September 1995
| Volume 53 | Number 1
Strengthening Student Engagement
Ron Brandt
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Richard Strong, Harvey F. Silver and Amy Robinson
Most teachers have seen the wonder, enthusiasm, and perseverance of children engaged in a project, presentation, or discussion that captures their imagination. This model of student engagement—called SCORE—involves four goals that energize such students: (1) Success (the need for mastery), (2) Curiosity (the need for understanding), (3) Originality (the need for self-expression), and (4) Satisfying relationships (the need for involvement with others).The aim is to create classroom conditions that build motivation and energy (to complete their acronym). This approach can also "help us get beyond the strict dichotomies of right and wrong; pass and fail; and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation..."
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Ron Brandt
Both rewards and punishments, says Punished by Rewards author Alfie Kohn, are ways of manipulating behavior that destroy the potential for real learning. In this interview, he elaborates on the "Do this, and you'll get that" classroom philosophy and why it is destructive over the long run—especially when the task is already intrinsically motivating. With humorous anecdotes and research-based findings, Kohn illustrates how rewards are ultimately an instrument of control. He advocates, instead, providing an engaging curriculum, choices about learning, and a caring atmosphere "so kids can act on their natural desire to find out."
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Raymond J. Wlodkowski and Margery B. Ginsberg
Because schools so often rely on grades and class rank to extrinsically motivate students, educators sometimes fail to see student perspective as central to teaching. Those students whose socialization accommodates the extrinsic approach do well, while those students who are not motivated by extrinsic rewards (often the culturally different) fall behind. The authors believe that before teachers can relate teaching content to students' cultural background, they must establish certain conditions in the classroom. Their framework recommends that teachers (1) establish inclusion, (2) develop positive attitudes, (3) enhance meaning, and (4) engender competence. Among the most effective strategies for culturally responsive teaching: discussion groups; writing groups, peer teaching, learning contracts, cooperative groups, projects and problems, narrative evaluations, credit/no credit systems, and student/teacher/parent conferences.
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Ana Maria Andrade and Delia Hakim
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Lynda Tredway
The Socratic seminar, defined as a structured discourse about ideas and moral dilemmas, balances two traditional purposes of education—the cultivation of common values and free inquiry. Tredway shows how groups of students read a common text, then respond to a teacher's question about it by conversing and asking further questions of one another. As they consider different—and often conflicting—ideas, they refine their critical thinking skills and deepen their understanding of the material—the main objectives of the process. Tredway spells out other benefits, including the way this process teaches the art of intellectual discourse, develops skills in interpretative and comparative reading, and heightens self-esteem.
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Ann Pollina
Instead of giving girls courses in "remedial masculinity" to help them succeed in science, math, and technology courses, we must be willing to learn from them;. Pollina describes the work of several women scientists to show how profoundly a woman's perspective can enrich and enliven scientific study. And she offers teaching suggestions, such as: portray technology as a real-life problem solver (unlike boys, most girls use computers as a tool, not a toy); let students work in small collaborative groups; and let girls see women in control of technology to offset "the masculine cast of the computer industry." Pollina also describes a recent experiment with an all-girls physics class.
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Susan Skolnik
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Rachel Buck Collopy and Theresa Green
Disheartened by the increase in at-risk and underachieving children at Rawsonville Elementary, faculty at the neighborhood school near Detroit collaborated with University of Michigan researchers to implement "achievement goal theory." According to this theory, success is defined not by how students do in relation to one another, but in terms of each child's developing knowledge and increase in understanding. By creating some multiage classrooms and changing other school policies and practices—for example, abandoning the honor roll—they hope to encourage children to focus on their own improvement and progress at their own development pace—rather than compete with their peers. Parents applaud the efforts, and teachers report improved attendance, decreased discipline problems, and increased enthusiasm for learning.
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Paulette Wasserstein
Real engagement in learning comes from empowering students—at least that's what students at Campus Middle School said. The author surveyed 7th and 8th graders at the Englewood, Colorado, school to find out what types of work motivated them. What the students' cited as most memorable was surprising: hands-on science and independent research on a variety of topics, for example, but not the 3R's. The author, a district curriculum and assessment consultant, suggests integrating the basics into the high-interest content areas—for example, having students use mathematical strategies in science or write about the results of their experiments. Among her conclusions: "students of different abilities and backgrounds crave doing important work; self-esteem is enhanced when we accomplish something thought to be impossible; and hard work does not turn students away, but busy work destroys them."
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Beth Olshansky
When children's stories are driven by rich visual images, their writing is transformed in powerful ways. Image-Making Within the Writing Process, says Olshansky (the developer and program director), equally values verbal and visual modes of expression. The creative approach invites students, from elementary through middle levels, to enter the writing process from different learning styles. Using a variety of art materials and techniques, children create hand-painted, textured papers, which become the basis for colorful collages. As students "weave together images in pictures and words," the author explains, "stories unfold through a lively creative process." Reluctant writers or not, Image-Making inspires students to produce beautiful picture books using their unique creative processes.
