The One Non-Negotiable in EVERY Lesson: Required Student Engagement

Engaging kids in their learning equals getting kids thinking and building understanding about both content and skills.  While there will always be a need for direct instruction, each lesson should also do 2 things:

1)  Check for student understanding through engagement; this requires a "no excuses" mentality - a simple class question/answer session allows students to "check out" while others answer the questions.

2)  Get students engaged in their own learning; this requires students to be thinking about their work - while taking notes looks like students being engaged, I speak from experience when I say I can take notes with the best of them while thinking of something else entirely.

Students are thinking about their science content.  Instead of listing qualities of different types of rocks, they are looking at rocks and classifying them with a teacher-provided chart.  Each member of the small group takes turns with the jobs to ensure full engagement and thinking for every student.

Getting kids to manipulate their math engages their minds.  In the above picture, kids are matching the equation to the word problem and the graphic representation.  This diverse experience requires them to make connections and apply their learning.

And, here are the directions for that last picture...

By collaborating, students are required to articulate their thoughts about the above matching exercise; additionally, by having a partner, a student struggling with the learning has a support to help determine accurate answers.

A simple piece of paper within a plastic cover provides a "whiteboard" for quick checks of understanding and required engagement of all students.

And look, they each show their answer.

Kids love games, so getting students involved in a little friendly competition is great for engagement.  In this case, fluency is key...the faster the student, the more fluent in their understanding of the content.  

All students participated in a play about the Revolutionary War.  Students learned songs and individual songs to help foster their understanding of the content.

In the above two pictures, students are listening to a recording of their performance and making notes about their observations.  Once finished, they discuss their observations with a partner before a whole class discussion.  In the end, their observations lead to improvements in their performance.

In the two pictures above, students are working together to design a workout routine that will incorporate the core components of fitness; once they've completed their routine, they publish it to music and lead the class to build a healthy community of learners.

Technology is a great resource for student engagement; in this picture, a student is taking a quiz on Infused Learning to demonstrate his understanding of the content.

Getting kids to chart their progress over time engages them in reflective learning practices,  Here, students are charting their repetitions and weights to support increased fitness.