The document discusses building student engagement through developing skills of interest. It identifies six themes of fun in learning: choice, relevance, engagement, active learning, teacher attitude, and camaraderie. It also discusses four discovery skills of innovation: associating, questioning, observation, and experimentation. Finally, it provides examples of activities teachers can use to develop these skills, such as having students make lists of what they enjoyed each day or conduct informal surveys.

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To be bored is to kiss death.<br />• Peruvian proverb<br />Banish<br />Boredom!<br />Building Student Engagement Through the<br />Six Skills of Interest<br />Dr. Wilkins-O’Riley Zinn<br />http://www.wilkinsorileyzinn.wordpress.com<br />© Dr. Z’s House of Fun<br />There are no uninteresting things;<br />there are only uninterested people.<br />• Gilbert Keith Chesterton<br />In this session, we’ll identify and discuss application of:<br />• themes of fun in learning<br />• skills of interest<br />• discovery skills of innovation<br />• Home•Work/BrainPlay activities<br />• creative teaching techniques<br />Motivated<br />Unmotivated<br />Demotivated<br />On your yellow card:<br />Write about a time when was learning fun for you. <br />Share with your neighbors.<br />Please hand in your card as you leave!<br />On your pink card:<br />Front:<br />When is teaching fun?<br />Back:<br />When is teaching a drag?<br />Please hand in your card as you leave!<br />On your white card:<br />What do you do when you ought to be doing something else?<br />I once counted the number of Cheetos in a bag and divided the cheese pieces by shape, creating a mathematical representation of the contents instead of grading student papers. I hate starting to read papers. Once I’m doing it, I’m okay, but, boy, the starting is hard!<br />Oh, yeah, I ate them too—with wine.<br />• Teacher response to procrastination question, 2007<br />Please hand in your card as you leave!<br />Six Themes of Fun in Learning<br />C • Choice<br />R • Relevance<br />E • Engagement<br />A • Active Learning<br />T • Teacher Attitude<br />E • Eiredaramac<br />(Camaraderie)<br />Discovery Skills of Innovation<br />From “How Do Innovators Think,” by Bronwyn Fryer (Sept. 28, 2009), Harvard Business Review<br />Associating, a “cognitive skill that allows creative people to make connections across seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas.” Identified as the “key skill.”<br />Questioning, the “ability to ask ‘what if,’ ’why,’ and ‘why not’ questions that challenge the status quo.”<br />Observation, the “ability to closely observe details, particularly the details of people’s behavior.”<br />Experimentation, “trying on new experiences and exploring new worlds.”<br />Networking, “with smart people who have little in common with them, but from whom they can learn.”<br />Top Ten Reasons Why STAR Students Like<br />STAR Alternative Programs<br />You get more help with your work. The teacher explains, makes sure you got it.<br />The classroom atmosphere is more relaxed, less tense, stressful, or pressured.<br />The teacher gets to know you, is a friend, cares about your life.<br />You have a school “family”—friends, people who know you, a place to belong.<br />There are fewer people, so you get more help and it’s easier to get work done.<br />You don’t have to learn in just one way. There are more options. Learning styles and other preferences are considered.<br />STAR helps you do better in other classes too.<br />STAR isn’t boring. There’s variety.<br />There’s more flexibility getting work in. You can work at your own pace.<br />It’s not embarrassing to get help. No one makes you feel stupid.<br />Home•Work / BrainPlay<br />Activate Skills of Interest, Build Discovery Skills of Innovation, and Avoid Being Bored to Death*<br />• Nurtures creative, divergent, and critical thinking and problem solving<br />• Builds skills of observation and inquiry<br />• Enriches the classroom by providing commonalities of experience<br />• Helps students uncover their passions and interests and create uniquity files<br />• Encourages reflective, mindful, self-directed, integrative learning<br />• Creates relevance and resonance<br />I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.<br />• Lily Tomlin as Edith Ann<br />Sample Home•Work/BrainPlay Activity<br />During the next week, complete two lists each evening (these can be school and/or life related):<br />•Divide a piece of paper into columns: “what I enjoyed most about today” and “what I enjoyed least about today.” <br />•Spend five minutes writing as many things as you can think of in each.<br />•Put the lists away.<br />•At the end of the week, read your lists, looking for patterns and insight.<br />Note: I’ve adapted this activity and used it with adults and with first graders.<br />What are the costs of boredom?<br />According to a report for the International Journal Of Epidemiology in February 2010, specialists from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London studied more than 7,000 civil servants over a twenty-five year period and found that those who said they were bored were nearly forty percent more likely to have died by the study’s end than those who were not bored. (Jonathan Petre, February 7, 2010, “You Really Can Be Bored to Death, Scientists Discover,” Mail Online)<br />For students, the cost of boredom can be increased vulnerability to drug and alcohol abuse, gangs, and depression.<br />Teaching skills of interest<br />can provide protective factors and increase resiliency.<br />On your green card:<br />Make notes about a possible Home•Work BrainPlay activity that you could use to encourage divergent thinking. Examples:<br />Associating: Create a list of interesting nouns and choose two of them at random. Think about the words and what they mean and then begin thinking about how these two words/concepts could be combined. Some words to get you started: umbrella, television, piano, refrigerator, rocking chair, alligator, popcorn, hanger, bathtub, scissors, shampoo, dictionary, ruler, pencil, notebook.