Our Goal: To help you navigate all the strategies and tools we have available within MGSD and Mooresville Intermediate School!

M-10 Student Engagement:

Students consistently engage in multiple activities that result in ownership of learning and mastery of skills that lead to increased academic achievement.

"So, how do they know if a student is engaged? What do "engaged" students look like? In my many observations, here's some evidence to look for:

Teacher-Directed Learning

You will see students...

• Paying attention (alert, tracking with their eyes)
• Taking notes (particularly Cornell)
• Listening (as opposed to chatting, or sleeping)
• Asking questions (content related, or in a game, like 21 questions or I-Spy)
• Responding to questions (whole group, small group, four corners, Socratic Seminar)
• Following requests (participating, Total Physical Response (TPR), storytelling, Simon Says)
• Reacting (laughing, crying, shouting, etc.)

Student-Directed Learning

You see students individually or in small groups...

• Reading critically (with pen in hand)
• Writing to learn, creating, planning, problem solving, discussing, debating, and asking questions)
• Performing/presenting, inquiring, exploring, explaining, evaluating, and experimenting)
• Interacting with other students, gesturing and moving"

Source: "How Do We Know When Students Are Engaged? - Edutopia

• Incorporate instructional strategies that allow for student discussion (Think-Pair-Share, Turn and Talk, Jigsaw, Scenarios and Debate, etc.)
• Provide multiple methods for learning and engaging with content within the unit
• Allow students opportunity to express their creativity as part of learning activities
• Use chunking to keep students moving and fresh
• Plan games, learning challenges, contests and other activities that incorporate competition (such as Kahoot, Quizizz, Quizlet Live, Trashball, Hotseat)
• Incorporate different learning styles (visual, hands-on, auditory) within each lesson
• Provide opportunities for students to move frequently within a lesson
• Use learning stations and centers to keep students active
• Research instructional best practices in a student-centered classroom
• Incorporate Discovery Ed SOS Strategies to use more than one sense when interacting with content
• Use leveled task/QR cards to keep students continually working at an appropriate level
• Use hands-on, experiential, and inquiry-based learning to help students internalize what they learn
• Show a passion for learning that is contagious with your students

• Five Powerful Ideas for Student Engagement - Teaching Channel
• The Icing or the Cake? Strategies for Engagement - Educational Leadership

• Strengthening Student Engagement: What Do Students Want

  (and what really motivates them)? - Educational Leadership

To explore more about this strategy, click HERE to check out some of the sessions that have been offered at previous Summer Institutes related to this strategy. Each one contains lots of strategies you can implement and resources you can use to improve your practice.

Additional Ideas:

Discovery Ed - Virtual Labs and Interactives

Discovery Ed Boardbuilder - Allows for student creativity and ownership.

Thinglink - Student ownership. Allows for creativity for presentations. Student choice.

Kahoot, Quizizz, & Quizlet Live - Game-based learning and practice

Aurasma and Plickers - Digital tools that add an element of fun/engagement to learning

Creation Tools: Educreations, Thinglink, Smore