Engage the Day!

Let's start with a quote:

"It's biologically impossible to learn something if we are not attending to it, and we don't attend to things that are not emotionally important to us." ~Robert Sylwester from A Biological Brain in a Cultural Classroom

Simplification (Series anyone?) of student engagement is an undertaking. Even wrapping your head around "types" of student engagement can be confounding and, for the most part, student engagement is not measurable. Types of student engagement may range, depending upon your source, from a classroom that is totally chaotic (Student Rebellion), trending in the wrong direction (Student Retreat), command and control (Student Ritual Compliance), intelligent adherence (Student Strategic Compliance) and, of course Utopia (Active/Authentic Student Engagement). The search for Utopia can be a long, yet worthwhile endeavor and much like what has been previously discussed, the steady state of active engagement may be fleeting and require ongoing minor adjustments by the classroom teacher. 

The classroom teacher must have the capacity to regulate internal classroom conditions, such as student engagement. If we take Robert Sylwester's quote to heart, then making content and skills emotionally important to students seems to be first on the to-do list and is of primary importance. How is consistent, daily, uninterrupted authentic student engagement possible? First, the reflective and aware educator must have a handle on the level of student engagement in the classroom from day to day. To be unaware, dismissive, or deflective about student engagement is counterproductive. The classroom teacher must also embrace that student experiences are as important, or perhaps more important, than student outcomes. Educators must be willing to consider that student experiences (the journey) go hand-in-hand with student outcomes (the destination). Active student engagement is the primary focus of the journey. Making the material come to life, making the material relevant, making the material relatable.....the list of maxims and adages goes on and on.

Student engagement is more important now (2024), than ever before. Student attention and interest is pulled and diverted in multiple directions all day, every day. Student disengagement and disinterest can seem ubiquitous. However, there is no magic strategy, method, or app to consistently engage students. Educators must re-engage, if not engaged already, in the effective and research-based practices of mentoring, coaching, professional development, peer interaction, collaboration, conversation, etc. The time for creative problem-solving, innovation, and collaboration is NOW. Let's go!!!

Finding the Balance - Homeostasis in the Classroom

Mr. Miyagi was on to something when teaching Daniel(son) about finding the balance. Balance, so to speak, is maintained by a process known as homeostasis in living systems. In "simple" terms, remember this is a series, humans have hormones and nerve cells to regulate bodily functions, such as blood sugar concentration and heart rate. If the classroom is the functional subunit of the school, then the classroom teacher is the primary regulator of that subunit. The classroom teacher is searching for the balance and the one maintaining order. Further, the one working to maintain the steady state for optimum learning, engagement, fun, rigor, relevance, and, perhaps, a multitude of other variables. Not simple.

Building upon the above and the previous post, this can be viewed in the hypothetical classroom with the teacher as artist, diagnostician, and now regulator. From the human digestion unit, the artist teacher has planned, designed, and implemented lessons and activities from the unit. The artist teacher is also regulating student engagement, behavior, environment, etc. Always looking for the steady state for optimum learning...minor adjustments here and there. The diagnostician teacher may now use formative assessment, during the human digestive system application activity, to address errors in process, facts, concepts, skills, etc. Always looking for the steady state for optimum learning...minor adjustments here and there. The positive impact of assessing during learning allows the classroom teacher to make minor adjustments, such as the AID note, thereby maintaining the steady state of student learning and engagement. Simple and minor are synonyms (in my book). Minor adjustments during learning (formative assessment) combined with ongoing major engagement with content and skills can lead to positive impacts in student learning in the classroom. Speaking of engagement...that will be the topic of the next post in the Simplification Series.

Simplification Series

Simple can be an insulting word. "Come on, it is sooooo simple!" The person on the receiving end of this exclamation is often times NOT in the midst of a simple endeavor, like teaching. Teaching is not simple. However, processes associated with teaching may be simplified and that is the premise of this series of blog posts:  Simplification. I have been influenced by Peter DeWitt's emphasis on de-implementation as well as my own ongoing love affair with reductionism (more here).

I am borrowing a protocol from healthcare to build upon. This healthcare protocol is called a SOAP note. It appears that healthcare and education share their love of acronyms! SOAP is Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan. Without doing a deep dive, this is what a healthcare provider might "note" in a patient's chart:  "Patient presents with abdominal pain (Subjective), has a fever (Objective), CT Scan is abnormal/appendix inflamed (Objective), white blood cell count is elevated (Objective). Analysis/conclusion is appendicitis (Assessment) and an appendectomy (Plan) is ordered. That represents a critical moment in time for the patient and the healthcare provider. Let's flip the script.

A science educator's curriculum outlines a lesson (as part of a module/unit) on the human digestive system. At this point, the class has been on this module/unit for several class periods and should be ready for an application-type activity. Should be ready...how does the educator know? Formative assessment would be ideal here and let's say this clever science educator uses a SOAP note on a hypothetical patient as part of the application activity. Of course, the educator wants to mix it up, so collaborative groups of students work on different application activities, with different SOAP notes, associated with the structure, function, and diseases of the human digestive system. What if the educator uses an AID note for themself and their student(s)? 

AID is Assess(ment), Instruct(ion), Determine next steps. Nothing earth-shattering here, but what if this AID note is just for this activity/lesson. Feedback is based upon this simple "note". The feedback is for the student and the educator, much like the SOAP note is for the patient and the healthcare provider. Important information for both parties and the information is provided in a simplified, timely, and actionable format.

Scenario:  Collaborative student group finishes activity and shares that their patient has indigestion/reflux and should begin a regimen of antacids (this "diagnosis"should sound familiar to the stressed educator!). Well, the SOAP note for this group was the appendicitis SOAP note example from above, so this group is off course. This is where the AID note becomes like a chemical equation because assessment and instruction are reversible in education. Re-teaching is possible, re-looping is possible, re-testing is possible, etc. This is one of the many positives to using formative assessments....actionable assessment information, in the midst of instruction, so adjustments can still be made. The AID process can also be presented like a reversible chemical reaction:

Determine Next Steps <------ Assess(ment)  <------>  Instruct(ion) ------> Determine Next Steps

The last thing the science educator wants is for this group's misdiagnosis to become a misconception. No educator wants an avoidable misconception to move further down the road and then become fossilized. The aware educator visits this group and has a fruitful discussion with the group of students regarding their thinking/analysis of the available information regarding their patient. This process discussion allows the educator to pinpoint where student thinking went off course and now the science educator can, hopefully, right the course. Please note that all of this revolves around one lesson (simplified), in one classroom (functional subunit of the school), during one class period (simplified). Nothing about the above is simple, heck it took six paragraphs to convey the "simple" message and it may not still be clear to the reader. Thankfully, this is a simplification series, so stay tuned!