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B R I N G I N G T H E C O M M O N C O R E T O L I F E I N K– 8 C L A S S R O O M S absorption, the greater the affective engagement. Behavioral engagement is all about student on-task behavior. The student’s effort and persistence in combination with his or her level of attention (and ability to divert attention away from distractions), related questions, and ability to seek help enable the student to accomplish the task at hand. Cognitive engagement—which is the heart of this text—ranges from simple, easier work (such as call-and-response) to highly complex problem solving in a social context. While we will describe some simple engagement strategies, our focus will be on more complex engagement strategies, since that is the destination of the Common Core State Standards.
The CCSS have an overarching goal of more student independence and more self-regulation of learning. So why not give students the exact list of engagement criteria and ask them to rate themselves? Ultimately, the best person to determine whether a lesson was engaging is the student. To this end, we created quickrating checklist reproducibles that cover possible criteria for engagement (see pages 9–11 or visit go.solution -tree.com/commoncore to download). We offer a checklist for younger students and a second checklist, which is more advanced and open ended, for older students. Have students fill out this form periodically to determine whether or not they are engaged at high levels, and use it as a guide for adjusting your instruction. Students need to be in charge of regulating their engagement, but as teachers, we need to create an environment where engagement can occur.
Fostering an Engaging Climate Our environments greatly affect how well we stay engaged in learning. For example, when we are tired, hungry, thirsty, stressed, uncomfortable, or feeling unsafe or unloved, our brains most likely will not stay as engaged for long periods. We also know that just the right amount of stress enhances learning and memory (Vedhara, Hyde, Gilchrist, Tytherleigh, & Plummer, 2000). Challenge in a supportive environment is the impetus for cognitive engagement. The classroom’s climate is highly dependent on the teacher’s attitude. While your level of effectiveness when instructing your students is extremely important, engagement starts with your overall mood and attitudes. You’ll engage more students with honey than with vinegar. Your presence affects your relationship with the student, and your positive body language and attitude will help make every single strategy in this book work easier and better. Two key ingredients for a positive relationship with your students are (1) connecting with your students to show you are interested in their lives and (2) differentiating instruction by responding to individual students’ needs.
Connecting With Your Students There are several ways to connect with your students daily: give high fives when they enter or leave the classroom, write notes of encouragement, give positive feedback to help them grow in their understanding of the daily target, smile and gesture during lessons, invite them for lunch in the classroom, celebrate achievements, ask questions about their lives outside school, care about their trials, and gear lessons toward their interests. The latter idea tends to be the most challenging to implement when there is such a broad curriculum. Yet, the more interested we are in the topic, the easier it is to excel.
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Engagement can also be defined by its length, social conditions, amount of physical movement, and involvement of emotions. For instance, some of the strategies in this book are engaging because students are placed into small groups, while others demand kinesthetic tactics. All of the strategies evoke some type of positive learning emotion.