Real Engagement

How do I help my students become motivated, confident, and self-directed learners? (ASCD Arias)

Allison Zmuda, Robyn R. Jackson

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781416620730
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Students following directions, dutifully completing assignments, and quietly cooperating. For some teachers, this kind of compliance is a goal worth pursuing, but for you, it's not enough. You want real engagement— a classroom filled with students who ask intriguing questions, immerse themselves in assignments, seek feedback on their performance, and take pride in their progress. So even as you race to cover a demanding curriculum and address standards, you're wearing yourself out searching for the hooks that will inspire your students and make them eager to learn.

It's not that you're not doing enough to motivate your students; it's that you're probably focusing on the wrong things.

In this book, Allison Zmuda and Robyn R. Jackson explain the four keys to real engagement: clarity, context, challenge, and culture. Their smart, concrete strategies for improving classroom assignments, assessments, and environments will help you create learning experiences that are rigorous, meaningful, and rewarding for your students and yourself.

Real Engagement (Instead of Compliance)

No teacher wants a classroom full of bored and lethargic students who put their heads on their desks the moment the lesson starts, shrug and stare blankly when called on, and blithely scribble the convenient answer when completing their work—assuming that they complete their work at all. If you’re like us or the teachers we serve in our workshops, you came to teaching for something more. You came to teaching to inspire your students to learn, and to create a classroom space where you and your students work together to achieve insight and understanding.

So when it comes to student engagement, you’re active and committed. You keep an eye out for new strategies and the latest tricks that will help you gain and maintain your students’ attention. You look to jazz up your lessons, seek hooks that will startle and delight your students, and find new ways of presenting the material that will get them excited about the task ahead. And, if you’re honest, sometimes it feels like you’re killing yourself to line up this dog and pony show each day.

You’re not alone. We see this all the time—dedicated teachers who are working incredibly hard to be "inspiring" and chasing just the right combination of lesson elements that will get their students interested, involved, and actively learning. What they generally wind up with, aside from a case of acute exhaustion, are classrooms composed of compliant, dutiful learners who willingly follow directions, complete assignments, meet requirements, and stay on task. But the real engagement these teachers are pursuing—with students asking intriguing questions, enthusiastically immersing themselves in projects and assignments, seeking feedback on their performance, and taking pride in their progress—remains elusive.

If you’re reading this book, chances are you’ve asked this question: "Why is it so hard to get all of my students to be fully engaged and deeply involved in their own learning?" The answer may surprise you. You see, it’s not that you aren’t trying hard enough; it’s that you are probably using the wrong set of strategies. Real engagement doesn’t come from tricks and gimmicks; it’s something you enable, not something you achieve. It happens when you use a few simple keys to help your students own, manage, and pursue their own learning.

What’s So Bad About Compliance?

"OK, take out your math textbooks and turn to page 72," Mrs. Levenson says as she walks briskly to the front of the room and begins writing a sentence on the board.

The students pull their math texts from their desks or backpacks, turn to the designated page, and wait quietly for her next instructions.

"Today, we are going to learn the order of operations," Mrs. Levenson begins. Pointing the sentence she’s written, she continues, "I want you to repeat after me. Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally."

"Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally," the students repeat.

"Again, please," Mrs. Levenson instructs, pointing.

"Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally."

"Very good," she smiles at the class. "Now, this sentence is actually an acrostic. Who here remembers what an acrostic is?"

A few hands begin to go up. Mrs. Levenson waits until she sees at least five, then calls on Jeremy.

"It’s a sentence where the first letter of each word really stands for something else," Jeremy explains.

Mrs. Levenson nods. "Thank you, Jeremy," she says. "Next time, I’d like to see more hands up. Now, eyes on me, please." She pauses a moment until all students are facing her. "The P stands for parentheses," she continues, writing the word on the board. "What does the P stand for?" she prompts the class.

"Parentheses," they repeat in unison.

"Good. The E stands for exponents." She writes exponents on the board. "What does the E stand for?"

"Exponents," the students repeat.

"I didn’t hear everyone," Mrs. Levenson says. "Taylor, eyes on me. I don’t want anyone to lose participation points today." She waits quietly while Taylor turns and faces her. "Thank you. Now, Taylor, what does the E stand for?"

