions we make on a daily basis must be in the best interest of students.  We don't want to set up learning environments that have our students traveling back in time.  We need to think about the new literacies that are so relevant in our students' futures- digital, media and global-  and how we, as educators, will upgrade our practices to keep the learning relevant for students.  

All of the "tools" that we use in our classrooms impact student's learning.  As educators, we need to wrap our thoughts around the fact that we have 21st century learners, using 20th century curriculum's  and sitting in 19th century structures.  When we think about our current education system we would want to consider how to work within these constraints or parameters while still remaining relevant to our key audience - the students.  As teachers of 21st century learners we need to consider the use of contemporary tools.  Heidi does not suggest that we are "adding to the plate" but rather engaging in a strategic replacement.  We want to remove those ineffective dated ways and replace them with more recent and relevant teaching methods.  

In order for this upgrade to occur, we also need to own our own learning and intentionally consider an "upgrade".    Heidi helped us reflect on this point by considering David.  David could represent any student that currently sits in one of your classes.  She points out that what we want David to know and be able to do is restricted by what we know and are able to do.  This was a very powerful message.  It surely hit home the point that unless we are up to date, relevant and able to use contemporary learning tools we will not be equipped with the knowledge necessary to assist David in becoming a person prepared for his future.  

Heidi referred to two types of pedagogy -
Antiquated pedagogy where a teacher covers content: A teacher would have a relationship with the material not the students.  

Classical pedagogy where a teacher thinks very carefully about what to cut to make room for replacement, what to keep and what to create:  A teacher would have a relationship with the students not the material.  

Many wonderful "contemporary tools" were shared which will be discussed in a future post.  

You can check out her clearing house of resources.

Thank you to Heidi for such a wonderful learning opportunity.  It provided me the time for reflection and analysis of my own practice.  I left the session giving deep consideration to my next steps for an upgrade. 

131 Tips for New Teachers/36 Interesting Ways to Get to Know Your New Class!(2 Slideshows)

131 Tips for New Teachers/36 Interesting Ways to Get to Know Your New Class!(2 Slideshows)

@TeacherLingo, Thankyou for sharing.

Great Resources for New (ALL) Teachers

New teachers today have access to a wealth of resources for lesson plan support, classroom management issues, home/school communication, and anything else related to teaching and learning. I thought I would offer a few of my favorite online resources.  Suggestions from readers are greatly appreciated :)  Enjoy!  

Teaching Channel

The Teaching Channel is a multi-platform service delivering professional development videos for teachers. In addition to showcasing inspiring teachers in videos, Teaching Channel also hosts a community for educators to share ideas, best practices and enhance their knowledge.

TES  the largest network of teachers in the world.

TES Teaching Resources is where teachers share and download free lesson plans, classroom resources, revision guides and curriculum worksheets.   The wealth of free resources on TES allows education professionals to share and benefit from each other’s resources and lesson plans in order to drive excellence in the education sector.

Edutopia

This great site which is made possible by the George Lucas Educational Foundation is full of timely relevant content for all teachers. There is a list of educational blog categories on the right hand side of the home page, including a blog for new teacher support.  

Free Technology for Teachers

Is a place to find free teaching resources and lesson plans for teaching with technology.

Discovery Education

Discovery Education supports Canadian teachers in accelerating student achievement, bringing the world of Discovery into classrooms to ignite students' natural curiosity


ENJOY!