6 Golden Rules For Engaging

Students

DANUTA KOWAL
 THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGAGEMENT

If the mind of a student isn’t engaged,

understanding and content mastery don’t stand
a chance;
If the mind and heart together aren’t engaged,
long-term retention and transfer of
understanding and content mastery are unlikely
as well.
1. Make it meaningful
 How?
 Let them brainstorm problems for problem-
based learning.
 Involve the local community in project-
based learning.
 Ask them what they love, are afraid of, are
curious about, or want to contribute to.
2. Foster a sense of competence
 How?
 Make progress visible (consider gamification)
 Make learning visible
What is a gamification
 Gamification is defined as the application of typical elements of game playing (rules of play, point
scoring, competition with others) to other areas of activity, specifically to engage users in problem
solving.
 Gamification is the use of game design and mechanics to enhance non-game contexts by increasing
participation, engagement, loyalty and competition. These methods can include points, leaderboards,
direct competitions and stickers or badges, and can be found in industries as varied as personal
healthcare, retail—and, of course, education.
 the Khan Academy/“The Way Things Work”
 ClassDojo, Classcraft, Ribbon Hero
 DuoLingo
 Edmodo
 Zondle
 Socrative
 Brainskype
 9 Ways to Make Learning Visible in the
Classroom
 1. Use prior knowledge to enhance learning
 2. Incorporate vocabulary techniques
 3. Put reading comprehension into context
 4. Concept mapping
 5. Discussion and questioning
 6. Metacognitive strategies (a system for monitoring our own
learning)
 7. Reading across documents
 8. Problem-solving teaching
 9. Extended writing
3. Provide autonomy support

 How?
 Encourage self-directed learning, but also
provide checkpoints where students should
check-in with you, a peer, a parent, an
expert in the community, or someone else
that can support them without defeating
the autonomy.
 4. Embrace collaborative learning

 How?
 Grouping is an easy go-to strategy here, but collaboration is more
than simply sitting together, or completing an activity together.
 For true collaboration, design lessons and units that can’t function
without meaningful collaboration–student-to-student, student-to-
community, student-to-expert, school-to-school, and so on.
 5. Establish positive teacher-student
relationships
 How?
A good start toward building a positive teacher-
student relationship is to meet the student on their
own terms with authentic interest and personalized
attention.
 Usingpositive presuppositions is another useful
strategy.
 6. Promote mastery orientations
 If we’re truly focused on understanding (and
it’s sibling ‘mastery’), then helping students
understand what they’re working towards, the
value of that goal, and how to recognize and
use that mastery once achieved can help
engage students, but also to promote a strong
student-teacher relationship. In the long run,
these two (engagement and relationships)
eventually feed one another naturally.