STUDENT ENGAGEMENT: TEACHER AND STUDENT INITIATED

I spent a day this week observing elementary classrooms with a lens provided by the principal who asked that I examine student engagement which has been a focus of his observations.

Early in the day I realized I could sort two types of student engagement initiation; teacher and student.

I labeled teacher initiated as those cases where the teacher greatly helped focus the student engagement. In some cases it was the dynamic, center stage teacher whose story telling or humor drew the students into the activity. Some teachers used relationships and group dynamic to gain student attention, orchestrating a desire to be “part of” what was happening. Other teachers moved quickly throughout the classroom continually being close to each learner to focus attention...in several cases pointing on the page where the student’s eyes should be looking.

I labeled student initiative when students had to self direct their attention. Independent reading, centers, cooperative group work and writing or computer activities fell into this category.

Dr Adela Solis defines procedural and substantial engagement in an article in the Intercultural Research and Development Association’s Newsletter.

One definition of student engagement distinguishes between procedural engagement and substantial engagement (McLaughlin, et al., 2005). A procedurally engaged student is one who follows traditional rules of behavior. He or she is quiet, looking at the teacher, has the book turned to the correct page and may even help the teacher collect the homework. A substantially engaged student is one who not only attends to the built-in procedures of instruction but also interacts with the content of the lesson in a deep and thoughtful manner.

The ways in which these two types of students are involved look different and lead to different academic results. Research points out, not surprisingly, that it is through substantial engagement that students are able to “get it” and “make the mark” on the test.

After my day of observations I met with grade level teams, who identify the “learning to learn” behaviors that were critical to get student initiated engagement and what I’d also now label as substantial engagement. Here is a list created by a third grade team:

Reading Stamina
Reading Enjoyment
Self Questioning
Questioning Others
Peer Tutoring
Reference Skills/Finding Information
Working Cooperatively
Debating
Making Real World Connections
Goal Setting
Self Motivation
Self Monitoring
Accountability

Each team also identified the skills where they felt comfortable with the students’ progress and which skills needed the most focused teacher attention during the last two months of the year to best prepare the students for the next grade level expectations. Working in vertical teams teachers will share the list and request input. I’m returning in a week to assist in designing year end strategies focused on the needed, identified student “learning to learn” behaviors.

Let me know if your teams conduct a similar process.

MIDDLE SCHOOL PLCs

This week I worked with middle school PLCs that have meeting time built into their school schedule weekly. The teachers work as a grade level team and belong to a house made up of a 6th, 7th, and 8th grade team. Students stay in the same house for the three years they are in the school. So teachers collaborate, work with the same students and build a curriculum across the three years.

Consider how Richard DuFour’s comments from “Schools as a Learning Community” regarding a school, can apply to a team within a middle school house.

School mission statements that promise "learning for all" have become a cliché. But when a school staff takes that statement literally—when teachers view it as a pledge to ensure the success of each student rather than as politically correct hyperbole—profound changes begin to take place. The school staff finds itself asking, What school characteristics and practices have been most successful in helping all students achieve at high levels? How could we adopt those characteristics and practices in our own school? What commitments would we have to make to one another to create such a school? What indicators could we monitor to assess our progress? When the staff has built shared knowledge and found common ground on these questions, the school has a solid foundation for moving forward with its improvement initiative.

I prepared the following questions to guide a conversation among the grade level teams as they discussed concerns about students:

Facilitator:

Have a teacher give a description of an individual or group of students that the teacher wishes to discuss.

Have the teacher share concerns, experiences, approaches and outcomes connected to the desired goals.

Have teammates discuss their experiences with the student(s) identifying similarities and differences.

Have the initial teacher identify an appropriate next step goal to achieve with the student(s).

Have teammates offer possible strategies for the teacher or team to implement.

Have the initial teacher select/identify a plan of action for implementation and select an appropriate date for sharing feedback. (If the teacher or team is lacking information to make a decision, the plan should be, ”What information needs to be gathered and who will take what responsibilities?”.)

Recorder:

Minutes should indicate the students discussed and action plans selected with check back dates.

A second set of questions was provided for the same content teachers in the house. (6th, 7th, 8th grade Language Arts teachers)

Share the current unit of study/standards that you are currently instructing. What are the major instructional strategies you are using for this unit? What have been your observations of student engagement and learning to date? What assessments FOR learning have you been (or will you be) using?

How are your teammate’s approaches similar and different?

What questions/insights would you want to share with your teammates in the other content and exploratory (art, music, computer, PE, etc.) areas?

What insights/questions would you want to share with the preceding and/or following grade teacher?

Insights:

How will these standards be approached in curriculum changes?
If, in a text adoption process, are there connecting insights?
Are there instructional resources that would assist student achievement of these standards?

Record: Insights, questions, and request.

A LOOK AT COACHES' WORK

Below is a diagram I use to talk about the work of teachers and coaches. Teachers need to study student learning and student work. So major teacher behaviors are thinking, observing, creating, and experimenting.