<br />Networking: Conduct an informal survey of at least five people, recording their answers to a question of interest: What three books should every high school student read? What should schools teach? If you were a teacher, what’s the first thing you would ask your students? What’s your earliest childhood memory?<br />Fauxtention<br />Illusions of Interest<br />Students may have finely-honed skills of disinterest and may also have developed the fine art of feigning interest. Sometimes this is a good thing when you need quiet, but it can also make it difficult to separate the genuinely engaged from those who are just pretending.<br />As a way to teach this difference to students, I introduce them to SLANT:<br />SSit up<br />LListen<br />AAttend (appear to be paying attention, eye contact, not visibly working on other things)<br />NNod<br />TTrack<br />On your blue card:<br />What Is An Interested Learner?<br />Qualities of a genuinely interested learner:<br />Front<br />Evidence that a learner is genuinely interested:<br />Back<br />Even in high school I was very interested in history—why people do the things they do.<br />As a kid, I spent a lot of time<br />trying to relate the past to the present.<br />• George Lucas<br />A genuinely interested learner…• is deeply and seriously engaged in class assignments and activities<br />• is curious<br />• connects studies to life<br />• makes interdisciplinary connections<br />• questions<br />• is aware of self, others, the world<br />• wonders, observes<br />• cares, works hard, does quality work <br />• thinks and thinks about her/his thinking<br />• is creative<br />• believes s/he can make a difference<br />• listens<br />• puts thought into action<br />• is contemplative and reflective<br />• is not complacent<br />• is not bored<br />• is open to learning and believes s/he can learn from everything<br />• is aware of biases<br />• values process and product<br />• is playful<br /> • is committed and values learning<br />• List generated by students, November 2009<br />Creating a Uniquity File<br />What if each student had a “uniquity” file that followed her or him from year to year, school to school, detailing what s/he was good at, passionate about, loved to learn, envisioned for her or his life.<br />•<br />What if students were encouraged to explore these things in the context of their other learning?<br />•<br />How might formal education be different for these students?<br />•<br />How can students be helped to uncover and use their specific learning abilities,<br />passions, and other unique qualities?<br />•<br />How can they be encouraged to make connections among their interests<br />and their schoolwork?<br />Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.<br />•Malcolm S. Forbes<br />Choice<br />Skill of Interest<br />I know how I learn best and I know that this may be different for different subjects.<br />I know what I’m interested in and, whenever possible, I link my interests to my schoolwork.<br />Home•Work/BrainPlay<br />They’ll Never Suspectory Collectory—Create a hidden journal.<br />Start your uniquity file.<br />Relevance<br />Skill of Interest<br />I find connections among different subjects. I understand the purposes of school.<br />I know who I am and what interests me and can connect school to things that resonate for me.<br />Discovery Skill of Innovation<br />Networking or talking “with smart people who have little in common with [you], but from whom [you] can learn” (Fryer, 2009).<br />Home•Work/BrainPlay: Me Time!<br />Engagement<br />Skill of Interest<br />I go to school and am actively interested in what happens there. I care about my learning and I pay attention. I think about ways I can connect my learning in school to my life outside of school.<br />Discovery Skill of Innovation Associating or “making connections across seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas” (Fryer, 2009)<br />Home•Work/BrainPlay<br />Procrastination.<br />Active Learning<br />Skill of Interest<br />I don’t just go to school.<br />I help make school interesting because I am interested.<br />I look for additional information related to what I am learning.<br />Discovery Skill of Innovation<br />Questioning or the “ability to ask ‘what if,’ ‘why,’ and ‘why not’ questions that challenge the status quo and open up the bigger picture” (Fryer, 2009).<br />Home•Work/BrainPlay<br />Have a new thought or oddservation.<br />Teacher Attitude<br />Skill of Interest<br />What makes teaching fun? I put myself in the place of the teacher and make my interest apparent.<br />I go beyond requirements and produce quality work.<br />Discovery Skill of Innovation<br />Observing or “closely observing details, particularly the details of people’s behavior” (Fryer, 2009).<br />Home•Work/BrainPlay<br />When is learning not fun?<br />Camaraderie<br />Skill of Interest<br />I talk with others in and out of the classroom—teachers and classmates.<br />I get involved in activities.<br />I am interested in learning about other people and their cultures. I know how to listen and be a friend.<br />Discovery Skill of Innovation Experimentation or “trying on new experiences and exploring new worlds” (Fryer, 2009).<br />Home•Work/BrainPlay: Conversations.<br />Six R’s of Dropout Prevention<br />Wilkins-O’Riley Zinn, 2008<br />Relevance: I have reasons to be here that are meaningful to me.<br />Rigor: Expectations are high, and work is scaffolded to support my achievement.<br />Recognition: My efforts are seen, appreciated, and celebrated.<br />Respect: I am treated like a unique and valuable person; my interests are respected.<br />Relationships: There are people here who care about me and about whom I can care.<br />Responsibility: I am supported in the developmental processes of becoming an interested and intellectually responsible lifelong learner and can make meaningful contributions here.<br />I’m listening to what you’re saying, but I only hear what I want to!<br />• Kelly Pickler on Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?<br />