"Exponents," Taylor reads from the board.

"Yes." Mrs. Levenson turns back to the board. "Moving on," she continues, "the M stands for multiply, and the D stands for divide," She writes multiply and, below it, divide. "OK, class, what do we have so far, then?" She points to each of the words, and students recite them aloud.

"Good," Mrs. Levenson says. So, class, if the M stands for multiply, and the D stands for divide, what do you think the A stands for?"

She surveys the room as a few students raise their hands. "Remember," she says, "the way you show me that you know the answer is to raise your hand."

More hands go up.

Mrs. Levenson smiles. "Good. I see almost all of you have your hand raised." She points to Antonio.

"Add?" he offers.

"I need your answer in a complete sentence, Antonio," Mrs. Levenson prompts.

Antonio tries again. "The A stands for add?"

"Yes. Very good, Anthony." Mrs. Levenson adds add to the growing list. From the corner of her eye, she sees Amber’s hand still up. "Amber, honey, you can put your hand down now."

"But I have a question," Amber says.

Mrs. Levenson turns to Amber. "What’s your question?"

"We learned to add first, before we learned to multiply, so why does add come after multiply?"

"That’s a great question, Amber," Mrs. Levenson smiles, glancing up at the clock. "But let’s wait until we get through this part of the lesson, and then we’ll get back to it."

Amber puts her hand down slowly, and Mrs. Levenson turns back to the board. "OK, where were we? Ah yes, we know what the P stands for, and we know what the E stands for. We know that M stands for multiply and D stands for divide. And Antonio just told us that A stands for add. So, who can tell me what the S stands for?"

Several students raise their hands.

"I see that Kaitlin knows, and Ramon knows, and Asia knows," Mrs. Levenson notes. "Haile knows, and Ryan knows, and Selene knows, and JaBare knows. Good." She points to Miri, who hasn’t raised her hand. "Miri, do you know what the S stands for?"

"The S stands for subtract," Miri replies quietly.

"Miri, I want to hear you say that with conviction," Mrs. Levenson prompts.

"The S stands for subtract," Miri says more loudly.

"Good, Miri," Mrs. Levenson smiles, writing subtract. "We’re ready now to go over the entire thing." She points to the list of words she has recorded on the board. "All together now, please."

"Parentheses, exponents, multiply, divide, add, subtract."

"With conviction!" urges Mrs. Levenson.

"Parentheses, exponents, multiply, divide, add, subtract!"

Smiling broadly, Mrs. Levenson turns to her students. "Good! Now you know the order of operations."

Mrs. Levenson has classroom full of compliant students. She works hard for that compliance, and given the choice between what we see here and outwardly defiant, disrespectful, defensive, or totally checked-out students, it doesn’t seem so bad. At least everyone is quiet and participating in the work. At least the lesson is moving forward. But teachers who settle for compliance are shortchanging their students and themselves.

Compliant students may be tuned in to you, to the lesson, and to the textbook, but they are not fully tuned in to learning. They may be focused on getting the right answer, gaining your approval, or earning a good grade, but they aren’t pushing themselves to dig deeper or to get something meaningful and personal from the learning experience.

In a nutshell, the problem with compliance is that it is just another form of disengagement—of students not being invested in their own learning. Because they don’t feel an innate connection to the content, they are always teetering on the edge of being bored and tuning out, and they rely heavily on you (and the hooks, tricks, and "fun" assignments you might employ) to make what they are learning seem relevant and appealing. That’s a lot of pressure for you to bear.

There’s another kind of pressure that comes with compliance. It’s the sneaky little voice in your head whispering that you and your students could be doing so much more. Are you all just going through the motions of learning? Are any of you really doing the important work you’ve come to the classroom to do?

What Is Real Engagement?

"OK, take out your math textbooks and turn to page 72," Mrs. Elliott announces, walking briskly to the front of the room and writing a sentence on the board. "Veronica," she adds, "it’s time to put away your journal."

"I’m almost finished," Veronica says, continuing to write.

"Wow, you must be on a roll," Mrs. Elliott smiles. "Finish the entry you’re working on, and then put your journal away, take out your math textbook, and join us."

