Reflection on Student Engagement

Real Story

  Meet Bryan, upcoming senior on our IchallengeU team. Bryan loves football and can't stop talking about it on his first day at the summer academy. His life revolves around work, football, friends, and going through the motions. During the two week summer academy, Bryan engages in a life changing experience in a field that he had no previous interest in...Agriculture! Bryan had a hard time shutting down at night because he couldn't get the problems out of his head! He left the program with a new life goal of making it back into the board room of Zeeland Farm Service as a business professional.

Have we really spent time to focus on what student engagement looks like? I wonder if we have a major misconception of the importance of time on task? Upon some reflection and reading I have come to the following ideas...

How should we document student engagement? 

     The first step in documenting student engagement is understanding what we are looking for. What does student engagement look like? If I am in church sitting through the sermon, I can look very engaged and can play the "game" just fine...but my mind is in a completely different place. On the flip side, I can learn in a variety of ways and one such way is through walking and talking...does walking and talking look like I am engaged? I think that there are three levels of evaluating engagement. 

Three Levels of Evaluating Engagement:

1. Visual: What do I see my students doing? In my opinion, the lowest level of evaluating engagement lies in what we see. In our science classroom, rarely do you see the teacher talking in front of the class. Students are moving, talking, debating, wondering, questioning, socializing, living, breathing, reading, writing, drawing, laughing, looking, daydreaming, etc... How do you decipher what is engaged and what is not? Is the learning meaningful? In Alfie Kohn's blog entry, "Time on Task" he talks about meaningful learning leads to faster learning which lends time irrelevant in the big picture. I think we can do better to understand where each student is in his/hers level of engagement.
2. Conversational: What are my students thinking? If I want to know what my students are thinking, I can't do it by visual cues. Conversations can occur verbally or written and attack a much deeper level of understanding. Having conversation of what they are doing, thinking, wondering, dreaming, and living will lead to clues about their level of engagement. How can we best create learning environments that foster this conversation on a consistent basis? I have a fellow teacher, Mr, Fuzak, who has a great line hanging in his room..."every student...every day". 
3. Impact: Are my students making actual change to the way they think, live, or learn? Is the highest level of engagement a situation where we have made actual change in the way someone thinks, lives, or understands a concept? Is our classroom environment allowing more "Bryan's" to exist in the world? Will our students work to create positive change in our health, environment, workplace, and world to name a few? How can we best create this learning environment in our everyday classroom? 

     To document this, I challenge us to focus on the conversational and impact piece. Instead of using a visual cue to dictate a checkmark in the "Class Dojo" app, there better be a conversation to go along with that checkmark. In addition, we need to continue to have students "share their story" on what is impacting them. I wonder if we should use this documentation to relate back to their skills for success and/or if we should use it for teacher reflection? 

How can we help students self-reflect on their own engagement? 

     While engagement is not usually listed as a 21st century skill or skill for success, it is an essential component to ones ability to be productive.  Would it be best to reference engagement as a "state of mind" and not a skill? If so, how do we teach students to self reflect on their "state of mind"? A couple of thoughts come to mind: 

1. Can we teach students how to self advocate for methods to get back on track?
2. Are we OK with non-conventional methods of providing students time/space/freedom to refocus? 
3. Can we change focus from "Time on Task" to the actual meaning of the activities and include students in this discussion? 
4. Can we provide an adequate portfolio system where students can reflect upon and share their engagement?

     In conclusion, I want to work at documenting the higher level of impact our classrooms have on our students.  I want to have conversation and understanding to drive our documentation of student skills and state's of mind. I look forward to continuing this discussion with my colleagues and PLN this upcoming year! 

References:

"The Limits of "Time on Task" - Alfie Kohn." 2011. 18 Sep. 2012 <http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/tot.html>