This document discusses strategies for engaging students in the classroom. It recommends allowing students choice and options in how they present information. It also advocates for inquiry-based learning and tying lessons to questions about relevance and importance. Additionally, it suggests challenging students with cognitively demanding tasks slightly above their current abilities and using social collaboration within the classroom.

1. Engagement Strategies in the
Classroom
By Anna Harder

2. • Students should be interested in the topic and
content. They need to be given option and
choice in the way they can present
information.
• Inquiry based learning can be implemented in
many classrooms and common core standards
can be met through this practice.

3. Relevance
• Why is this important to me? Why should we
be studying this?
• Each lesson and unit plan should be related to
those two questions. Daily learning targets are
a start to this.

4. When we build
our daily
lesson plans
and unit plans
we should be
tying in each
of the
intelligences
so ALL of our
students can
access their
education.

5. Cognitively Demanding Tasks
• Students should be challenged and it should
be clearly stated that students are expected to
work hard.
• This ties into Vygotsky’s Zone of
Proximal Development where
students best learn a little above
where they are at and should be
guided by the teacher in this process.

6. • Our students love to socialize, so why are we
not using this to benefit them?
• We should be using the community of the
classroom to collaborate on learning tasks
within the classroom.

7. Citations
https://unh-ed604.wikispaces.com/Learning+Styles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_proximal_development
http://www.redcommerce.com/blog/sap-news-study-points-to-
social-collaboration-business-case-and-sap-named-
51041417223#.VhWIxbRViko
http://www.bumperstickerz.com/funny-rude-bumper-
stickers.htm
http://www.worksheetlibrary.com/teachingtips/inquiry.html