Your guide to proven programs that increase learner engagement.
Engagement & Behavior Support
Resources
- Restorative Practice Training (Carbondale Community School)
- Restorative Responses Behavior Flow Chart & Intervention Process (Carbondale Community School)
- This tool was developed to better support strategy implementation and engagement discussions with teachers (Carbondale Community School)
Tools & Templates: Sample Student Trackers
This list of trackers were used by RISE schools who were looking to monitor and track progress of specific student behavioral engagement.
- Student Template Check In & Check Out (Academy 360)
- Student Work Completion Tracker (Academy 360)
- Student Engagement & Self Assessment Rubric (Carbondale Community School)
- Cooperative Learning & Student Engagement Reflection (Carbondale Community School)
Increasing Cognitive Lift
These photos illustrate specific projects and materials schools used as part of their efforts to increase student engagement:
Teacher Development
- Global Village Academy leveraged a problem of practice protocol with their teachers as they worked to increase student engagement in their classrooms.
- Global Village Academy: Engaged Thinking PD proposal from Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Strong Objectives
Resources. This list of resources were used by schools in their efforts to write strong objectives and to push students to higher levels of cognitive lift:
- Cognitive Rigor Matrix: Math & Science (Animas High School)
- Cognitive Rigor Matrix: Reading & Writing (Animas High School)
- Blooms Taxonomy: Action Verbs (Academy 360)
- Blooms Taxonomy: Success Criteria (New Legacy Charter School)
Tools & Templates. These are sample templates used to get teachers thinking about their scope and sequence of their unit and ensure students are reaching the levels of thinking we want them to get to:
- Objective Calendar (Academy 360)
- Plan/Do/Study/Act Template (New Legacy Charter School)
Competency Definitions & Frames. New Legacy Charter School worked to develop competencies that they wanted their students to reach. These are both academic and behavioral in nature to ensure that both teachers and students are clear about what they are expected to accomplish.
Cooperative Learning
Resources. These are example resources shared from schools who utilized the cooperative learning strategy in their schools:
- Introduction to Cooperative Learning Slides (Carbondale Community School)
- Cooperative Learning Success Criteria (New Legacy Charter School)
- Success Criteria Workshop Model (New Legacy Charter School)
Tools & Templates. Below are sample lesson plan and exit ticket templates created by a school implementing the cooperative learning strategy:
- Cooperative Learning Plan (Carbondale Community School)
- Engagement Exit Tickets (Carbondale Community School)
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Resources. Resources from our schools working to incorporate Universal Design for Learning into their school’s model.
- Norms of Collaboration (Animas High School)
- ESS Protocol (Animas High School)
- Project Tuning Protocol (Animas High School)
- Collaborative Structures from Expeditionary Learning (Animas High School)
- Circle of Viewpoints: Thinking Structures (Animas High School)
- Teaching to the Edges for Leads (Thomas McLaren School)
- Lesson Planning Checklist (Thomas McLaren School)
- Thinking About Teaching to the Edges (Thomas McLaren School)
Tools & Templates. These tools were created by Animas High School, a project based learning school that was working to incorporate UDL practices:
- ASE Backwards Planning Template (Animas High School)
- Sample Filled Out Student Profile Template (Animas High School)
- Student Profile Template (Animas High School)
Daring Classrooms
Using Brené Brown's research on vulnerability, courage and belonging to cultivate student engagement.
This Engagement Guidebook reviews lessons learned through the Increasing Diverse Learner Engagement & Achievement (IDLEA) Project.
Helpful Resources
These 14 articles and resourcess can be utilized to increase engagement for all students regardless of your strategic approach:
- 6 Small but Mighty Ways to Make Your Students Feel Important (Edutopia)
- Help Neurodiverse Students Improve Executive Function Skills (Edutopia)
- Building a Joyful Classroom Community (Edutopia)
- Supporting Executive Functioning by Asking Questions (Edutopia)
- Helping Teachers Regulate Their Emotions (Edutopia)
- Brains in Pain Cannot Learn (Edutopia)
- Using Descriptive Inquiry to Support Teachers (Edutopia)
- The Reciprocity Ring for Classroom Community (Forbes)
- Building Student Agency by Collaborating on Learning Standards (Edutopia)
- Innovation in the Elementary Classroom (We Are Teachers)
- 5 Ways Admin Can Support Teachers (Edutopia)
- Leading with Empathy (Edutopia)
- Question Formulation Technique (RQI)
- Project Zero Thinking Routines (Harvard Graduate School of Education)
Charter Schools in Action
Click on each image to view teachers utilizing engagement strategies in their classrooms.