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Judith Zorfass and Harriet Copel
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Katie Johnson
The Private Eye Project, developed by former teacher Kerry Ruef and piloted by the Seattle Public Schools, relies on four tools—looking closely, thinking by analogy, changing scale, and theorizing. Looking through a jeweler's loupe (a magnifying glass) and prompted by the question, "What does it look like?", students gain new perspectives on everyday objects—like dandelions and their own hands, for example—through drawing and writing. The next question, "Why is it like that?" brings learners to scientific and mathematical thinking. Author Katie Johnson, who has worked with teachers around the country, gives examples of the open-ended approach to learning that captures the imaginations of students well as teachers.
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Jody Brown Podl
Few teenagers today read for fun. For one thing, people in our society thrive on doing several things at once with minimal effort. For another, many teens aren't confident of their reading ability. Throughout the year, Jody Brown Podl sets aside five to nine consecutive days in class for her middle and high school English students to read about topics of interest to them. She calls these periods Guided Independent Reading. After taking tests about the books, students work in groups to present their books to the class in a format of their choosing—for example, acting out dramatic scenes or creating news shows. Since then, her students' confidence in their ability to read has grown and, with it, their enjoyment of reading.
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Penelle Chase
A pumpkin growing and marketing enterprise on a New England farm has given a multiage class authentic learning opportunities across the academic and social spectrum. For example, the 36 children (ages 5 to 9) research the varieties of pumpkins to plant, study what makes plants grow, price the pumpkins, produce an order form and advertising brochures, sell their wares in a classroom store, and compare the yield to previous harvests, sometimes making graphs. The children represent the gamut of developmental stages, but because all tasks are done cooperatively, those who need extra support receive it from their peers, and everyone experiences success.
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Roy Rowe and Craig Probst
At a tiny school off the coast of Alaska, authentic projects grounded in their distinctive heritage give Aleut students rich learning opportunities to connect with their culture. Since their teacher abandoned the traditional science text, 3rd graders at the St. Paul Island School have been studying one of the world's great natural science laboratories: Alaska's Pribilof Islands. Projects have ranged from recycling used plastic buoys to designing a tourist brochure to ensuring that traditional skills and knowledge of the sea are not forgotten. Since the classroom has extended beyond the school, students are more motivated to learn, their self-esteem has been enhanced, and a stronger channel of communication between the community and the school has been established.
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Anne Wescott Dodd
So many beginning teachers must deal with issues of classroom survival that they don't grasp, until years later, some of the fundamental keys to engaging students. Reflecting on her career, Dodd explains that "what teachers need most to know about students is hidden; unless they develop a trusting relationship with their students, teachers will not have access to the knowledge they need either to solve classroom problems or to motivate students." In addition to discussing issues of student ownership and personal power, she shares tried-and-true strategies for getting to know one's students and for personalizing assignments. Using them, new teachers may find that making learning fun is not a recipe but a result of engaging students in purposeful, meaningful learning.
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Alex Molnar
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Rhoda H. Karpatkin and Anita Holmes
Advertisers spend billions to market so-called educational products, services, and points of view to vulnerable young consumers, and like Mary's proverbial little lamb, ads are now following kids to school. Consumers Union Executives Karpatkin and Holmes (they are president and assistant director for education services, respectively) cite findings from Captive Kids, a recent Consumers Union report that documents how the nation's chronically underfunded schools have become ad vehicles. The article highlights the book's evaluations of business- and trade group-sponsored educational materials, contests, and reading incentive programs; explains how ads play on kids' insecurities; lists education groups that have taken strong stands against commercialism in schools; and suggests steps educators should take to stem the tide of commercialism.
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Roy F. Fox
A two-year study of how rural Missouri teenagers react to MTV-like ads on Channel One showed how thoroughly these messages have infiltrated kids' language and thinking. Through taped interviews with small focus groups of students (200 in all), Fox discovered that teens often view advertisers' motives in a positive, trusting, even warm light. In fact, they often mistook Pepsi commercials for public service announcements, and paid actors for ordinary students ("They dress like us"; "They goof around like us"). Fox explains the classic propaganda techniques that Channel One advertisers use to get these results.
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Foyne Mahaffey
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William G. Spady
"Educentric" content standards define what it means to be a good student within the traditional education system. In his response to "Not All Standards Are Created Equal" by Matthew Gandal, Spady, the director of the High Success Network, explains why "using the key features of the existing educational system to organize the school system in the future will only reinforce existing curriculum and system structures." Instead, Spady advocates using rigorous content in a variety of interdisciplinary ways; extending the meaning of competence beyond that of narrow skills and the ability to execute structured tasks in a particular subject area and classroom; and introducing authentic contexts into the demonstration of performance. Following this path means defining standards (and curriculum) based not on how we've conducted education for the last century but on the challenges and requirements students will need in their future lives.
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Matthew Gandal
In his reply to William Spady, director of The High Success Network, Matthew Gandal reiterates why the American Federation of Teachers supports the standards movement and why clear, rigorous academic standards across the disciplines will help prepare students for life after school. To those who devalue this perspective, he responds that it is impossible to reliably measure success without standards or with weak standards, devoid of academic content. Common, rigorous standards, says Gandal, will help ensure that all students have access to a rich and challenging curriculum. "We need to get tougher about academic content," urges Gandal, "not back away from it."
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