Articles for Inquiry

-Article 1- A Dialogue for Engagement

I chose to include this article in my inquiry because I believe it addressed the importance of engagement. It stated that engagement increases students' willingness to participate and learn. I believe that by making learning more fun (I know, most educators shudder at that word) we are able to fully engage students that do not usually engage in classroom activities. This is mainly a concern for my students IEPs in my current internship classroom. Many of them have recently been diagnosed with ADHD, auditory disorders and have been retained multiple times. It is clear that they struggle in the classroom with 5th grade material because their maturity is not quite ready to be immersed in only individual classroom work. It is my goal to increase engagement in the classroom this semester and make our lessons more engaging for students so that the work is differentiated for their needs. I believe this will involve more groupwork, collaboration and engaging activities to go along with my lessons.

Brown, M. (2010). A Dialogue for Engagement. EDUCAUSE Review, 45(5), 38-40.

-Article 2- Deconstructing Engagement: Rethinking Involvement in Learning

I chose to include this article becasue I believe this article taught me a lot about engagement as a whole. It broke down superficial engagement and deep engagement which I think is so valuable because sometimes it is very hard to see if students are genuinely engaged. It classified superficial engagement as something that is seen as a commitment or something that has to be done. When a student is genuinely engaged it brings out the students feelings and truly capitivates the learners attention. As stated by this article, it has been shown that increased engagement also increases student achievment, behavior, and participation. This is exactly what I want to do in the classroom for my students. I want to turn the subjects that they see as boring and something to check off the to do list into something that they can learn to love because they simply love learning. I beleive this directly corrolates with my teaching philosophy of teaching students to love learning. That, I think, is the very foundation of every subject in the classroom. I believe that before we increase engagement, we must first increase a students' motivation and ability to be captivated in the classroom.

Whitton, N., and A. Moseley. "Deconstructing Engagement: Rethinking Involvement in Learning." Simulation & Gaming 45.4-5 (2014): 433-49. Web.

-Article 3- Promoting Student Engagement. Volume 1: Programs, Techniques and Opportunities

This article was the "how to" as far as increasing student engagement in the classroom. I really liked that this article stated that before increasing engagement, "professors must actively seek to create the conditions that foster engagement." This statement is so very true. Increasing engagement with my students will not be an overnight process but it is doable. This article gave me many good techniques for increasing student engagement including: providing students with ample opportunity to collaborate and cooperate, communicating high expectations and encouraging active learning in the classroom. I think the one that directly related to the current classroom I am in was encouragin active learning. In my classroom we do a lot of individual work which gets work "done" but not quality work. My goal is to ensure that every student has a chance to see that learning CAN be fun, no matter the subject. Learning does not have to be all individual work, book work and quiet time. I want to do the classroom into a place that children can explore subjects and their minds, which I believe is exactly what the classroom should be. I believe a main problem that students do not feel comfortable to fully engage in the classroom is due to the boundaries that are placed on them. The disicpline in the classroom is often very negative and I think that makes some of my more quiet students uncomfortable to try to be themselves and explore. I want to create lessons that allow them to break out of their shell in the classroom and allow them to fully engage in the lessons. This will be done by including many different forms of learning for different types of students. This will include technology, hands on activities, group collaboration and individual work. Especially in 5th grade, students know how they learn beest and as their teacher I want to be able to provide them with many different formats to learn.

Amsel, Eric, Brenda Kowalewski, Bernard Beins, Kenneth Keith, and Blaine Peden. "Student Engagement." SpringerReference (2011): n. pag. Web.