Discover the secret sauce to sparking a fervor for learning as we chat with Josh Hall, National Director, Content and Implementation at Curriculum Associates. Freshly inspired after the winter break doldrums, educators often scratch their heads wondering how to reignite that classroom dynamism. Josh lays it all out for us, dissecting the trinity of engagement—behavioral, cognitive, and emotional—and why a blend of all three is the magic formula for truly immersive learning experiences. He taps into the wisdom of Fisher, Fry, and Gonzalez, moving beyond mere attentiveness to the kind of interaction with material that sticks. Josh also provides some specific engagement strategies you can start applying in your classrooms today.
Here's to a year filled with authenticity and impact in the classroom; may you continue to make a difference with every lesson you craft and every student you inspire.
Check out more engagement strategies here: i-ReadyCentral.com/download/?res=51291&view_pdf=1
Read Josh's Blog: CurriculumAssociates.com/blog/leveraging-student-response-protocols-to-enhance-learning
Follow us on Twitter: @CurriculumAssoc
Follow us on Instagram: @MyiReady
Have feedback, questions, or want to be a guest? Email ExtraordinaryEducators@cainc.com to connect with us!
Discover the secret sauce to sparking a fervor for learning as we chat with Josh Hall, National Director, Content and Implementation at Curriculum Associates. Freshly inspired after the winter break doldrums, educators often scratch their heads wondering how to reignite that classroom dynamism. Josh lays it all out for us, dissecting the trinity of engagement—behavioral, cognitive, and emotional—and why a blend of all three is the magic formula for truly immersive learning experiences. He taps into the wisdom of Fisher, Fry, and Gonzalez, moving beyond mere attentiveness to the kind of interaction with material that sticks. Josh also provides some specific engagement strategies you can start applying in your classrooms today.
Here's to a year filled with authenticity and impact in the classroom; may you continue to make a difference with every lesson you craft and every student you inspire.
Check out more engagement strategies here: i-ReadyCentral.com/download/?res=51291&view_pdf=1
Read Josh's Blog: CurriculumAssociates.com/blog/leveraging-student-response-protocols-to-enhance-learning
Follow us on Twitter: @CurriculumAssoc
Follow us on Instagram: @MyiReady
Have feedback, questions, or want to be a guest? Email ExtraordinaryEducators@cainc.com to connect with us!
Curriculum Associates presents the Extraordinary Educators podcast with hosts Danielle Sullivan and Sarah Loveris. Here tips, best practices and successes to improve your teaching and leadership and drive student growth and learning. We're here for you.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody, welcome to the Extraordinary Educator podcast. I'm Danielle.
Speaker 1:And I'm Sarah. This week, we are joined by our amazing colleague, josh Hall, who is a national director of content and implementation at Curriculum Associates.
Speaker 2:And Josh is talking to us about engagement, and I think this is a really helpful episode to listen to anytime, because I think educators are often wondering how to engage students, and I love the way he frames it in this very interesting formula plus gives some really great concrete examples on how to make sure that you are engaging students, the whole student and whatever they're learning.
Speaker 1:Exactly so enjoy. And here is our conversation with Josh. Welcome back, josh. It is so great to have you on the podcast again.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's always great to be here with you too.
Speaker 2:So, josh, tell us, what have you been up to? What are some things you're thinking about recently?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's always so much that that's running through my mind. But a topic that keeps coming up is this topic of engagement, and especially now we're all coming back from winter break or we're just about ready to come back, depending on where you're at in the country and just looking at how can we get kids reengaged after this break and continue that momentum that was started before winter break.
Speaker 2:All right, so let's talk about that. How can we get students engaged? What are some of your top strategies or bits of research to consider when thinking about engagement?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So something that I've really been diving into are really going into the different types of engagement, and there's three big types of engagement that come up over and over when you start to dive into this, and those three types are behavioral engagement, cognitive engagement and some people call it, refer to it as emotional engagement or effective engagement and each of these three types of engagement what I find fascinating is, in order to have full engagement, we really have to have all three dimensions of this met. So, yes, and when we think about in the classroom and I'm thinking back on my time in the classroom a lot of time and attention is focused on behavioral engagement, that is, that on task behavior, that classroom management, making sure everything is in order. But really focusing something that I would really challenge everyone to do is really, yes, behavioral engagement is important, but making sure that we're taking it past that down into that cognitive engagement where we're helping kids really grapple with those more complex concepts and issues and that deep processing of information.
Speaker 3:And a quote that I came across that really resonated with me on this was an article I read from Fisher Fry and Gonzalez, and they said real engagement isn't just engagement of students, those signs of attentiveness and fulfilling requirements. It's also engagement by students, evidence that they are interacting with what they learn. And so, as we're moving into this new year, just keeping both of those things in mind, yes, we do need engagement of students. They need to be paying attention and doing what we're asking, but really engagement by students. And so what? Are they interacting with what they learn? And Dr Sharaki Hawley has some incredible engagement strategies that he's designed as part of our Magnetic Reading 3.5 program. But the good news is these protocols or engagement strategies can really be used across any grade and any subject. I've worked on these strategies with K2 teachers and middle school teachers, with science and social studies, math and reading teachers, and there are lots of ways to get kids engaged in the learning.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for sharing all of that and I'm sure everyone listening is saying that sounds great. What are they tell us? What are some things, what are some actions that teachers can take tomorrow in their classroom to really get that deep cognitive engagement that you talked about?
