Session 5 Exploratory

M-ARC Program Outcome 2: Facilitate an Environment that Supports Student Engagement 

*This exploratory should take no more than 15 minutes to read. Be sure you complete this lesson no later than 6:30 on Tuesday, January 22 so that you're prepared to partcipate in the 6:30-8:00 virtual session.*

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Session 5 Learning Goals

  • Become familiar with resources to foster engagement in your classroom.
  • Be introduced to Teach Like A Champion 2.0, a resource referenced frequently within M-ARC.
  • Consider reasons/responses for disengaged/unmotivated students.

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Think back to your experiences as a college or K-12 student. What are the most memorable lessons? What teachers had a lasting impact? What experiences do you think you will you remember in 5-10 years from now? When did you feel most comfortable to take risks? What do these experiences have in common? Surely, an environment that supported student engagement was a common factor in your experiences.

Sound learning environments foster impactful teaching, safe spaces and most importantly allow for students to be engaged. Disengaged students can be a detrimental setback in all learning environments, but is especially prudent in student populations that face staggering student achievement gaps, such as urban contexts like the Detroit area. It is crucial that teachers spend significant time building a strong learning environment at the beginning of the school year, and revisiting the topic often.

We invite you to watch this TedTalk by educator Christopher Emdin as a Do Now activity for this lecture:

To elaborate on the disengaged students Emdin eluded to, the following is an excerpt from the ebooklet from Psych4Schools Links to an external site. Working with children who are disengaged and unmotivated in the classroom Links to an external site. by Zoe Ganim and Murray Evely discuss the motivation gap and its potential impacts:

"Unmotivated children tend to opt out, do the bare minimum required and can be difficult to teach. They are unwilling to participate in class discussions, frequently look bored, tune out, distract others, give up easily on tasks, talk out of turn, arrive late to class, disrupt the flow of classes and have poor attendance. As they get older they are more likely to skip classes, engage in challenging anti-social behaviours,[3] and are more at risk of dropping out of school."

The question of the hour: So what can you do as a brand-new teacher to create a safe physical space and have strong behavior management so that your students are engaged? Well, unfortunately, there's no one-right answer. The reality is with time you will create a flow in your classroom after experimenting and trying technique after technique. Emdin calls this flow "teacher magic," but he dispels the myth that this is magic is something that some teachers just "have" and others simply do not. It is entirely possible to create "magic" in your classroom, especially when you apply your resources thoughtfully. Here are a few to consider:

  • Read books related to classroom management and culturally responsive teaching (Teach Like a Champion 2.0 by Doug Lemov Links to an external site. or For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...by Christopher Emdin Links to an external site. for starters)
  • Observe the master teachers in your building (Take one of your planning periods to sit in the back of colleague's class and jot notes about what the room looks like and how the teachers/students engage and what routines are in place.)
  • Immerse yourself in the community of which you teach (Try to interact with students in their natural environment to determine what motivates your students, for example attend sporting events with your students.)
  • Scour the web (Pinterest?!) for ideas to build routines and norms and procedures
  • Ask your students for feedback (Survey your students formally and informally to get a gauge for what's working for them.)
  • Consult your instructional coaches (M-ARC Field instructors and TFA coaches are invaluable resources available over email/phone!)

And when none of this works, because trust us, that's very possible...go back to the drawing board!  Whatever you do, don't give up on investing time into your students and classroom; if you keep investing into your classroom culture, it will pay off. Without student engagement or classroom management the thoughtful lessons that you plan simply cannot be executed successfully.

Strong behavior management and establishing routines and procedures are also an essential starting point for building a strong culture and a sound learning environment. A resource that M-ARC field instructors are trained and well versed in is Teach Like a Champion 2.0 by Doug Lemov Links to an external site.. Teach Like A Champion 2.0 (TLAC) offers 62 very useable, clear techniques to implement into any K-12 setting so that a classroom can run effectively and keep the students engaged in content. Your field instructors will invite you to explore this resource throughout the year by watching videos or reading scanned excerpts from the book. Furthermore, M-ARC believes so strongly in this resource that we have created a TLAC Aligned M-ARC rubric, which links both book excerpts and videos to each of M-ARC's program competencies (see additional resources below). 

Teach Like A Champion 2.0 is very readable and designed for new teachers; we highly encourage corps members to purchase their own copy of the book!

Lastly, as a part of each module, we ask that you take a moment to read the description and competencies for the outcome that the module is addressing. Module 5 is addressing M-ARC program outcome 2, which is located on pages 6-8 of the M-ARC Program Rubric Links to an external site..

To prepare for the virtual group conference meeting session (with your content group) consider the following discussion prompts (No written submission necessary, these are simply thinking points to come ready to talk about.):

  • Have you experienced disengaged students in your classroom? Did this exploratory give you an idea of what you might do differently the next time your students are not motivated/engaged?
  • What idea might you try from the list of bulleted resources? Observing a master teacher? Checking out the Teach Like a Champion text? 

Required readings/videos:

Teach Teachers How to Create Magic Links to an external site.TedTalk by Christopher Emdin

Working with children who are disengaged and unmotivated in the classroom  Links to an external site.by Zoe Ganim and Murray Evely

M-ARC Program Rubric Links to an external site. (pages 6-8). 

Optional readings/resources: 

TLAC Aligned M-ARC Rubric Links to an external site.