Imagine that it’s August and you know little about your incoming class. In that setting you begin thinking about “who” you believe your students will be and imagine their backgrounds, interest, skills, etc. Then considering the initial standards that you need to address, you create learning activities…journal assignments, a simulation, lectures, articles to read, etc. Experimenting means that you engage the students in the activities you designed. As they begin working in the learning activities, you observe what happens, often with the standard in mind (assessment) and thinking about what you observe you might see a need to redesign the learning activity.

A continuous cycle directs teacher activity. New teachers do the cycle once each evening taking personal learning from the day they just completed and improving the next day’s plan. As the teacher gains experience, the cycle repeats at the end of each period. (A new teacher recently told me to come 5th period, "It’s pretty good by then!”) Highly experienced teachers are designing instruction with several differentiated plans mapped out and a set of “spontaneous options” ready to go upon almost any observation.

In a recent workshop a coach and principal called me aside to say they were working on getting the cycle created because at their school practice was more a U shape:

Instruction was followed by testing and then instruction of the next standard began. A need for assessment for learning was missing.

Instructional coaches and instructional leaders can picture themselves as being inside the cycle with a vision/purpose of increasing teacher observation, thinking, creativity, and experimentation.

Observation: Coaching should cause teachers to see and hear things that might have been missed were it not for the coach. Sometimes this comes from the coach's observations and other times it’s the coach shining a light where the busy teacher wasn’t looking.

Thinking: One of the greatest compliments a coach can hear is a teacher in a conference saying, “That’s a really good question!”. The coach’s question has raise a thought that would have been missed.

Creativity is often generated as a teacher is explaining the thinking and planning of upcoming instruction. It’s quite common that teachers change/enhance a lesson during a pre-conference with a coach.

Experimentation is encouraged and supported through coaching. Teachers’ creative ideas receive a sounding board with coaching. “What ifs” are discussed “worst case scenarios” examined and risk taking encouraged.

Those of you working with and promoting Professional Learning Communities can envision that the PLC is the center or the cycle, too. As a teacher I invest time in collegial work to gain...

• observations -(What do others see in my students’ work?)
• thinking- (What question didn’t I ask myself?)
• creativity -(That’s a great idea)
• experimentation -(Go for it…I’ll try that too!)

COACHES TAKING GRIPES TO GOALS

I was recently working in Southern Georgia with Academic Coaches and their Principals examining how the implementation of coaching can impact student achievement. One of the topics they requested was how to respond to teachers’ statements that were resistant.

I suggested that paraphrasing instead of questioning was sometimes a helpful response.

Here is an example I used:

 TEACHER: “My students won’t read an assignment so I don’t see how I can do anything other than present information in class, hoping they will remember some of it.

 Coach: You have not been able to get many of the students to work outside of class. Teacher confirms.
 Coach: You are worried that presenting information in class won’t get the student achievement that you want. Teacher confirms.
 Coach: If students read outside of class you would teach very differently. Teacher confirms.
 Coach: You want to find a way to get them to read outside of class

I call this strategy…taking Gripes to Goals. The series of paraphrases reframe the teacher’s words so that a focus for creating a change emerges.

One of the coaches wanted to role play a difficult situation she was facing. She explained that she was requested (by the principal) to work with a teacher who had received four “needs improvement” evaluation comments. Observations showed a lack of classroom management and lack of student engagement. The students did not do homework the teacher assigned and many were failing. The teacher has 30 year’s experience and a doctorate…The coach is in her 7th year.

She played the teacher and I took a coaching role:

Coach: Before we begin, tell me how you are feeling about us working together.

Teacher: I’m wondering how with all my experience and hard work there is anything you can do to make things different. I don’t think you understand.

Coach: You want to be sure I understand. Tell me things you want me to know.

Teacher: There are some very challenging students in here. They don’t do the work and fail the tests. I work very hard and have done everything I can think of. I have great relationships with kids. The principal thinks I’m too friendly but I disagree.

Coach: You work very hard and want your students to be successful.

Teacher: Yes I do.

Coach: You believe the relationships you have with the students supports them as learners.

Teacher: Yes

Coach: You are working hard and students are failing, so you need to do something else.

Teacher: I’m not sure.

Coach: So you have yet to decide whether to keep doing what you are doing harder and longer OR try doing something else.

Teacher: Yeah, I guess so.

Coach: I’m wondering if I can help you with that decision. I’d be happy to look at your students work, then observe them in the classroom, and discuss what I see.
Teacher: OK

Interesting that when we debriefed the role play with the entire group the person playing the teacher said that she “changed her attitude” because I said “she was a good teacher.”

Note, I never said that.

I believe that paraphrasing caused the teacher to feel “listened to and respected” The reframing caused the teacher to accept a goal for exploration. Now a coach can work with a goal to which the teacher has agreed.

Try using paraphrases to turn gripes to goals. Let me know what you find.