The document discusses strategies to improve student engagement in elementary classrooms, focusing on the types of engagement: cognitive, emotional, and behavioral. It outlines an action research study using group response cards to increase engagement among academically struggling students, aiming to enhance participation and achievement in whole group instruction. The paper emphasizes the role of teachers in creating a supportive environment that fosters engagement and highlights evidence-based practices for effective teaching.

1. Improving Student Engagement
for Elementary Classrooms
Megan Lee
American College of Education
LIT5091 - Capstone Experience

2. “Tell me and I forget.
Teach me and I remember.
Involve me and I learn.”
-Benjamin Franklin

3. Types of Engagement
Levels of Engagement
Strategies for Engagement
Action Research Study
Role of the Teacher
Teacher Self-Assessment
Agenda
1
2
3
4
5
6

4. What is
ENGAGEMENT?
Engagement in the classroom
refers to the ways that students
interact with their teachers,
peers, academics, and anything
connected to their educational
experience (Mercadal, 2021).

5. Teacher Humor
Break

6. 3 Main Types of Engagement in Students
Cognitive
Emotional
Behavioral

7. Behavioral Engagement
Behavioral engagement breaks down into 3
categories of school participation
● Positive Conduct
○ obeying the rules, avoiding disruptive
behavior
● Involvement in learning and academic tasks
○ raising hands, paying attention, conversing
with the teacher
● Participation in School Activities
○ clubs, sports, extracurricular activities
Behavioral engagement
also stretches to include
attending school regularly
and on time. (Conner, 2011)

8. Emotional Engagement
Emotional
● often based on the connection between the
teacher and the student
○ environment provided by the teacher
increases the student’s emotional engagment
● student reactions in the classroom such as:
happiness, boredom, interest, anxiety,
frustrations
● the connection the student feels between the
academic content, teacher and fellow
classmates
Student’s sense of
BELONGING in a
classroom
(Conner, 2011)

9. Cognitive Engagement
Cognitive Engagement refers primarily to how
students go about completing any activities that
are related to instruction.
● If lessons are not engaging to the students,
their minds will wander
● Push students to use higher order thinking skills
● Students who are cognitively engaged are able
to adapt their thinking to other areas life
● The more their cognitive skills grow, the longer
students will be able to maintain engagement
ENGAGEMENT of
the MIND
(Conner, 2011)

10. Teacher Humor
Break

11. Engagement
HIGH Attention
HIGH Commitment
● Student shows persistent
● Student associates task with
learning outcome
● Student finds value in
educational activities
Retreatism
Strategic Compliance
Rebellion
5 Levels of Student
Engagement in the
Classroom
Ritual Compliance
(The 5 levels of student engagement (Infograph),
2017)
HIGH Attention
LOW Commitment
DIVERTED Attention
NO Commitment
NO Attention
NO Commitment
LOW Attention
LOW Commitment
● Student only finds value in
getting the good grade, and
will follow along for that
● Goals are not realized
● Retention will be low
● Student just wants to avoid
negative consequences
● Minimal effort is given
● Student learning will be low
and superficial
● Student is disengaged and
doesn’t even want to try
● Lack of participation
● Student not disruptive to
others
● Student refuses to work or
substitutes work with preferred task
● disruptive to others
● poor attitude towards anything
academic

12. PAUSE:
See if you can think of one
student from your class last year
that would fit into each of those
engagement levels

13. Strategies for Engagement
Collaboration
Higher Order
Thinking Skills
Project-Based
Learning Relevance Choice
Response Cards

14. Higher Order Thinking Skills
● Students need to remain engaged in
higher level thinking activities rather
than lower level
● Assignments and discussions need to
challenge students with questions at a
higher thinking level
● Higher level thinkers can manage better
in workplace environments and manage
their lives for effectively
● Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy guides
teachers to continue building and
challenging students
● Higher level thinking engages the brain
significantly more
(Al Maani & Shanti, 2023)

15. Collaboration
It is amazing what you can
accomplish if you do not
care who gets the credit.
-Harry S. Truman
● Students need to be encouraged to
reach out to one another to help solve
problems
● Compare answers and work together to
find different solutions
● Teachers need to be willing to model
how to collaborate appropriately with
peers and teach how to have productive
discussions
● This moves the focus from the solution
to the process
● The more students work together and
spend less time absorbing information
the more engaged they will be

16. Choice
● Motivation of students is increased
when choice is given
● Research also proves that students use
higher order thinking skills over time
when given choice in academic
assignments (Pretorius et al., 2017)
● When students leave the school systems
they are flooded with choices they have
to make; they need to be trained how
to make proper choices
● Most students will choose activities that
interest them which leads to learning
rather than just completing work.

