mgs: Engaging Learners

Hi All! This week on the blog, I wanted to give you some strategies to help engage your learners. I know that this has been a struggle due to the virtual world.

What is Learner Engagement? In a nutshell, Learner Engagement is the measure of a potentially successful learning experience for everyone concerned. It measures the quantity and the quality of a learner's participation. It also takes in account the interaction with co learners & instructors.

What does an engaged learner look like?

Active in their Learning
Eager to Participate
Willing to Expend Effort
Motivated
Inspired

I like this simple video about student engagement and the framework it explains.

There are 3 levels of engagement:

Cognitive:Taking an active, committed approach to coming up with learning strategies. Such as mnemonics to remember content.
Emotional:Feel connected to the material and or group. Low levels of anxiety.
Behavioral: Completed tasks and always show up for lessons.

So, we have learned quite a bit about learner engagement. Let's jump into some ideas that will help you up the engagement in your classroom.

Learning Targets: In our January 4th PD, on the Science of Reading, our speaker expressed that setting and POSTING learning targets for your students is sooo important. Those posting should be in the classroom not just digitally. I have always found that if we review a learning target and have it posted, it sets the WHY for the lesson. Want it to be more powerful????? Have a student come up front and read the target at the beginning of each lesson!

Be Creative with Content: You know the standard that we are working on. Get creative in how you deliver it. Ask students to weigh in on what interests them. Get that SCIENCE and SOCIAL STUDIES going in your lessons. Nonfiction is a GREAT way to up engagement and if the students have some ownership in what they will be learning about you can double on that engagement. Use a survey about the next animal you will learn about for example.

Hit lots of learning styles during your lessons. Add visual, music and movement to your lessons.

Reward Learners: This is always touchy for me. I only want to reward extraordinary behavior not behavior that is expected. But if this is an area that is really holding your students back, I always like earning a group reward. Meaning building toward something. Or adding in a bit of competition such as Cohorts competing for all assignments turned in. In PLCs, this week, I heard some great examples of earning raffle tickets for a class store and even giant Pixie Sticks. We all know that we are not in a normal situation and with that, we may need to do things we would not normally do. This video is a JACKPOT of ideas for rewarding your kiddos!

Check out these FREE rewards below!

Whole Brain Teaching: Get that call and response going! Even in the virtual world! Check out this video below modeling the SCOREBOARD! I love to use this as a way to earn a "reward!"

Here it is in a third grade classroom.