Coach's Corner

Macon-Piatt Special Education District

Coach's Corner

Did you know…
The extent to which students pay attention in class is a function not only of how they feel but also of their level of interest. Students will attend to activities in the classroom if they can affirmatively answer the question “Am I interested?”
Games and inconsequential competition help trigger and maintain situational interest.

Games: should have an academic focus and be accompanied by conversation/discussion

· Which One Doesn’t Belong? allows student to use their knowledge of vocabulary terms and phrases to find similarities and differences among a group of terms. Create word groups containing 3 terms that are similar in some way and 1 term that is different. Students can work independently or in groups to pick out the word that doesn’t belong. Points can be recorded or not.

· What is the Question? is modeled after Jeopardy! Prepare a game board with relevant categories and test students’ knowledge. Students must phrase the question in the form of a response.

· Turn questions into games-Once groups are formed, the teacher asks a question. Students are given 1 minute to discuss the correct answer and record it on a piece of paper or white board. When the teacher signals, the teams hold up their answer. The teacher can tally the points.

Friendly controversy: can trigger both situational interest and maintain it

· It’s important to establish rules for interaction

· The goal is to leave students with some unanswered questions so that they seek more information

· Class vote-Ask students to vote on an issue. Before and after the vote, students discuss the merits of various positions. Discussion encourages students to carefully consider their positions and change their minds (and votes) as more information is disclosed.

· Debate model-This encourages students to use evidence, logic, and persuasive techniques to effectively argue a controversial viewpoint.

· Town Hall Meeting-This encourages students to see a complex issue from multiple perspectives.

Teachers can help trigger and maintain situational interest in students by utilizing academically based games and turning questions directed at the class into spontaneous chances for inconsequential competition. Teachers can also create friendly controversy among the students, which can extend student interest in a topic beyond the confines of the classroom.

Did you know…

Engagement is a much deeper and more long-term phenomenon than attention. Where attention applies to a specific event in class, engagement goes well beyond a single activity and even beyond a single class period. When students are engaged, they tend to think about the topic frequently and in-depth. If students do not perceive classroom tasks as important, engagement will be muted or nonexistent.

Classroom activities that make connections to the real world help generate a positive response to the question “Is this important?”

Connecting to Students’ Lives-
Students have many goals that relate to learning more about a specific topic or becoming more skilled at a particular activity. Comparison tasks and analogical reasoning tasks help students make connections to personal goals.
Comparison Tasks-Allowing students to relate new content to topics of personal interest can stimulate engagement. For example, physical characteristics might be the criteria for a comparison activity. In science, students could compare the physical traits of an alligator to something of their choice. For someone who is interested in track and field, he/she could compare the fast but brief land speed of an alligator to Usain Bolt’s sprints.
Analogical reasoning tasks-Students are challenged with finding missing elements which can connect to their personal lives.

Connecting to Students’ Life Ambitions-

Students may not automatically connect classroom content and activities to their life ambitions, but teachers can integrate content and life ambitions through personal projects.

The personal project is a seven-phase process that can be used to engage students by addressing their long-term goals. Each of the seven phases is associated with a question or set of questions students must address.

Asking students to make comparisons between their personal lives and classroom content can help them make important connections to what they are learning.

Taken from The Highly Engaged Classroom by Robert J. Marzano and Debra J. Pickering with Tammy Heflebower.

Happy Teaching!

Molly and Carrie

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