Whew, only the end of day 1 and I am still processing the learning. I was with Jim Knight for High-Impact Instruction today. To help solidify my learning, I’m coming here to jot my notes and thoughts from the day and action plan moving forward.
First off–how awesome is this?? As part of the session, we were given the High-Impact Instruction book, a guide for Teachers and a spiral-bound notebook to guide our reading and learning from the session and the book.
Today, we focused on:
- The Impact Cycle for Coaching –what it is and how can it be used to increase engagement?
- Why is engagement important?
- How do we measure engagement?
- What teaching strategies increase student engagement?
What is engagement really? This topic has been discussed many times on campus in PLCs, with admin, and with other instructional coaches. Knight gives a suggestion for how to break it down.
Authentic Learning v. Strategic Compliance
But first, WHY is engagement important?
It is a pre-requisite for achievement, happiness, relationships, productivity and of course, learning!
Think about it. What percentage of students in your school are…
- Authentically Engaged
- Strategically Compliant
- Not engaged
Research shows less than 55% of students in grades 5-12 are authentically engaged. How do you impact change to increase that percentage? Look at time on task by measuring it in classes. You can also look at authentic engagement by having students assess their learning. And then you can measure instructional time and non-instructional time.
What teaching strategies can you use to increase engagement? Chapters 5-9
- Thinking Prompts
- Effective Questions (Open v. Closed, Right/Wrong v. Opinion)
- Stories
- Cooperative Learning
- Authentic Learning
Action plan:
- Review the resources.
- Find which ones you want to start the school year with for PLCs.
- Focus on an intro with why engagement is important, then look at how it can be measured and discuss which measurement teachers want to focus on in their classrooms.
- Think about, research, check PLN, etc–how can increasing student engagement help empower students?
- Build a Google doc with Thinking Prompt ideas
- READ!
Things to read from his session:
- Flow (M.Csikszentmihalyi)
- Blink or Tipping Points or both (Gladwell)
- Engaging Students (P. Schlechty)
- Success Factors for Students (article by Shane Lopez)
- Power of Full Engagement (James E. Loehr and Tony Schwartz)
- Refresh of Kagan Cooperative Learning Strategies
And now, off to bed, as Day 2 is fast approaching!
The Empowered Learner 