Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW: ACTIVE LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT

STRATEGIES

Literature Review: Active Learning and Engagement Strategies

Collette Sanchez
National University

LITERATURE REVIEW: LITERATURE REVIEW: ACTIVE LEARNING AND

ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES

Abstract
This paper is a Literature Review on the textbook Active Learning and Engagement Strategies by
Paula Rutherford. Included are the benefits of using this textbook in the classroom to create
formative assessments that stimulate learning and provide assessments that meet the needs of all
learners.
Learning.

This book supports the Teacher Performance Expectation Domain B: Assessing

LITERATURE REVIEW: LITERATURE REVIEW: ACTIVE LEARNING AND

ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES

Literature Review
Active Learning and Engagement Strategies (2012) by Paula Rutherford is a terrific
resource to have in the classroom. The book provides numerous worksheets and examples of
engagement strategies specifically designed to meet the needs of all learners. I have often used
templates from this book to support student 'voice and choice' where students can show their
learning using different modalities, such as writing a poem, painting a story, or acting out a
scene, that still meet or exceed the expectations of the lesson objective. The book also includes
worksheets for teachers to self-assess the way they engage students in their own classroom,
which has been eye-opening and inspirational to use over the course of my teaching practice.
Active Learning and Engagement Strategies supports the Teacher Performance
Expectation Domain B: Assessing Learning (2013) because the book provides an array of
strategies for engaging learners and also provides types of assessments that can be catered to a
variety of learners in order to meet the main lesson objective. This book is refreshing for my
teaching because it helps me make instructional strategies more fun in the classroom and does
not require each student to complete the same assessment in order to show their comprehension
of the content. Teachers can use Active Learning and Engagement Strategies to teach students
that often there is not only one answer to solve a problem and that a multitude of answers
enriches the learning process and outcomes. According to Rutherford (2012) there are ten
questions teachers must ask themselves while designing lessons and the top three have to do with
defining the assessment before planning instruction:
1. What should students know and be able to do as a result of the lesson?
2. How will students demonstrate what they know and what they can do? (Assessment)

LITERATURE REVIEW: LITERATURE REVIEW: ACTIVE LEARNING AND

ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES

3. How will I find out what students already know (pre-assessment), and how will I help
them access what they know and have experienced both inside and outside the
classroom?
By planning the assessments first, teachers are planning backwards, which in turn is
actually a better way to write curriculum because teachers are able to bookend their lesson to
include meaning-making and transfer, two vital components of planning effective lessons.
Another benefit of owning Active Learning and Engagement Strategies is that readers
have the authors permission to copy any of the resource material from the book. In fact, the
majority of the books content are templates designed for active learning and comprehensive
assessments with modifications to meet the needs of all learners. My favorite template is called
student Voice and Choice. Students collaborate together to decide the criteria and final product
to demonstrate their understanding of the content.

The benefits of this type of student

engagement leads to student-buy in, collaborative learning, student choice about the outcome,
and caters to multiple intelligences.

LITERATURE REVIEW: LITERATURE REVIEW: ACTIVE LEARNING AND

ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
References
Rutherford, P. (2012) Active learning and engagement strategies. Just ASK Publications.
Alexandria, Virginia, USA
Teacher Performance Expectation (2013) Domain A: Making subject matter comprehensible to
students. Retrieved January 30, 2016, from http://www.ctc.ca.gov/educator-prep/TPAfiles/TPEs-Full-Version.pdf