Ingredients for Student Engagement, A Closer Look

Dr. Wendy Ghiora – Posting #18 – July 4, 2009

Last week I presented eleven Ingredients for an Engaging Classroom.
As promised, we’re going to review each element, so you’ll be totally prepared to use them all as part of your teaching repertoire during the next school year.

1.-Provide a safe, nurturing environment.
This is the key ingredient. It is the groundwork necessary in order for all learning to take place. Please read my previous postings, which go into this element in great detail: http://teaching4achange.blogspot.com
Scroll down and read the postings of March 14 and March 21.

2.-Share the expected outcome with students.

What are Goals?

• Goals are broad, generalized statements about what is to be learned. Think of them as a target to be reached.
• Goals, or learning outcomes, describe what you want students to be able to do as a result of the course, or lesson.
  

What are Instructional Objectives?

• Instructional objectives are specific, measurable, short-term, observable student behaviors.
• Objectives are the foundation upon which you can build lessons and assessments that you can prove you have met your overall course or lesson goals. Think of objectives as tools you use to make sure you reach your goals.
  

GOALS
For example, in an English class, the goal for the day might be:
By the end of the class, you will be able to:
1.-Identify compositions written in “first-person” format.
2.-Correctly compose a paragraph written in “first-person” format.
OBJECTIVES
1.-Students will be able to define “first-person” writing in their own words.
2.-Students will be able to correctly identify “first-person” writing samples from a variety of formats, with at least 85% accuracy.
3.-Students will complete several practice sentences written in “first-person” format.

As absurd as this may sound, many teachers never let their students know what they are expected to know and be able to do at lesson’s end. This simple step can yield a bountiful harvest of engaged learners in your classroom!

Look for more examples of “Ingredients for Student Engagement” next weekend.