Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Have Students Teach the Class: The Student Engagement Wheel


This is one of the "spokes" of the Student Engagement Wheel.  The Student Engagement Wheel is show below.  Use the Student Engagement Wheel to help you measure the student engagement in your class.  

The page above is out of the book called "Engaging Teaching Tools"  More information is located at the  the blog post How to Measure Student Engagement?


10 comments:

Rebecca Robinson said...

I am studying to be a teacher. The "Engagement Wheel" is very interesting. How have you used some of the spokes in your math class? Have you had students teach lessons in your classroom? If so, how did it turn out?

Unknown said...

Hi! My name is Tonya and I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I agree with your comment about students starting to "buy in" when they are engaged with the learning process. In my precal class last semester, I was asked to help other students with a certain topic we were covering at that time. I felt like I was on top of the world. It feels good to teach other people and for them to be able to grasp the concept because of something you said. It made me feel useful for that moment and that was an excellent feeling. When I graduate and become a teacher, I am going to let my students help their classmates. I also think the engagement wheel is an excellent tool to measure class participation. I believe the more the students enjoy participating, the more they will learn in class.

Brian Orr said...

Hello Mr. Sladkey, my name is Brian. I am also a student from EDM 310, along with Tonya. I would like to say I agree that class participation from students can help us learn more effectively. In my experience, though, being called upon when you are not comfortable with the material or not doing so well in the class, feels quite awkward. I would try to call upon students who have a firm grasp in the class. The other forms of participation, especially group work, can all be very helpful. In my mathematics courses, doing a worksheet together was extremely helpful! I also am an advocate of group tables and not single desks for students. Discussion is encouraged at a round table, and almost inevitable in a quick paced, complicated math course.

Dave Sladkey said...

Brain, I agree that you can put students in an awkward situation. I also was cautious about picking students randomly to teach the rest of the class. However, I actually feel it has lessened the fear in my class. All the students in my class are accountable for the material. I try to get them all participating very early in the class. They also will have their partner (which I change every chapter) up with them while explaining the problem. And lastly, I almost always give some talk time on a question that I pose before asking someone to explain it. Usually a couple weeks into my school year, I feel like there is more particiaption than before when I did not call on students at random.

Unknown said...

Hello, my name is Carla Young. I am a student in the EDM310 class (http://edm310.blogspot.com) at the University of South Alabama. I am going to be stopping by your blog over the next couple of weeks and posting a summary of what I have read on my blog http://youngcarlaedm.blogspot.com. I will of course give all credit to you and post the link to your blog. I really liked the engagement wheel idea you had! I think that is a good tool to measure your students' engagement. I agree with the point you made about the students knowing the material and using it. If they are able to teach the material to their peers, they have gained an understanding of the material fully.

Mr. Rease said...

The Student Engagement Wheel is very interesting. I will most certainly try this activity in my classroom. For the most part, it will be a great way to get the students involved and keep them engaged. Most importantly, it will make learning fun! Mr. Sladkey, thank you so much for posting such useful information!

Rease, EDM510 Student from University of South Alabama.

Anonymous said...

Hello Mr. Sladkey,
My name is Larry and I'm also studying to be a teacher in EDM 510 at the University of South Alabama (My EDM 510 Blog). I'm currently working towards an Alternative Masters in Secondary Education (General Science) degree. I am really impressed with your Student Engagement Wheel. As a teacher, I'm learning that it is extremely important to make your classes engaging! Your Engagement Wheel provides great ways to achieve this on a daily basis.Thank you for sharing!

Unknown said...

Hello, my name is Nicole and I am currently a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I agree with your views of student engagement. Class participation is a great way to help students learn more effectively. Mathematics has always been a hard subject for me. In my experience, working in a group with other students was always something that was extremely helpful. I love the way you allow the students to help teach each other. I also really like your idea of the engagement wheel, I think it is an excellent way to measure class participation. I look forward to using your ideas in my classroom one day. Thanks for sharing!

Unknown said...

I am looking forward to becoming a Math teacher in the future. I have never liked my math classes because the teacher did not really engage with the class, most the time they stood in the front of class writing on a board or overhead of some sort and called it teaching. This is why I have decided to become a teacher because I was able to understand math by teaching myself. I have tutored many students in the past and they all said that I helped them understand. I think the Engagement Wheel is a great tool to use. I am looking forward to using it as a future math teacher.

Paula Holt Rascoe said...

I am a student in EDM310 at USA. I love the student engagement wheel. I love getting everyone involved and making the learning process easy as possible. Students are more inclined to learn material from their peers. A student myself I have always learned material I struggled with from my classmates. Different styles of teaching from those who are just students.

Paula Holt