Student Engagement
The issue of student engagement has come up again and again in work with schools as they implement instructional walkthroughs. Student engagement typically comes up in a checklist format as a YES or NO. This has never felt right to me. Fortunately I stumbled upon the work of Phil Schlechty. In Working on the Work (2002) He makes a case for five levels of engagement: Authentic engagement Ritual engagement Passive engagement Retreatism Rebellion Click on the video The Way Things Are, The Way Things Should be to learn about the variation in levels of engagement. The idea is that there is a huge difference in engagement when kids are copying material off the board or completing a worksheet Vs a hands on science experiment. It’s the students’ reaction to the work and its meaning that is at the heart of the different levels of engagement, the more meaningful the work, the more likely profound learning will take place. That ...