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High School Engagement Strategies

Page history last edited by Brianne Johnson 1 month ago

Engagement Strategies, 9th-12th

 

The following strategies could be used in a high school classroom to increase engagement in literacy activities. Strategy names underlined in blue link to videos with further explanation. Teachers should use their wisdom in knowing when and how often to employ these various strategies.

 

Strategy  Description  Placement Image
ACE Strategy 

Students demonstrate how they know or can solve response items. They Answer, Cite textual evidence, and Explain (or expand). View this 4-minute YouTube video for a quick demonstration.

This strategy would best be used after a lesson has been completed to answer a response question. However, during the lesson, it would be ideal to model a couple of response questions using this strategy to help students practice this strategy before doing it on their own.  

 
  Affinity Mapping/  Diagramming      

Give students a broad question or problem that is likely to result in lots of different ideas, such as “What were the impacts of the Great Depression?” or “What literary works should every person read?” Have students generate responses by writing ideas on post-it notes (one idea per note) and placing them in no particular arrangement on a wall, whiteboard, or chart paper. Once lots of ideas have been generated, have students begin grouping them into similar categories, then label the categories and discuss why the ideas fit within them, how the categories relate to one another, and so on.

This strategy can be used at the beginning, middle, or end of a lesson or unit. At the beginning, students can use affinity mapping to brainstorm ideas and topics to activate their prior knowledge. In the middle of a lesson or unit, this strategy can be used to synthesize information and gain a deeper understanding of the topic. In addition, students could use this strategy on a group research project after they have researched and collected evidence. At the end of the lesson or unit, students are able to review what was learned. 

  
Asynchronous Discussions 

Asynchronous discussions allow rich, face-to-face conversations to happen beyond the school day, so they are not limited to the time students have in class. They can be implemented through speech with a tool like Voxer, which functions like a private voice mailbox set up with just one person or a group and allows users to have conversations at whatever time is most convenient for each participant. 

Asynchronous discussions can also be written and run through apps like GroupMe, as well as through class comments on classroom platforms and through editing comments on documents. In addition, Parlayideas.com has options for asynchronous discussions, in addition to synchronous. 

Teachers being part of the discussion group or having access to the documents is essential in monitoring discussion and in providing feedback.

Typically, asynchronous discussions are held outside of the school day or during a Distance Learning Day as it allows students to comment when their schedule allows for it. It could also be used in class for peer edits if students are working in groups. If all members of the groups share their documents with the other members and the teacher, each student can edit and comment on essays in the order that works best for that student. For students who read slower than other students, this would allow them more time to read and a greater opportunity to comment more meaningfully on the writing. 

Backchannel Discussions 

A backchannel is a conversation that happens right alongside another activity. A website such as  GoSoapBox or a Chrome extension such as Backchannel Chat is displayed on a screen. In addition, like in the video, Mentimeter can be a great tool.  A Google Doc could also work! On this blank screen students can contribute a few lines of text, the lines stacking up one after the other, no other bells or whistles.  Students can use devices such as their phones, laptops, or tablets to ask questions, offer commentary, and share links to related resources without ever interrupting the flow of the presentations. This kind of tool allows for a completely silent discussion, one that doesn’t have to move at a super-fast pace, and it gives students who may be reluctant to speak up or who process their thoughts more slowly a chance to fully contribute.

Teachers can use this resource at any time during a lesson. Some examples for its use would be to start a discussion to check for prior knowledge and to have higher level students help struggling learners refresh on the skill. Another use would be for discussions about novels in place of comprehension-check worksheets that students do individually; using the questions on the worksheet, the questions could be posted to the chat and students respond in real-time to the questions. It would allow for immediate clarification of misunderstandings in the text and would help struggling learners see aspects of the novel they may not be able to make connections with. 


 
Charting the Text  

This is a reading strategy that allows students to distinguish the difference between what a writer is saying and what a writer is doing in an effort to help students better understand the author's intentional construction. It is useful for both reading comprehension and writing.

This strategy could be used in all areas. Students could use this strategy to prepare for a deeper analysis of a piece before a class discussion. It can be used to analyze a piece together in class as a whole or together with peers in a group discussion. It can also be used after a lesson to help students respond to a question given by the teacher. This will employ a deeper analysis response from the students.  

