Constructing Indicators of Engaged Learning:

Discussion Plan

Goals:

Product:

A recorder selected by the facilitator will post on the bulletin board at the end of the class the common attributes of each of the best learning experiences.

Process/Strategies: Option #1

This activity is structured in such a way that we ask the participants to, "Reflect on personal learning experiences as a student or experiences within your classroom, as a teacher, that were highly motivating and meaningful." We ask participants to, "Tell us why these lessons were so successful." Non-classroom teachers should consider their staff development efforts when thinking of successful experiences.

After participants reflect and explain why their lessons were more successful than others, we ask them to look for the common features in each person's experience and identify those attributes that made the lessons so successful.

Most of the time the participants will identify several of the indicators of engaged learning in their own lessons. You can assume that this is their starting point for understanding EL and can build upon it from here. The engaged learning movement builds upon many existing methods of instruction. Participants need to realize that one indicator does not equal engaged learning. It is necessary to have the majority of the indicators to create engaged learning in the classroom. Engaged learning changes the appearance of the classroom by allowing the teacher to become the facilitator and students to become explorers and producers of the learning.

We then have the students refer to Plugging In to see which indicators of Engaged Learning they have identified on their own and which ones they didn't mention. Encourage a discussion about how these indicators work together to form rich educational experiences for students. Ask them to try to envision how these indicators will "look" in the classroom.

To make this experience more meaningful and therefore more effective, we want to make some personal connections. That is why we ask participants to reflect on personal successes. Making connections to their life experiences and the Plugging In indicators will encourage "buy in" from the participants.

Discussion Outline

Select a recorder at the start of the discussion who will post the highlights of the discussion on the bulletin board at the end of the class.

Ask the participants to discuss their best learning experiences with each other. As a group come up with a list of some characteristics that your best experiences have in common.

The use of wait time will facilitate participant interaction. Remember to be the guide on the side and not the sage on the stage. We need to start early encouraging the participants to take an active role in the discussion.

We hope the participants will come up with at least 50% or more of the indicators from Plugging In:

Hopefully, you can introduce the task at the start of the discussion and then step back and let them work. They will probably need some time at the start to tell about their best experiences. Then they need to concentrate on what characteristics their experiences have in *common.*

If they seem stuck or haven't considered one of the six questions in the e-mail message sent to them, you may want to bring up the question.

Note that they had to answer a question about their best learning experience on their application. You can really put this to use. You can use their application answers to prompt a response if it gets quiet, or to encourage a person to speak who may be shy, but had good points on their application.

Groups will finish at different times which is fine. Once they are done, please give them positive feedback on any similarities between their lists and the engaged learning indicators they will read about for their assignment this week.

Also ask them if they have heard about similar philosophies under different names. Ask them to name names. This should make them feel more comfortable and confident about the background they bring to the course. We need to be careful that they aren't made to feel that they are doing things "wrong" and that engaged learning is a completely new thing that we think they have never heard of. Some similar philosophies are listed below:

Suggested Opening Prompt:

 Facilitator: "Hi everyone. Tonight we are going to talk about the outstanding lessons we have taught or experienced in our lives. Would someone volunteer to be the synthesizer for tonight's chat? As synthesizer you will need to record the common attributes of each of the best learning experiences and post them on the bulletin board at the end of the class.

Let's get started. Please take a few minutes to think about your own personal learning experiences as a student or your experiences within your classroom, as a teacher, that were highly motivating and meaningful. Why were these lessons so successful? What was it about these lessons that made them so meaningful for you and/or your students?

Let's pause for a moment to give these questions some thought.

What made these learning experiences so powerful? Feel free to respond with phrases and ideas as they come to your mind."

 

Suggested Prompts to Stimulate the Discussion:

  1. What was the student's role?
  2. What was the teacher's role?
  3. What was the student task/product?
  4. How were the students assessed?
  5. How were the students grouped?
  6. Was technology used? If so, how?

Resources:

  1. Project Introduction - http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/el_project_intro.shtml

Process/Strategies: Option #2

The second option is provided when you feel the participant group does not possess a strong enough background from which to draw out indicators of engaged learning. Or you feel the group is confused about Engaged Learning and the option #1 lesson could actually create greater confusion.

Option #2 asks participants to construct the indicators of EL not from their personal experiences, but by looking at an existing project. The structure of this discussion models the project introduction page.

In this discussion have the participants open their browser window so that they can read the desired project while chatting. (You will want to select a different example than the one listed on this page because some participants may have already completed this assignment.)

The project introduction has some very good questions to use in the discussion. Be sure you have located the indicators (Remember you will not always find every indicator in every project.) in the sample project you direct participants to analyze.

For the discussion product have the participants list the indicators they found in the project example and the ones they did not find.

If you chose to use option #2, remember to alter the prediscussion e-mail message.

Closing:

Prompt the participants to read the assignment page for next week and complete the work. Tell the participants to be sure to e-mail questions to facilitators or to the listserv or bulletin board. Remind the participants of office hours and any important upcoming due dates. Thank the participants for attending the chat.

 

Prediscussion E-mail Message to Participants:

Hi Everyone,

Hope you are getting ready for our next chat. Please check the discussion schedule *before* the discussion so you know which channel to go to this week.

Notice on the discussion schedule that we have now posted logs (transcripts) of last week's discussion and this week's office hours. Just click on the "See this discussion" link to see them. These pages are password protected, so you will need to give the user name and password below to view them.

User name: blah
Password: blah

You may want to print out this message for use during the discussion.

This week's discussion will have two sessions. In the first session your mission is to discuss your (or your student's) best learning experiences with each other and together come up with a list of some characteristics that your best experiences have in common. At the beginning of the discussion, pick a recorder who will post your channel's list to

Topic: Reflections
Subtopic: Best Learning Experiences

after the discussion. During your discussion consider the following questions about your best learning experiences:

  1. What was the student's role?
  2. What was the teacher's role?
  3. What was the student task/product?
  4. How were the students assessed?
  5. How were the students grouped?
  6. Was technology used? If so, how?

See you at our next discussion.

Sign your name here.