Increase academic engagement

1. Quality teaching Student behavior Increase academic engagement

2. Actively engaging students • One teacher behavior that is consistently associated with (a) improved student behavior and (b) increased student achievement is actively engaging students. • How can teachers actively engage students during instruction? • Watch this example of opportunities to respond (OTR): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-N7fjZRjVZNRWVJcjNQTzA2V1k/view?usp=sharing

3. Ways to actively engage students • Provide high rates of opportunities to respond. • Vary individual vs. group responding • Increase participatory instruction • Consider various observable ways to engage students. • Written responses • Writing on individual white boards • Choral responding • Gestures • Others?

4. Increasing academic engagement • Which aspects of instruction influence behavior? • All of them! Including . . . • Pacing • Difficulty • Mismatch between task and ability • Variation (or lack thereof) • Teacher enthusiasm • Always investigate academic connections to behavior problems.

5. Increasing academic engagement • What are some other ways to increase academic engagement? • Incorporate students’ interests into lessons. • Offer choice whenever possible. • Think about potential issues proactively and take them into account when planning your lessons.

6. The six task dimensions • History • Response form • Modality • Complexity • Schedule • Variation Darch & Kame'enui, 2004

7. What makes a task more difficult?(and most likely to occasion problem behavior) Darch & Kame'enui, 2004

8. Thinking about data collection • What are some student and teacher behaviors that would be relevant in actively engaging students? • Number of opportunities to respond • Students’ rate of participation • Teacher use of varied instructional methods • Others? • You could use one of your Data Collection Plan templates to focus on one of these behaviors.

9. Task Dimension Activity • Locate the Task Dimension Activity in your activity handout. • For each scenario, identify the task dimensions that should be changed and any other classroom management issues you’d adjust. There are also some follow-up questions to think about. • You will have 15 minutes for this activity. • Be prepared to share your answers.

10. Scenario 1 You are coteaching with a first-grade teacher, Mrs. Plannot. She is working with 15 students to decode the following CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words: sat mat hit cap rap not hit tap set While watching Mrs. Plannot, you notice many students’ responses are incorrect (e.g., students say “sit” for “sat,” etc.), and as the lesson continues, the students become more and more inattentive and disruptive. You also observe that Mrs. Plannot’s teaching approach is to point to each word and ask the students to read it. She does this for each of the 12 words on the board, for each student, and the lesson lasts 40 minutes. After the lesson, Mrs. Plannot is frustrated and asks your advice on how to better teach and manage the group of first graders. For this learning activity, list adjustments to the task dimensions you feel would increase the success of students during the lesson. Task dimension adjustments: Other classroom management concerns:

11. Scenario 2 • You are coteaching with a fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Adzwrong. She is working with 8 students on measurement. On the board, she has written, “12 inches = 1 foot,” “3 feet = 1 yard,” and “100 yards = a football field.” • She says, “Students, today we will go from inches to feet and back again. How many inches in a foot?” • When no one answers, she taps the board, and one student says, “Twelve.” • “How many feet in a yard?” • Again, no answer. Another tap on the board, and another student says, “Three.” • “How many inches in three yards?” Predictably, no answer. • “If no one is going to participate, you can do these examples on your own. You have 45 minutes to work these problems,” Mrs. Adzwrong says, handing out a worksheet. • After five minutes, the students are talking to one another , giggling, and no problems are getting done. Mrs. Adzwrong shakes her head and says to you, “I don’t know what else to do. Any ideas?” • Task dimension adjustments: • Other classroom management concerns:

12. Scenario 3 • You are coteaching with a ninth-grade science teacher, Mr. Sergeant. He is doing a lesson on how to take notes from a book chapter in outline format. • On the board, he has written, “I, II, III, IV= main headings.” • Underneath that, he has written, “i, ii, iii, iv = subheadings.” • The instructions he has given the class orally (he has written them on the board, too) are as follows: • “Look at Chapter 5 in your science book and create an outline based on the information given. Write it in your notebooks and turn it in at the end of class.” • Mr. Sergeant sits at his desk in the front of the room. The students flip pages, look at one another, and begin chatting and engaging in other disruptive behavior. “Enough of that,” Mr. Sergeant says. “No talking.” The students stop talking, but no one seems to be writing anything. • While you walk around the room, you notice that students are doodling or sending text messages. Only a few are still flipping pages; they have “I” and “i” written in their notebooks but not much else. After the class ends, Mr. Sergeant looks at the stack of papers on his desk and says to you, “I can’t believe how lazy these students are. Not one of them turned in a complete outline. Next time, you teach it.” Task dimension adjustments: Other classroom management concerns: