Upper Elementary Engagement Strategies


Engagement Strategies, 3rd-5th

 

The following strategies could be used in an upper elementary classroom to increase engagement in literacy activities. Teachers should use their wisdom in knowing when and how often to employ these various strategies.

 

Strategy  Description  

Lesson 

Placement

Image

GramIt

The GramIt strategy can be used to illustrate the main idea or summarize understanding of a text or concept. After a concept, text, or other learning is introduced, students create an image and a hashtag to demonstrate their understanding. Then, they will “publish” their GramIt to a poster or to a digital class page.

 

This strategy can be used during a lesson to illustrate the main idea or after a lesson to assess students’ understanding of a concept. 

 

 

Collaborative Poster 

Students work in groups to create a collaborative poster, with each student using a different color marker. The poster includes an image, a quote, and a summary in response to text, a speaker, or digital media, etc. This strategy increases collaborative conversation, student participation, and accountability.

 

This strategy, similar to a group exit ticket, would be an effective way to assess the students’ understanding after the lesson and can be hung in the classroom to be used as an anchor chart.

 

 

Chain Notes

Chain Notes is a strategy that gives students an opportunity to share ideas with classmates. The teacher introduces a question that is written on the top of a piece of paper. Each student takes turns writing their responses to the question and then passing the note around their group. Students can expand, disagree, or make any other notes. At the end, the notes can be read aloud or projected on a screen.

 

This can be used before the lesson to activate prior knowledge, during the lesson to clarify concepts and deepen understanding, and after the lesson as a review. 

 

 

Elevator Speeches 

Elevator speeches (or elevator pitches) can be used to refine students’ understanding of vocabulary, concepts, content, and/or processes. Pair students up with partners. They have 30 seconds to summarize information to their partners. After 30 seconds, the students switch roles. Have a few share out to the whole group. Then, have students find a new partner. They have 30 seconds to deliver their refined understanding to their partners. After 30 seconds, the students switch roles once more.

 

This strategy can be used before the lesson as an icebreaker, during the lesson to refine the students’ understanding, or after as a review of the concept or skill.

 

 

Find Your Match 

Give each student a card and then have them find the other student with the matching card. Students can do this with many topics, including antonyms/synonyms, words/definitions, problem/solution, genres/ definition, and opinions/reasons.

 

This strategy is best used during or after a lesson to keep students engaged and to review the concepts and skills learned.

 

Four Corners 

The Four Corners strategy puts students into groups by interests or by levels of agreement to discuss various topics such as favorite characters, parts of a story, or opinions about a text. See this video for a demonstration.

This strategy can be used before a lesson to engage students and assess their prior knowledge, or during and after a lesson to allow students to have discourse and to synthesize a new concept.

 

Frayer Model

This strategy organizes information about a word or topic into a workable definition using this graphic organizer; students label the center and then fill in the four quadrants with a definition, characteristics, examples, and non-examples.

This engagement strategy can be used before a lesson to engage students in a brainstorming activity to activate their prior knowledge of a topic or term. It can be used during a lesson to collaborate on and explore new information they are gathering and organize that information. It can also be used after a lesson to extend their learning, summazize content, explain what they’ve learned, review the lesson, and assess their understanding. 

 

 

Gallery Walk

Using this strategy, classes can respond to questions/share ideas with labeled posters around the room–they can walk around individually or in groups (informally or in timed rotations) to write their responses on the posters. This strategy also allows the work of multiple students/groups to be shown at one time by hanging up their work around the room and allowing students to walk around to each one, reading about and learning from one another’s work.

 

This engagement strategy can be used before a lesson to explore students’ thoughts and prior knowledge of various topics. It can be used during a lesson to incorporate physical movement while they analyze lesson content, respond to questions, compare/contrast ideas, and critically think about information presented. It can also be used after a lesson to synthesize content, present what was learned, review a lesson, and evaluate comprehension.

 

GIST Statements 

With this strategy, students summarize (or provide the “gist” of) a lesson/text/video, identifying the essential components and stating it in a concise manner using 28 words or less.

This engagement strategy can be used during a lesson where students are tasked with interpreting and analyzing what they’re learning and must recognize the main points of the lesson. It can also be used after the lesson to review, summarize, and organize the information, as well as evaluate/assess the students’ understanding of it.

 

Give Me Five! Questioning Strategy

This strategy gives a prompt to students, allows them time to personally reflect on it, and then selects five students to share their answers, providing the class with varying points of view and perspectives on a topic.

This engagement strategy can be used before a lesson where students can analyze a prompt or statement prior to introducing information. It can be used during a lesson to let students problem solve, reason, and critically think about the content they are learning before sharing as a group. It can also be used after a lesson to summarize what was learned, reflect on the content, synthesize the information individually, or even as an informal evaluation/assessment of the lesson and their understanding of it. 

 

 

I Notice, I Wonder

Using this strategy, students write what they “notice” and “wonder” about information that has been briefly introduced, creating a combined list of background knowledge and questions as a class. This is then referenced and referred back to throughout a lesson to see if all information is accurate/all questions have been answered.

This engagement strategy can be used before a lesson to engage students, allowing them time to identify what they notice or already know, hypothesize about what they see, and make inferences to share things they may wonder about. It can be used during the lesson for students to explore those questions, collaborating and activating prior knowledge to critically think about the questions they’ve asked as new information is acquired. It can also be used after a lesson to allow students to reflect on what they’ve learned and analyze the questions that have been answered, or explain the ones that haven’t.

 

 

Jigsaw 

When reading a text (often one that is more complex), students/groups are assigned one section to read individually and become an “expert” on. After doing so, they then share what they learned with the class, and “put the puzzle together” by learning the information from one another.

 

This engagement strategy can be used before a lesson as a conversation starter. It can also be used after the lesson to allow students to summarize information, collaborate, and organize/explain the information they've learned in the lesson.

 

Kahoot 

This is a game-based learning tool (students will need a device and internet access to participate) that can be played individually or in groups. A multiple-choice question is presented on the screen, and students respond correctly and quickly in order to fight for the top spot. 

This engagement strategy can be used at the beginning of the lesson for an informal assessment and activation of prior knowledge. During the lesson it can be used as a formative assessment. It can be used after the lesson for review or as a summative assessment.  

 

 

 

Padlet

Padlet is a free online tool (students will need a device and internet access to participate) that is highly visual and can be used by both teachers and students. It is a digital wall in which notes, images, links, videos, ideas, questions, thoughts, and/or comments about a topic can be posted. This virtual bulletin board is a simple drag-and-drop system. 

 

This can be used at the beginning of the lesson as an informal assessment, to activate prior knowledge, and also to brainstorm. During the lesson, this strategy can be used for note-taking or as a formative assessment. After the lesson, this can be used for review or as a summative assessment. 

 

 

 

Quickwrite

A Quickwrite is a brief, written response to a question or prompt in which students rapidly explain what they know about a certain topic. This strategy can be implemented at any time during a lesson to help students communicate their knowledge, thoughts, reactions, and questions about the topic. 

This strategy can be used at the beginning of the lesson as an informal assessment, to activate prior knowledge, or to brainstorm. During the lesson, this can be used for note-taking or as a formative assessment. After the lesson, this could be used to review or used as a summative assessment. 

 

Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal Teaching is a cooperative learning strategy in which students become teachers in a small group setting, activating higher thinking skills. The teacher models and then helps guide group discussions using four tasks: summarize, question, clarify, and predict.  Each student in each group takes on one of the four tasks in order to improve comprehension skills. 

  • The Summarizer will summarize what is being read. 

  • The Questioner will generate questions about what is being read, address confusing information, and make connections to previously read content. 

  • The Clarifier will attempt to answer the questions being posed by the Questioner. 

  • The Predictor will make guesses about what will be read next based on previously read content.

 

Roles should then be switched until the entire reading selection is complete. The teacher’s guidance will lessen over time as the students become more skillful at applying this strategy.  See here for more information. 

  

 

This engagement strategy can be used during the lesson to develop higher thinking skills, as a comprehension check, and could be used as a formative assessment. It gives students the opportunity to learn how to work in groups. This could be used as a review or summative assessment after the lesson. 

 

 

 

Word Clouds

A Word Cloud is a visual representation of words.  Word Clouds arrange language by size. The sizes of the words are determined by how frequently the word occurs in the reading. Words that reflect themes of the reading are also often the largest in the image. Word Cloud generators are available online, or students can be encouraged to create their own. 

 

Word clouds can be used during the lesson to keep students engaged, check for comprehension, teach theme and vocabulary, or be used as a formative assessment. After the lesson, this strategy could be used as a review or to assess theme and vocabulary. 

 

 

 

Three - Two - One

In the Three-Two-One strategy, students respond to a text using three main ideas, two connections to other readings, the self, or the community, and one question to clarify, reflect, or discuss. 

 

This strategy can be used during the lesson to develop higher thinking skills. It can also be used as a comprehension check or as a formative assessment. After the lesson, it can be used as a review, summative assessment, or to provoke questions for future lessons. 

 

 

 

 

 

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