Concentric Circles

Students form two circles, one inside circle and one outside circle. Each student on the inside is paired with a student on the outside; they face each other. The teacher poses a question to the whole group and pairs discuss their responses with each other. Then the teacher signals students to rotate: Students on the outside circle move one space to the right, so they are standing in front of a new person. Now the teacher poses a new question, and the process is repeated. 

  Concentric Circles can be used at the beginning of a lesson to have students brainstorm ideas on the topic being presented, during the lesson to check for and deepen understanding, and at the end of the lesson to review what has been learned. This strategy works well as a way to get students up, moving, and engaged during any point of a lesson. 

Conver-Stations

This is a small-group discussion strategy that gives students exposure to more of their peers’ ideas and prevents the stagnation that can happen when a group doesn’t happen to have the right chemistry.    Place discussion prompts or questions at various locations around the room. Assign small teams of students to each prompt to discuss. Once the question has been discussed, have each team select two members to move to another "conver-station." Provide time for the team members who stayed to provide the new team members with a brief overview of the conversation. Allow time for the conversations at each station to take place. Then the next two students will move to the next prompt. Continue until all conver-stations have been visited.    

  Conver-Stations can be used to discuss complex prompts or to analyze any other form of media within a group setting. This can be used at the beginning of a lesson to front-load information about a topic, during a lesson to continue and encourage deeper understanding of the topic or strategy being taught, or end a lesson to ensure understanding and encourage student engagement.

Elevator Speeches 

Pair students up with partners. They have 30 seconds to deliver information to their partners. After 30 seconds, the students switch roles. Have a few share out. 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.

  Elevator speeches can be used as icebreakers to familiarize students with one another, at the beginning of a lesson to review material previously covered, after direct instruction to reinforce, and to perfect understanding of the content. 

Flip 

(Flipgrid)

This website allows students to create personalized videos that they can share. They can respond to one another. Teachers have moderation rights and can create individualized online classes. The videos can be short or up to five minutes long. Students could share book talks, elevator speeches, summarize a text, or offer feedback on writing.

This site can be used as either a constant year long practice embedded in the classroom or as a one-time activity. As students are familiar with social media, they would respond well to a platform like this that gives them a platform online to respond. A teacher can use it for critical thinking questions or to go into deeper class discussions when in-class time is limited. 

 
Four Corners 

Place Agree/Strongly Agree/Disagree/Strongly Disagree signs in the corners of the classroom. Ask students to take a position on a statement by moving to the corner that matches their opinion. Once students have selected their corners, give them time to discuss their reasoning. Then call on a member from each of the four groups to justify their positions. Students may change corners at any time as their opinions change.

Ask students to commit their thoughts to writing prior to moving to a corner. This way when discussing, students will have a reference to share their thoughts. This will also help prevent students just following their friends.  

  Four Corners is useful when students need to get up and move and to get students out of their normal groups. Consider using at the beginning of a lesson to check for prior understanding before starting a new unit that is focused on a standard that may be introduced at that grade level.  This strategy could also be used after reading a short story with a theme that many students would have a strong opinion about. Students would write their positions down on paper prior to going to a corner and keeping their positions a secret helps get genuine opinions on the topics being discussed.


  
Gist Statements 

Students summarize fiction or nonfiction texts or in 20 words or less. To make it more difficult, they would have to summarize using exactly 20 words. Get a further explanation at ReadWriteThink, or download the template.

For differentiation, teachers can start with having struggling learners summarize in 15-30 words, but have them work toward exactly 20 words.

When preparing students to master summarizing texts, whether fiction or nonfiction, incorporating Gist Statements after reading a text near the end of a lesson is a useful tool. Summarizing is a skill that requires students to use their critical thinking skills to identify the central ideas in a passage or text, and the closer they can get to 20 words the better they will become at distinguishing supporting details from central ideas. 



Give One, Get One  

Students create a T-chart and write “Give One” and “Get One” at the top of the columns. Students brainstorm a list of ideas or vocabulary about a topic and record their ideas in the “Give One” column.  

