Engagement Strategies
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Three Strategies (The following is taken from Ten Engagement Strategies for Students)
1. Create an Emotionally Safe Environment
• Set ground rules from the first day of school.
• Encourage and commend one another. Do not put other one another down. You want to build self-esteem, not hinder it.
• Apply these standards to yourself.
• Lead by example.

2. Create an Intellectually Safe Environment-
• You want to begin the class with an activity or task "that 95 percent of the [students] can do without your help."
• Establish a regular pattern at the beginning of class, so that the students know what to expect.
• Create a variety of intellectually stimulating assignments.

3. Cultivate your Engagement Meter-
• Establish an active learning environment.
• Although PowerPoint and lectures are useful, try a variety of teaching methods. For example, whole brain learning and team work.
• Before a test, do a Jeopardy review game with your students. Help build knowledge while having fun.


Whole Brain Teaching (For further information visit Whole Brain Teaching):
Involving Students:
  • Kinesthetic - Gestures
  • Auditory - Listening
  • Visual - Watching








Active Learning (For further information visit Florida State University Handbook):
Active learning is a strategy that helps students get involved in the lesson.
Listening:You want the students to be able to process the information and recite it effectively in their own words.
  • Students pair up - two to three per pair
  • Explain concepts and learned material to one another
  • Short implemented lectures at a given time
"Students retain 70% of the information in the first ten minutes of a lecture but only 20% in last ten minutes."

Writing: You want the students to write short summaries of the material, lessons, lectures, etc., so that the "[s]tudents can use writing to explore a topic or class material, using the pen as a flashlight that provides them the opportunity and the confidence to think beyond the statements and thought of others."
  • Questions - allow the students to submit questions at the end of class
  • Summaries - depending on the course material, "write a 2-3 page summary"; however, a few paragraphs are more reasonable.
  • "One-Minute Papers"

Visual: Although visual material can be entertaining, you want to keep the students focused and not passive.
  • Films - questions, refection, discussion, and analysis.
  • Charts, diagrams, etc.
  • Create a visual themselves

Role Playing: Role playing can help students become more in tuned to learning and picking up key concepts.
  • Each student adopts a role
  • Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why


I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.~ Confuncius



References

Biffle, C. (2008, March 4). Whole Brain Teaching: The Basics. You Tube – Broadcast Yourself. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBeWEgvGm2Y.

Frondeville, T. D. (2009, March 11). Ten Steps to Better Student Engagement. K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies That Work.
Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning-teaching-strategies.

FSU (2011). Using Active Learning in the Classroom (Chapter 8). Instruction at FSU Handbook. Retrieved from http://ctl.fsu.edu/explore/onlineresources/docs/Chptr8.pdf.

Pedersen, J. (January, August, 2009). 1st Steps. Whole Brain Teaching. Retrieved from http://wholebrainteaching.com/Whole-Brain-Teching/First-Steps.html.