Active Engagement Strategies for Whole Group Instruction

1. Active Engagement Strategies for Whole Group Instruction Sarah Sayko, M. Ed. National Center for Reading First Technical Assistance RMC Research Corp. Sheryl Turner, M.A. Eastern Regional Reading First Technical Assistance Center

2. Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand. -Ancient Chinese Proverb

3. Active Engagement

4. Active engagement refers to the joint functioning of motivation, conceptual knowledge, cognitive strategies, and social interactions in literacy activities. (Guthrie & Anderson, 1999) Active learning involves providing opportunities for students to meaningfully talk and listen, write, read, and reflect on the content, ideas, issues and concerns of an academic subject. (Meyers & Jones, 1993) What is Active Engagement?

5. Active Engagement and Motivation Factors affecting the development of intrinsic motivation in a school setting: • Level of challenge offered by tasks and materials • Quality and timing of feedback to students about heir work • Supports and scaffolds available to learners • Students’ interest in tasks and content • Nature of the learning context • Intrinsically motivated students tend to persist longer, work harder, actively apply strategies, and retain key information more consistently. Guthrie, McGough, et al., 1996; Guthrie & Van Meter, et al., 1996

6. Active Engagement and Conceptual Knowledge Engaged readers gain knowledge and experience as they read by continually activating and extending their understanding. They apply knowledge to answer a new question or to solve a problem. Two methods of activating students’ knowledge building are: -Self-explanation -Concept mapping Baker, Dreher, & Guthrie, 2000

7. Active Engagement and Cognitive Strategies Engaged readers use cognitive strategies for integrating information, and communicating and representing their understanding. Cognitive strategies are procedures that can help students succeed at higher-order tasks. Some strategies are: -Activating prior knowledge before, during, and after reading -Self-questioning -Monitoring comprehension -Summarizing Baker, Dreher, & Guthrie, 2000

8. Active Engagement and Social Interaction When children are highly social, sharing their reading and writing frequently, they are likely to be active, interested readers. Baker, Dreher, & Guthrie, 2000

9. Multiple Student-Teacher Interactions The most direct way to increase learning rate is by increasing the number of positive, or successful, instructional interactions (PII) per school day. It is important that students who need extra instruction to gain skill mastery get that instruction in a timely manner. After initial instruction, teachers need to determine who will benefit from re - teaching or pre - teaching in small group and/or one – on - one.

10. Model of Instructional Contexts for Reading Engagement Learning and Knowledge Goals Social Interaction Motivation Formative Assessment Teacher Involvement Active Engagement Cognitive Strategies Conceptual Knowledge Direct Instruction Collaboration Support Adapted from Guthrie et al. 2000

11. Impact of Active Engagement High levels of active engagement during lessons are associated with higher levels of achievement and student motivation. Ryan and Deci, 2000 Research studies have repeated shown that reading in many classrooms is not designed to provide students with sufficient engaged reading opportunities to promote reading growth. Simmons, Fuchs, Fuchs, Mathes & Hodge, 1995

12. In a study examining the achievement of 792 students in 88 classrooms (grades 1-5) in nine high-poverty schools the researchers found: A significant, positive correlation between active learning environments and growth in reading comprehension, whereas the correlation was negative in passive learning environments. (Taylor, Pearson, Peterson, & Rodriguez, 2003) In a study examining the link between teacher support and student engagement and achievement in the elementary grades, researchers found: Students with supportive teachers were 89% more likely to be engaged in school than those with average levels of support, and 44% are more likely to have high levels of achievement and commitment than the average student. (Klem & Connell, 2004) Study Results on Active Engagement

13. Processing Strategy:Look-Lean-Whisper • Look: Make eye contact with your partner so you know you have his/her attention. • Lean: Move heads close together so you can be heard. • Whisper: Speak in a soft tone so others can be heard. Archer & Gleason, 1994

14. Look-Lean-Whisper Activity What is active engagement? What are the outward signs of an engaged learner? Activity 1

15. Avoid Recitation “Who can tell me…?”

16. Processing Strategy: 10:2 Theory To reduce information loss, pause for two minutes at about ten minute intervals. For every ten minutes or so of meaningful chunks of new information, students should be provided with two or so minutes to process the information. Students can respond and discuss their current understanding in various ways. Rowe, 1983

17. 10:2 Reflection Activity Record on your 10:2 reflection sheet the key ideas you want to remember about active engagement.

18. Teacher Effectiveness Studies

19. Characteristics of Effective Classrooms High levels of: • student cooperation • Task involvement • Success

20. Characteristics of Effective Teachers • Awareness of purpose • Task orientation • High expectations for students • Enthusiastic, clear, and direct • Lessons consistently well prepared • Students on task • Strong classroom management skills • Predictable routines • Systematic curriculum-based assessment to monitor student progress Tableman, 2004

21. 10:2 Reflection Activity Record on your 10:2 reflection sheet the key ideas you want to remember about the effectiveness studies.

22. Classroom Management

23. In order for active student engagement to occur, teachers need to develop effective classroom management routines.

24. Active Engagement and Classroom Management Studies • Management Styles • Rules and Procedures • Coping with Constraints • Room Arrangement • Interruptions • Successful managers integrate their classroom rules and procedures into their instruction systematically so that they become part of the curriculum and classroom environment.