After writing independently, students rotate around the room, recording new information from other students in the “Get One” column. Wrap up the activity with a whole class discussion.

This strategy could be used at the beginning of a class period to activate students’ prior knowledge before working with a theme or topic. The strategy can also be used at the end of the lesson for students to review the information they have learned, as well as an activity to be used as summative assessment or to study for a formative assessment.  

Fishbowl

Two students sit facing each other in the center of the room; the remaining students sit in a circle around them. The two central students have a conversation based on a predetermined topic and often use specific skills the class is practicing (such as asking follow-up questions, paraphrasing, or elaborating on another person’s point). Students on the outside observe, take notes, or perform some other discussion-related task assigned by the teacher. 

It involves the person in the “fishbowl” immersing themselves inside the story/event. It is a form of theater, but it also encourages critical thinking and interactive participation from the rest of class as they must engage the student in the fishbowl.

This technique could be used at the beginning of a class/lesson to model a discussion to have students engage their background knowledge for an upcoming topic or topic that will be discussed. Fishbowl can be used in the middle of a lesson as students prepare for writing an argumentative essay, or near the end of a lesson or unit after students have read about a current event or are working on a literary or rhetorical analysis of a fiction or nonfiction text.


Hexagonal Thinking 

Hexagonal thinking is used to generate discussions. To begin, students need a set of hexagons with themes, topics, terms, etc, written on each. Then, students are instructed to join the edges of the hexagons with other related hexagons. Anywhere that the hexagons touch, they need to have a connection. When using this strategy for the first time, it is best to limit the number of hexagons to 10 or fewer. Later, students can be given more hexagons, as well as choose the terms, themes, ideas, etc., that are written on them. Templates for the hexagons can be found in the link. This strategy can also be used digitally. Ultimately, the value is not in the finished product, but in the discussion that students have while they choose where to place and connect hexagons.

 

Hexagonal thinking is best used at the end of a unit to help students synthesize information from the unit. For a novel unit, themes, characters, settings, literary devices, etc. can be written on the hexagons. This can also be used in the middle of a lesson or unit to help students plan and organize an essay.


For an argumentative essay/project, like that on the ACT Writing section, the source information/evidence being used can be written on the hexagons.  The joining of hexagons and the discussion of how each is connected helps students synthesize information, as well as organize it for their arguments. Using the strategy in this way, it is best placed in the middle of a lesson or unit, with the culminating activity/assignment being the writing of the essay. 


There is a bit of prep work needed for this activity, but students can cut out their own hexagons, as well is label them with a list that the teacher provides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hot-Seat

One student assumes the role of a book character, significant figure in history, or concept (such as a tornado, an animal, or the Titanic). Sitting in front of the rest of the class, the student responds to classmates’ questions while staying in character in that role. This tests how much the students are really understanding about the story and the main characters. It allows the students to really become engaged in not just the story but understanding characters within the story.
 

  This is a creative and fun engagement activity that can be done at the beginning of class if the students have already completed a reading or research on a given topic. It could be used in the middle of the lesson to ensure or check comprehension. At the end of a lesson, it could be used as a formative assessment. If studying a character who changes, Hot-Seat could also be used early in the lesson, again in the middle, and then at the end to demonstrate how that character changes throughout the story.

 

I Notice,

 I Wonder  

Students make a T-chart on their paper and jot down true statements (notices) and questions (wonders) about a text or image. Students can notice and wonder about artwork, literature, peer writing, and more. Students then share their notices and wonders with a partner, small group, and/or whole class.

  This strategy can be used at the beginning of instruction when students look at a piece of art paired with a piece of literature in a textbook. Students write down what they “notice” about the picture. Then students write down what questions the picture brings to mind (I wonder…). 

Teachers can also use this strategy at the end of a reading, by having the student “notice” events or details in the text, and “wonder” what may happen because of those details (in a news story perhaps) or what may happen after the end of the story (this would work great with a story that ends on a cliffhanger).