17. Relevance
● When learning is relevant to students,
their intrinsic motivation is increased
● work to build SKILLS rather than only
CONTENT knowledge
● make connections through relationships
that are built
● Even when the content seems
disinteresting, if students understand
WHY it is worth knowing, their
engagement increases
● The stronger their background
knowledge has been build, the easier it
will be for them to see relevance
(Ferlazzo, 2021)
Create relevance, not
awareness
-Steve Jobs

18. Project-Based Learning
● Student centered teaching approach
● PBL is organized around projects and
encourages collaboration and higher
order thinking skills
● students are finding answers to real-life
problems by means of:
○ research
○ investigation
○ finding various strategies
○ developing products
● ACTIVE participation is required to
make this work
(Şahin, & Kiliç, 2023)

19. Response Cards
● Low stress for teachers, but high
engagement strategy
● Research has proven to show
approximately 30% increase in
engagement AND decrease in
disruptive behaviors (Duchaine et al.,
2018; Hirsch et al., 2018)
● Allows the teacher to quickly scan and
see active participation
● Gives an opportunity for IMMEDIATE
feedback for all students
● Builds confidence in students
(Nagro et al., 2018)
This is a chance to hear
from ALL students, not just
those that raise their hands!

20. Teacher Humor
Break

21. Problem
The problem is a lack of student engagement during whole group
instructional time at Herman E. Dummer School in Sandwich, Illinois.
Research Question
How will the use of group response cards increase engagement during
instructional time for academically struggling students?
Intervention Strategy
Students will learn to use pre-printed response cards to keep the
engagement levels high throughout the entire lesson.
Goal
The goal is to increase the engagement of students, especially lower
performing students, during whole group instruction which will be
evidenced with an increase in achievement on assessments.
Target Population
Elementary aged students, grades two through five are the ideal
target population for this strategy.
Sample Population
The sample population of students being studied are fourth graders.
This group of students falls in the middle of the grades that would be
targeted by this strategy.
Action Research Study

22. Action Steps
The classroom of students will be divided into two groups, one which will use the group response cards, the other will not.
The groups of students will receive the exact same instruction of the lesson including the same questions to respond to.
Students will also be given pre- and post-assessments to measure academic growth. Documentation will be made by
observing student behavior as well as numerical data of the number of times students are actively involved in the lesson
indicated by use of the response card or raising their hand. At the end of each week, a focus group will be conducted with
the students who used the response cards to identify their thoughts and feelings towards how helpful or not helpful the use
of the cards were.
Person Responsible
The classroom teacher will be responsible for planning and carrying out the instruction to ensure that it is consistent across
the groups. They will also take notes on observations and during the focus groups. The instructional assistant in the classroom
will be documenting the number of participatory responses and making notes on student behavior and during focus groups.
Timeline
This study will be conducted over the course of four school weeks beginning the first week of October. Focus groups will be
every Friday after the week of research has been completed.
Resources
The teacher will need curriculum as provided by the district as well as a computer for note taking for both the teacher and the
instructional assistant. A pre-printed chart with student names for making tally marks to indicate participation needs to be
provided to the instructional assistant. Pre-printed and laminated group response cards will be prepared for student use.
Evaluation Data
Students will take pre and post assessments on Google forms. That data will be organized into charts for clear data display.
Qualitative data will be organized through thematic analysis identifying commonly occurring themes and ideas.
Outcomes
I believe that my research will prove that students are more engaged through the use of response cards and it will be
indicated with higher academic achievement on post unit assessments. As with any engagement strategy, when overused,
the students, I imagine, will get bored with it, but keeping it for use a couple of times a week, especially when new content is
introduced will be helpful to increase their engagement during instructional time.
Action Research Study continued