25. Classroom Management Direct teaching of management routines: • Pre-Planning of Routines • Teaching Routines

26. Direct Teaching Pre-planning of management routines: • Room arrangement • student seating • placement of materials • Whole and small group areas • Establishing rules and procedures (ask 3 before me, etc.) • Clear expectations • Quick transitions (timer, music, chime, countdown) • Reduce teacher talk (hand signal, cue)

27. Direct Teaching Teaching Routines Systematically • Modeling • Practice • Review • Reinforce

28. Think-Pair-Share Activity 1. Take a moment and list the procedures you have used in your classroom. 2. Decide if they are Management or Instructional Routines. 3. Discuss with your neighbor how you taught these routines to your students.

29. 10:2 Reflection Activity Record on your 10:2 reflection sheet the key ideas you want to remember about classroom management.

30. Instructional Planning

31. In order for active student engagement to occur, teachers need to plan instruction effectively.

32. Deep Knowledge of Curriculum • Five components of reading • Instructional content • Instructional design • Strategies • Routines • Sequence of Instruction • Assessments

33. Knowledge of Student Assessment Results Assessments provide information for: • Initial placement or student screening • Progress monitoring throughout the year for whole group and small group instruction • Determining individual student needs • Formal assessment

34. Consistent Instructional Routines • Reliable and steady. • A customary or regular course of procedure. Consistent routines allow students to become comfortable with the way instruction is taught so that they can concentrate on what is being taught.

35. Focus on Instructional Objectives • What should students • know and be able to • Do (objective)? 3. How will I, and they, know when they are successful? • 2. How does this lesson • objective fit into the • “big picture” of • instruction this year? • (Introduction of skill, review of skill, • introduction of skill at more • complex level) 4. What learning experiences will facilitate their success? 6. Based on data, how do I refine the learning experiences? 5. What resources will I Use?

36. Task Analysis Given a task to be accomplished, how do we get there? What kinds of lessons and practices are needed if key performances are to be mastered? • Is the task valid and worthwhile? • What are the skills, knowledge, and understanding that students need to have in order to be successful at moving toward mastery of the standard and completion of the task? • Which students have mastered which parts of which skills? • Design differentiated instruction which address the various levels of student understanding. Handout

37. Anticipating Instructional Difficulties for Struggling Readers Preventionvs. Intervention • Who may have difficulty with this objective? • How will I monitor learning? • What steps will I take to insure all students learn this objective?

38. Examples of Anticipating Instructional Difficulties • A teacher anticipated the inappropriate questions that students might generate. The students read a paragraph followed by three questions on might ask about the paragraph. The students were asked to look at each example and decide whether or not that question was about the most important information in the paragraph. The students discussed whether each question was too narrow, too broad, or appropriate. (Palincsar, 1987) • Students were taught specific rules to discriminate a question from a non-question, and a good question for a poor one. The teacher provided the following statements: -A good question starts with a question word. -A good question can be answered by the story. -A good question asks about an important detail of the story. (Cohen, 1983) Handout & Activity

39. Group Alertness Definition: Is what a teacher does to grab the attention of all the students in a group and keep it continuously focused on the learning activity. Kounin

40. Examples of Group Alertness • Instead of telling students information, the teacher involves her students at every turn. As the students listen to the sounds in fan, they slid their hand from their shoulder to their elbow, then to their wrist and chorally chimed, /fff-aaa-nnn/. For rhymes, the students came up with the words themselves. • During making words activities, the students manipulated their own set of letters as the teacher coached, “Let’s do tub. Listen to the middle sounds. It’s not tab, it’s not tob. It’s /ttt-uuu-bbb/. You need a letter for /u/. • When the class couldn’t answer a question about how a character had changed, the teacher suggested that they search the book for a clue instead of telling them the answer. Handout 6 Activity 6

41. Work Smarter, Not Harder Do not commit “assumicide!” (A. Archer) A. Archer Handout

42. 10:2 Reflection Activity Record on your 10:2 reflection sheet the key ideas you want to remember about instructional planning.

43. Instructional Delivery

44. In order for active student engagement to occur, teachers need to delivery instruction effectively.

45. Active Engagement and Direct Instruction Explicit and systematic teaching does not preclude the use of active engagement strategies. In fact, one of the most prominent features of well delivered direct instruction is high levels of active engagement on the part of all students.

46. Primary Components of Interactive Direct Instruction • Teacher - directed learning. • Teacher serves as the instructional leader for students, actively selecting and directing or leading the learning activities. • High levels of teacher-student interaction. • Students spend their time interacting with the teacher either individually or as part of a group as opposed to spending most of their time in independent study or seatwork.

47. Interactive Direct Instruction: Pattern of Teaching • Teacher checks previous day’s assignment. • Teacher selects instructional goals and materials, and structures the learning activities for high levels of student engagement. • Teacher actively teaches the process or concept through demonstrations and interactive discussions with students. • Teacher assesses student progress through follow-up questions and/or practice exercises in which students have the opportunity to demonstrate their acquisition of knowledge or skills. • Teacher provides immediate corrective feedback to student responses. • Provide independent student practice of skill. • Provide weekly and monthly reviews. Handout

48. Zone of Proximal Development Definitions: The distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or collaboration with more capable peers. Vygotsky The area within which the student cannot proceed alone, but can proceed to learn when guided by a teacher or an expert peer who has demonstrated mastery of the skill. Rosenshine & Meister

49. Zone of Proximal Development:Teacher’s Role The teacher’s role is to assist the students in moving through the zone to become expert users of their new knowledge and skills.

50. Scaffolding Definition: Temporary devices and procedures used by teachers to support students as they learn strategies.