Another use for the strategy could be as a class assignment to guide students in how to peer edit in a positive way. The teacher could have students read through their peer’s work, and then write down three “I notice” statements, recognizing what the peer did well, and write down one, “I wonder” statement, where the student gives the peer a suggestion on what could be improved. (e.g. I notice your paragraphs flow nicely; I notice your description of your house is vivid; I notice that your word choice sounds professional; I wonder if you could start each paragraph differently, so it doesn’t sound redundant.”)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kahoot 

Students can play this online game with individual devices (phones or computers). Teachers can create their own questions or search for created games by other teachers.

 

Kahoot can be used at the beginning of class as an icebreaker at the beginning of the year, semester, or quarter, or as a bell ringer.
 

 

It can be the main focus of the class period as a pre-assessment to determine what students are familiar with already or as a way to review material prior to a test.
 

 

It can also be used at the end of the class period as a formative assessment of the information the students covered in class that day.    

K20 Center 

The K20 Center has 250 strategies for use in the classroom, including Tweet It UpWhy Lighting, and Sentence-Phrase-Word

 

The 30-Second Expert is allows students to take complex ideas and simplify them, which could be great for ELL or struggling readers of any grade. Airplane Landing is a strategy to help encourage shyer students to answer and formulate their thoughts. There are many strategies found on this site for teachers looking for new ideas.

Find more information about all 250 at the website.  

  The strategies available on the K20 website can be used at the beginning, middle, and end of lessons. 

Mini Posters & Gallery Walk 

Students create mini posters that reflect understanding of concepts or terms and participate in a gallery walk. Students can add their learning from the gallery walk to vocabulary- or content-specific notebooks.
 

This strategy encourages a deeper understanding and analysis of a concept. This is an excellent strategy to continue a conversation and encourage further exploration of a topic in the classroom. Using this in the middle or end of a lesson or unit is ideal. 

 

OPTIC 

Students use this strategy to analyze visual texts such as painting, photographs, or maps.  

  • O - Write a brief overview of the image. In one sentence, what is this image about?

  • P - List all the parts that seem important (color, figures, textures, groupings, shadings, patterns, numbers, repetitions, etc.).

  • T - How does the title or text contribute to the meaning?

  • I - Explain the interrelationships in the image. Consider how the parts come together to create a mood or convey an idea or an argument.

  • C - Write a conclusion paragraph that interprets the meaning of the image as a whole.

For more information, visit the K20 Center’s description for OPTIC.

 

OPTIC can be used at the beginning of instruction to introduce the literature by analyzing artwork associated with the text in a whole class, small group, or pair-share format. 

It can also be used as the instructional focus in teaching students how to analyze visual texts in writing. Teachers can gather information with the class for each component and, using students’ information and contributions, model how to transfer their ideas into meaningful written analysis.

  
 
Padlet 

This online collaborative hub allows users to post words and images. The teacher can pose a question for everyone to answer. Students can brainstorm together. Students can leave questions about a lesson for the teacher to answer.
 

Teachers can use this for multiple purposes at any point in a lesson. When completing research projects via an online medium such as Google Slide or Canva, students can post all their presentations in one place for viewing individually.

Before starting a new unit, a teacher can use Padlet to check for prior knowledge where students who may be too shy to raise their hand can still participate anonymously, or  a teacher can post interactive resources for a unit that students can access anytime they need to.

Padlet could also be used in conjunction with Backchannel Discussions. 

 

 

Quick Write 

This strategy could be used as a prewriting or review method. Students focus on a topic or concept and write about it for 3 to 5 minutes nonstop. Students can borrow a line of writing from a mentor text, and write in response, seeing where the line takes them. No special attention is paid to grammar or mechanics, and ideas are recorded as soon as they come into students’ minds. The Heinemann blog explains this concept more in depth.
 

This strategy can be used at the beginning of a lesson or unit to help students brainstorm their ideas and prior knowledge on the topic or idea being studied or as prewriting for an essay. 

It can also be used in the middle of a lesson to help students process their understanding of skills and ideas being learned before discussing them with their peers. In addition, it can be used to help students learn to write under time constraints. Quick writes can lead to rough drafts that students will later edit and revise.

Quick writes can also be used at the end of lessons or units. Teachers can pose a big question that requires synthesis of sources and information that students have researched, read, and analyzed. At the conclusion of a unit on Night, for instance, students could quick write in response to, “Can events like the Holocaust be prevented?” 

