This is post four in the 11 for '11 series. I'm writing about 11 things that are on my mind as we begin the 2011-2012 school year.
I've decided to delete the phrase "student engagement" from my vocabulary. I think it confuses more than it explains. Is the boy sitting in the back row, doodling in the margins of his notepad, engaged? Maybe he is. Maybe he's connecting and synthesizing new information as he doodles. Then again, maybe he's not. The problem is that you don't know. The problem is that "student engagement" isn't measurable or observable.
Interaction, on the other hand, is both measurable and observable. You can check for understanding as students interact with each other and with you. You can check for understanding when a student writes about his or her interaction with a text. Interaction is teachable, observable, and measurable.
Make this year less about educational jargon and more about interacting.
2 comments:
How true! I'm using Whole Brain teaching techniques (5 rules and Class/Yes...you can find these on Youtube under Chris Biffle) with my students. They LOVE it! They are all engaged through this instruction and I can easily assess who "gets" it and who doesn't.
Yes, Whole Brain teaching does have some great examples of students interacting on their Teacher Tube and YouTube videos! One thing I've noticed is that some teachers (myself included) forget to provide students an opportunity for individual accountability at the end of each lesson. Having students write about what they learned not only provides valuable data about what students know/don't know, but it also provides lesson closure and helps students file away their new learning in their schema.
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