Veronica nods and continues to write.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Elliott turns to the rest of the class. "Today, we are going to learn about the order of operations. It’s a tool we can use to figure out problems like the ones on page 72. Take a look at problem #1, and tell me what you notice about it."

The students look at their textbooks, with some leaning over to make a comment to a neighbor, and some picking up pencils and beginning to copy the problem. Mrs. Elliott waits for few seconds and then calls everyone back to order. "OK, tell me. What do you notice?"

Several hands go up. Mrs. Elliott calls on Matthew.

"What I notice is that all these problems look really hard," Matthew says, shaking his head.

"OK, Matthew, what about the problems looks hard?" Mrs. Elliott prompts.

Charlotte interrupts, "They have a lot of symbols!"

Mrs. Elliott frowns slightly. "Charlotte, honey, remember to raise your hand." She turns back to Matthew. "Matthew, what about these problems looks hard?"

Matthew studies the page for a few seconds. "I mean, I see what Charlotte said about all the symbols, but I am trying to do the math in my head, and I keep getting stuck."

"Why do you think you keep getting stuck, Matthew?" Mrs. Elliott asks.

"Mrs. Elliott, what does this symbol here mean?" James asks, holding up his textbook and pointing to an exponent.

"Hand up, James. That’s called an exponent. Remember, we learned about those two weeks ago."

"We did?" James asks. "Oh, yeah. They’re things like squared or to the fourth power?"

"Exactly," Mrs. Elliott nods. "Matthew, do you want some time to think about this more?"

Matthew nods as he scribbles a problem onto a sheet of paper.

"What’s that sentence on the board?" Shelly asks.

"That sentence is a memory device that can help us learn and remember the order of operations. Once you learn the order of operations, problems like these won’t seem so hard. Yes? You have a question, Melanie?"

"You have an aunt named Sally?"

"No, I don’t actually have an Aunt Sally," Mrs. Elliott smiles. "That’s just there to help us remember." She walks back to the board and underlines the first letter in each word. "Each of these letters stands for something else. For instance, this P stands for parentheses." Mrs. Elliott writes the word parentheses on the board.

"Why is parentheses first?" Charlotte asks. "Oh, I forgot!" she adds, putting her hand in the air.

Mrs. Elliott smiles and writes a math problem on the board. "Thank you for raising your hand, Charlotte. And that’s a good question. Let’s take a look at problem #1 and focus on this part inside the parentheses. Parentheses tell us that all the numbers they contain have to stay together. And, by simplifying the part of the problem inside the parentheses in some way, we can make solving the entire problem a whole lot easier. Matthew, you are working on problem #1 right now. Have you tried solving the part in the parentheses first?"

"No, no! Don’t TELL me!" Matthew replies, covering his ears and bending even closer to his paper.

"Sorry, Matthew, I was just trying to help," Mrs. Elliott apologizes. Turning back to the class, she continues, "In a complicated problem, solve within the parentheses first. Does that make sense?"

A few students nod.

"Charlotte, does that make sense to you?"

"I think so," Charlotte says, staring at the problem. "What about all the other stuff?"

Mrs. Elliott turns back to the board and points to the underlined E. "Once we deal with what’s inside the parentheses, the next step is to deal with the exponents," she explains, writing the word. "And what are exponents, James?"

"Those little numbers that tell you to square something or make something to the third power or whatever," he replies.

"They tell you how many times you have to multiply a number by itself," clarifies Kerry.

"Right," Mrs. Elliott agrees. "Hey, Veronica?" she says. "Last sentence, please."

"I know! I’m almost done," Veronica says.

"OK, so we know that the P stands for parentheses, and the E stands for exponents," Mrs. Elliott says, pointing to the words on the board. "The M stands for … ?"

"Murder," Jackson says, sinisterly.

The class laughs.

"Nice try, Jackson," Mrs. Elliott smiles. "The M stands for a math word. Take a look at problem #1, and see if you can figure out which math word. Don’t worry about raising your hand here. Just call it out."

"Math!" Justin blurts.

"Method?" guesses Ariana.

"Look at the problem we’re trying to solve," Mrs. ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Real Engagement (Instead of Compliance)
• Clarity
• Context
• Challenge
• Culture
• Real Engagement: Why It’s Worth It
• Encore Divider
• Encore
• References
• Related Resources
• About the Authors
• Copyright