 

 

 

 

Snowball Discussion

Students begin in pairs, responding to a discussion question only with a single partner. After each person has had a chance to share their ideas, the pair joins another pair and so on. As groups get larger, the discussion time increases, typically in one-minute increments

Snowball discussions encourage meaningful conversation. They can be used at the beginning of the class period by having a student respond to a theme with their own feelings about it, and then snowballing out.

They can be used as the primary instruction by combining it with another strategy, such as OPTIC, and snowballing out to the whole class.

 

They can also be used as a formative assessment to determine students' growing understanding and what areas still need focus.

  

 

 

Socratic Seminars

There are many variations to this strategy. Give the students a reading assignment and have them use the ACE strategy that has them ask questions and support their answers using textual evidence. Break students into an inner circle and an outer circle. Students in the inner circle will discuss the text for five to ten minutes while the students in the outer circle write down what they noticed during the discussions. Then, have students change places and roles.

ReadWriteThink.org has a strategy guide that guides teachers through the strategy in practice, and the K20 Center has a strategy card. Reference Paideia.org for Socratic Seminar lesson plans.

 

The goal of a Socratic Seminar is to get a deeper understanding of a topic. Using this at the end of a unit or lesson allows for students to hear and value the opinions of other students without “debating” an issue. This is not meant to be an argument, but allow for a deeper discussion and understanding of a classroom topic. 

 
Synthesis Dinner Party 

While the Synthesis Dinner Party is often used in AP Language courses for the synthesis essay, this strategy can be used with any argumentative activity where students need to synthesize information from multiple sources. The idea is that evidence and sources need to be in conversation with one another in students’ writing, much like the conversation at a dinner party. One example of its use would be for the teacher to provide related information from 3-5 sources that provide different viewpoints on a topic being researched. (See past free-response questions from College Board’s AP Language exam.) Students are given the information from the sources, as well as a diagram (printed or digital) of a dinner table that has as many seats as there are sources. Students read and annotate the sources, and then choose where the various sources would sit if they were at a dinner together. In addition, students use “place settings” on the table to put the sources in conversation with one another. This higher level thinking activity engages students in comparing and contrasting sources, and then synthesizing the information.

Numerous resources exist to guide teachers in using this strategy in their classrooms, including Ms. Effie’s packet with several lessons and handouts, as well as this post and video from Coach Hall Writes.

 

The Synthesis Dinner Party strategy is best used during a lesson or unit where students need to work on synthesizing information to move forward. Prior to using it, students need to be introduced to the topic, as well as be familiar with the sources. Thus, it fits best in the middle of a lesson. This strategy can be used to help build body paragraphs for an essay, including the ACT writing prompts, as well help students create a line of reasoning in their essays. 


Visit the ACT Crosswalk page for information on the connections between Oklahoma Academic Standards (OAS) for English Language Arts (ELA) and the ACT standards.

 

 

Word Clouds

A word cloud displays the most used words from a text or answer set with the most common words appearing larger and the least common words appearing smaller. Using Mentimeter or a similar website, students respond to a question with a word or phrase, to create an instant word cloud. Teachers can use this as a formative assessment of their students’ understanding. A physical version of this activity can also be used.
 

Use this strategy at the end of a lesson to give the students an immediate visual of concepts or thoughts. 

 
3-2-1

Students complete a 3-2-1 during or after a lesson, encouraging students to think about their learning and to check for understanding. The K20 Center has a card for this strategy.

Some variations include:

  • 3 - things I discovered

  • 2 - interesting things

  • 1 - question I still have

  • 3 - academic vocabulary/ words I learned

  • 2 - sentences using new academic vocabulary words

  • 1 - paragraph using the new academic vocabulary words

  • 3- most important ideas from the text

  • 2- supporting details for each of the ideas

  • 1- question students have about each of the ideas

K20 card: https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/117

 

This strategy is an excellent exit ticket at the end of a lesson that can be modified for any use such as checking for comprehension after a short lesson; checking if students were paying attention during a guest speaker's presentation; or checking for student understanding to see if there are additional explanations needed  for a lesson to help students achieve mastery.  

 

 

 

 

 

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