23. Role of the Teacher
Teachers need to be
intentional about
creating an environment
that maximizes students’
ability to succeed both
academically and
socially. It’s okay to
allow students to lead, it
reduces their feelings of
inferiority and isolation.
(Duchaine et al., 2018;
Yang et al., 2023)
Educators need
opportunities to
research and learn
evidence based
practices that will
increase engagement in
their classroom
(Duchaine et al., 2018).
Researchers Didion et
al. (2020) also found
that when students
were more engaged
and actively
participating, it
increased the quality of
instruction delivered by
the teacher.
One success leads to
another. This has to
become a change in
pedagogy for a
teacher, not just
become one more
thing that they need
to try and do during
the day. When the
teacher can see the
benefit and use it to
their advantage as
well as the students’,
then that change is
taking place (Zeegers
& Elliott, 2019).

24. Teacher Self-Assessment
Think about the last week’s worth of lessons you have taught
● What percentage of time was spent on direct whole group
instruction?
● What percentage of time was spent allowing students to explore
learning strategies?
● How often were small groups or one-on-one instruction utilized?
● How many times were the students given the opportunity to work
collaboratively?
● How concerned are you on a regular basis about covering ALL the
content in the curriculum?
● What new ideas might you try and implement in your classroom
after learning from this presentation?

25. References
Al Maani, D. & Shanti, Z. (2023). Technology-Enhanced Learning in Light of Bloom’s Taxonomy: A Student-Experience Study of the History of Architecture Course. Sustainability, 15(2624),
2624. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032624
Conner, T. (2011). Academic Engagement Ratings and Instructional Preferences: Comparing Behavioral, Cognitive, and Emotional Engagement among Three School-Age Student Cohort. Review
of Higher Education & Self-Learning, 4(13), 52–66.
Didion, L. A., Toste, J. R., and Wehby, J. H. (2020). Response cards to increase engagement and active participation of middle school students with EBD. Remedial and Special Education, 41(2).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0741932518800807.
Duchaine, E. L., Jolivette, K., Frederick, L. D., & Alberto, P. A. (2018). Increase engagement and achievement with response cards: Science and mathematics inclusion classes. Learning
Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 16(2), 157-176. https://discovery.ebsco.com/c/36ffkw/viewer/pdf/s6qlgfiwuj.
Ferlazzo, L. (2021, March 5). Ways to make lessons “relevant” to students’lives (opinion). Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-ways-to-make-lessons-relevant-
to-students-lives/2020/05.
Hirsch, S. E., Ennis, R. P., & Driver, M. K. (2018). Three student engagement strategies to help elementary teachers work smarter, not harder, in mathematics. Beyond Behavior, 27(1), 5-14.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26866805.
Mercadal, T. (2021). Student Engagement. Salem Press Encyclopedia.
Nagro, S. A., Hooks, S. D., Frase, D. W., & Corneliu, K. E. (2018). Whole-group response strategies to promote student engagement in inclusive classrooms.
Teaching Exceptional Children, 50(4), 243-249. DOI: 10.1177/0040059916640749.

26. References continued
Pretorius, L., van Mourik, G. P., & Barratt, C. (2017). Student Choice and Higher-Order Thinking: Using a Novel Flexible Assessment Regime Combined With Critical Thinking Activities to
Encourage the Development of Higher Order Thinking. International Journal of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, 29(2), 389–401.
Şahin, Ş., & Kiliç, A. (2023). Effectiveness of the Project-Based 6E Learning Model. European Journal of Open, Distance & E-Learning, 25(1), 31–48. https://doi.org/10.2478/eurodl-2023-0003.
The 5 levels of student engagement (Infograph). Learning Success. (2017, September 18). https://www.learningsuccessblog.com/5-levels-student-engagement-infograph.
Yang, D., Cai, Z., Wang, C., Zhang, C., Chen, P., & Huang, R. (2023). Not all engaged students are alike: Patterns of engagement and burnout among elementary students using a person-centered
approach. BMC Psychology, 11(38). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01071-z.
Zeegers, Y. & Elliott, K. (2019). Who’s asking the questions in the classroom? Exploring teaching practice and student engagement in generating engaging and intellectually challenging
questions. Pedagogies, 14(1), 17-32. DOI: 10.1080/1554480X.2018.1537186.