Engaging Learners- Self directed PD

One of the 3 UDL Principles, ENGAGEMENT, is something that I have really been intrigued by and motivated to tackle in my own teaching, and it is something that is a frequent topic of conversation/thought for many of the educators I know or have met, certainly some of you all reading this!   We have all been there for

• The Good:  You have every kids attention, they are asking great questions, they are excited, you are excited, you are in the Zone.
• The Bad:  You have most of the kids attention, most of the time..the same kids raise their hand to chime in... but you know the kid doodling behind a notebook will have no clue what was just taught.
• The Ugly:  You are thinking to yourself, "The lesson is going too bad, is it?", when one student blurts out, "Why are we doing this anyway?! This is boring!"

Engaging learners involves all of the things in the word cloud (top of page) and more, because once you get past the initial task of "sparking learning", you can move down the column to toward "tackling challenges" then further down the column toward"self motivated learning". (learner driven)

When we scroll down the vertical section on Engagement (Green area of UDL guidelines), the responsibilities move from more teacher directed to more student directed.  You may be more interested in looking at student access in terms of your math instruction, while building more independence through workshop may pertain to where you are in language arts instruction.  Think about your own needs and interests and explore a resource or two to further your understanding or find something you can try Monday... or try Someday...

*For my work colleagues:  I have compiled some resources to check out . .  I own Teach Like a Pirate, and Learn Like a Pirate and will keep them on a shelf in (or outside?) my office.  Feel free to check them out when you are waiting for the copier :)

MENU:

Recruiting Interest -"access" (sparking learning):  
That responsibility falls mostly on the Teacher

• Teach Like a Pirate is a fabulous book with a huge section on Hooks you can use to pull students in...  Here is a link for you to browse the book...
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• This link is a Teach Like a Pirate slide share...
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• You might want to go to Twitter and search #TLAP or @burgessdave for Pirate thoughts, hooks and ideas from educators around the globe!

• Well Played 3-5, by Karen Gartland offers a great array of math games, clearly linked to standards.  This link goes to a sample handout  I also own the book.  This would’ve a great tool to explore for math workshop activities.
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• Check out this symbaloo webmix I put together that includes everything from setting up Math workshop, to links to games and printable resources from the Well Played math game books (materials range K-8)

Sustaining Effort and Persistence- "build" (tackling challenges-staying engaged):  

still heavily reliant on the teacher to scaffold.

• Engage the Brain, by Allison Posey is a terrific book that speaks to the emotional aspects of learning and teaching.  She "presents 6 strategies that tap the power of emotion" in the design of learning. Here is a link to a #UDLchat she led that focused on her book.
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• Allison shares some great thinking from her book in this ThinkUDL podcast.  (I own a kindle version of the book-if you want to take a look)
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• VIDEO: (2 minute video) . Lesson chunking... to assist attention and working memory.
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• Article:  "Just Ask" by Joni Degener, UDL expert/consultant.  In this article Joni speaks particularly of 10 ways to invite student into the design process.

Self Regulation- "internalize" (self motivated learning- learner driven): 

Teacher facilitates learning, while students drive with self motivated purpose and regulation.

• Learn Like a Pirate, Empower Your Students to Collaborate, Lead and Succeed, is a fantastic book for helping you address concerns like, "I'm worried about giving up control to my students.", "This will be too much work, I can't take another thing right now.", "I don't want chaos! I have students who will ruin it for the class." and more... the book is very practical and fun to read.  This link shares a sample of quotes from the book.
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• Learn Like a Pirate author Paul Solarz offers this link that provides info about the book, scroll down to find links to Paul Solarz's own classroom projects!  Great resource!!!  5th gradish?

Well I hope this was helpful to you wherever you are in your teaching practice or journey!  I would love to hear from you about any takeaways you have...

• what has challenged you?
• what has been reaffirmed?
• what will you do moving forward? 
• (something for monday? something for someday?)

Please add me to your conversation:

• write a comment or response on this blog
• email me 
• create an instagram post, 1 minute (or less) video and tag me, @ABLearningDesign 
• send me a Tweet @AmyBoyden , #UDL, #Engagement
• stop by and borrow a book :)