Student Engagement

I’m going to start with the Indicators from Competency 2.3 and add commentary at the bottom.  Homework Warning: Then I’m going to encourage you to do a little informal action research. 

By the way, one teacher stopped by my office this week and said, “I enjoy reading your books.”  Here is chapter 3.

2.3: Engage Students in academic content

Effective (3)

• ¾ or more of the students are actively engaged in the learning process and are not off task.
• Teacher provides multiple ways, as appropriate, of engaging with content, all aligned to the lesson objective.
• Ways of engaging with content reflect learning modalities or intelligences.
• Teacher adjusts lesson as needed to accommodate for student prerequisite skills and knowledge so that all students are engaged.
• ELL and students with an IEP have appropriate accommodations to be engaged in content.
• Students work hard and are deeply active rather than passive/receptive.
• Teacher delivers instruction at a pace that enhances engagement.

Highly Effective (4)

• All students are actively engaged in the learning process.
• Teacher provides ways to engage with content that significantly promotes student mastery of the objective.
• Teacher provides differentiated ways of engaging with content specific to individual student needs.
• The lesson progresses at an appropriate rate so that students are engaged, and students who finish early have something meaningful to do.
• Teacher effectively integrates technology as a tool to engage students in academic content.
• Classroom activities offer students choices that enhance engagement.

In 2004, I drove right past HSE High School (without guessing I would ever be on the inside) on my way to Louisville.  In Louisville I sat down for about an hour with Phillip Schlechty and one of his associates in the Schlechty Center for Engagement to pick his brain about shaping school culture through the lesson planning process.  Phil Schlechty, like many in Louisville, has more of the South in him than the North.  He speaks slowly, laughs often, and makes complete sense when he talks about student engagement.

In 2002 he published a book called Working on the Work.  It takes about three hours to read it cover-to-cover, but it can be a great resource to visit and revisit.  I thought immediately of Phil Schlechty, his laughter, and his sharp wit when I read through Competency 2.3.  This competency is all about student engagement.  The actual wording in TEDS: Engage students in academic content.  Those five little words are so simple to read and write, and so difficult to bring into the classroom consistently.

Phil Schlechty does several things very, very well.   First, he defines levels of student engagement, and then he teaches how to improve it.  The single most important job of a teacher, according to Schlechty, is to design lessons that engage students.  He states that students will respond in five different ways to our lessons.  Their level of engagement will determine whether they find meaning in the work and will make the difference between profound learning, superficial learning, or worse yet, no learning at all.

The levels of engagement according to Schlechty:

• Engagement: The student sees the lesson as personally meaningful, of sufficient interest to persist through challenges, and worth optimum performance.  Students who are engaged learn at high levels and have a profound grasp of what they learn, they retain the learning, and they transfer it to new contexts.
• Strategic Compliance: Students substitute the stated goal of the learning with their own goals, such as grades, class rank, college acceptance, or parental approval.  The focus is on extrinsic motivators rather than the inherent interest in learning.  Students learn at high levels but have a superficial grasp of what they learn, do not retain the learning, and are often unable to transfer it to a different context.
• Ritual Compliance: The student sees no meaning in the work, but rather than experience confrontation or take unpleasant consequences will do the work.  The emphasis is on doing the minimum requirements to get it done and over.  Students learn at low levels, do not retain the learning, and are seldom able to transfer the learning to a new context.
• Retreatism: The student is disengaged from classroom activities and goals, thinking about other things or withdrawn, and sees little relevance to the lesson.  Since they do not participate, they learn little or nothing from the lesson.
• Rebellion: The student is disengaged from the lesson and actively engaged in substituting his or her own goals, usually by acting out and/or encouraging others to do so as well.  Little or nothing of the lesson objective is learned, but they do learn how to negatively impact others.

Honestly, at HSE, we don’t usually worry too much about the bottom two categories, and compliance is much better than those options!  According to Phil Schlechty, students move in and out of these categories regularly during a lesson.  It is rare to have all students fully engaged for a full period.  The goal, however, is to design lessons that move students to engagement as much and as often as possible. 

Scan back over the indicators above and look at key words: multiple ways, differentiation, deeply active, pace, technology, choices. These resonate with Phillip Schlechty’s key design qualities for engagement.  If you want to see the full list and more about Philip Schlechty, check out his website: www.schlechtycenter.org.

For our purpose, evidence for this competency will be found when students are actively involved, when they are interested in posing and answering important questions, and when individual student needs are met.  Engagement can be seen in the body language of students, in the questions they ask, in the interactions they have, and when they surprise you by going above and beyond what you ask for.

Action Research: One very helpful exercise is to monitor your classes for student engagement for one week.  At the end of each class period, jot down and track when students were fully engaged, when they were merely compliant, and when they were in retreat or rebellion.  Note what you did and what the students were working on during these times.  My guess is you find several things: 1) We tend to have compliant students, and 2) When engagement happens, you will recognize it, the period flies by, and both you and your students are energized.

Let me know if my guesses are right—or whatever else you discover this week about student engagement.  I’ll share results if you’ll let me.

Have a great week.

Phil