Maintaining Student Engagement
Kara, Kathleen, Kittie
A look at our journey....
1. How might I best meet the needs of all learners to keep students engaged and challenged while supporting each student as an individual?
2. How might I keep students with attention concerns engaged and on task during the independent practice period of the workshop model?
3. How might I effectively meet the needs of my learners during writer's workshop?
Our BIG Question: How might we meet the needs of all learners and keep them progressing during writer's workshop?
Problems we all encounter during writer's workshop:
- How do we keep early finishers on track to keep writing throughout writer’s workshop?
- How can we make our students more self sufficient during writer’s workshop?
The "Needy Crowd" vs. the "I'm Done" Bunch
We learned that our problem could be broken down into two main groups:
Students who needed more help to further their goals.
Students who constantly need the teacher on their shoulder.
This helped give us a starting point so we could better pinpoint the needs of each student.
1. Show students how to self monitor and goal set:
Students need to be equipped with tools that enable them to know how to move forward.
Example: These are today’s tasks to complete in order….
2. An established "Customer Table" or "Customer Service"
- Trouble shooting or conferencing for the time period
- Reiterating the tasks to complete
- Offer self-monitoring skills
Short-term goal setting
Big Goal: Keep moving them forward……3. Go back and re-teach the skill or procedure, if needed
Re-teach the mini lesson
Act out a procedural problem with your students
Interrupt the workshop if neededWe learned that it's a good idea to re-assess planning for the future.
One idea: Establish a set celebration event signifying closure
Example:
First Grade calendar for planning
-Set days and big ideas listed in a sequence
-Allows for flexibility
-Provides a stopping point for students stopping point for students