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and you know what. We will make sure and link some of these down in the show notes so that you'll have these Peruse and find the ones that resonate with you and you think will resonate with your kids. But let's, let's see what are some of my favorites. One of my favorites right now, I guess, would be the musical shares, and the reason that's one of the reasons I love musical shares is that it encourages movement, but it also allows for multiple perspectives, and, as we're thinking about so, yes, the behavioral engagement is we're playing the music, the kids are getting up, they're finding a partner, or this is a way. I mean so many creative ways you can do this. Everybody can throw their favorite song in the hat, and you choose a song a day or a week, and that's the song you use. Or you put a Vote up at the beginning of the week and the class votes on the song, like so many ways to make it your own. But that's all the behavioral engagement part, which is one of the aspects that we need to make sure is in place if we want full engagement.
Speaker 3:The Pognitive engagement part of this, though, is where I have posed a thought-provoking question beforehand. I've given students time to think about that question, to respond independently to that question, using whatever evidence that would that that that they have, or based on the class discussions I'm I could have them doing this with a partner where they're answering a thought-provoking question together. Whatever that I mean, I could tie this to science, social studies, math, reading, you name it and then I play the music and they find a partner. They meet up, they share their response to that thought-provoking question, they have a conversation, they have an opportunity to add on to what they had, or maybe they want to change their mind. After talking with their partner, they saw a new perspective they had not thought of before.
Speaker 3:And then I start the music. They Uh, I was gonna say run around, no, not run around. They walk briskly around or leisurely around the classroom, whatever you have in place. Find a new partner, and I do that a couple of times. And again, when do this? Now, students aren't. They just don't have their perspective in mind, but they've had a chance to see three or four other perspectives to really get a A more holistic view or well-rounded view over the topic at hand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that so much.
Speaker 2:And I'm gonna add, because the third component you keep talking about is emotional engagement, what if we added to this that not only do students Switch and share, but maybe they could share something that the music is making them feel as they're talking to each other about cognitive strategies. So it's introducing the emotion and the cognitive together. It's just. These are the things that educators could think about when I love that. You said cognitive, behavioral and emotional engagement, and I think a lot of times the emotional engagement tends to be something that is On Tuesday during the fbl course, so there are ways to weave in how music evokes emotion, like that's. That's a perfect example. So thank you so much for sharing that, and we're about to run out of time, so I want to know what's another Strategy that you love. If you could even just share another strategy, and then what would be the cognitive, behavioral and emotional pieces of a different another one of your favorite strategy?
Speaker 3:So another one of my favorite strategies, that I've actually used this strategy with adults. So when I say like these strategies span the range, I use this in sessions with educators and it's so interesting to see the changing in thinking and the refining and all of that as it goes through. It's called stronger and clearer, and this is definitely one upper elementary to middle school and above K2. I haven't tried this with K2, but you know what? There might be some ways that we could even do that down there. That's where that teacher creativity can come in. But anyway, the behavioral engagement is. Again, I posed a thought provoking question, all right, and I've given my students an opportunity to respond based on whatever knowledge they have at hand. And again, it's also important to think about when I'm going to place these into my lesson. So one way I've done it is I've posed the thought provoking question at the beginning of the lesson, so they write down whatever they know before the lesson and then, throughout the lesson, I give them an opportunity to revisit and make their definition or their answer stronger and clearer, and then they have a chance to talk with a partner and now, again, they're seeing those multiple perspectives. So here you start, seeing that cognitive engagement coming in. And then you maybe another day, a day or two next in the lesson we look at what they have.
Speaker 3:They think about what they've learned from this text or this source. They talk with their partner, they make it stronger and clearer and again, you're seeing, yes, the behavioral pieces. They're responding, they're talking with their partner, they know how to do a turn and talk or find a partner. The cognitive, though, is the way that their thinking is deepening and evolving, and when I did this with adults, we were doing it on the concept of discourse, and I actually had one of the educators say, wow, you're really changing my thinking around discourse, and that's the cognitive engagement is when our thinking is broadening and deepening and evolving throughout the emotional piece. Danielle, do you have anything to maybe add in on that piece?
Speaker 2:Yes, you could even add something so simple as just a connected question. So there's the cognitive question but you could say what's your favorite color, what is your? Just something simple to get them talking and then they can dig into the more cognitive that's going to help just emotionally connect with the partner to find similarities.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, love it, wow, great. Well, if you want to see more strategies, we'll link them in the show notes, and it's been so great being here with you both today.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, josh, as always, for sharing all of your expertise and insights. We love talking with you.
Speaker 3:I love, I love talking with you and I wish you all and everyone listening, a happy 2024.
Speaker 1:Get inspired by following us on social media and please tag us in your posts on Twitter, at curriculumassoch, and on Instagram at my iReady. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest or want to be a guest, email extraordinaryeducators at cainccom. Subscribe where you listen to podcasts and if you'd like to help more educators like you, join the conversation. Please leave a review.
Speaker 4:And remember, be you be true, be extraordinary. The Extraordinary Educators podcast is produced by Curriculum Associates. Editing by Whiteboard Geeks, social media by Atstie Hannan, guest booking by Sarri LaBearis, production by Hailey Browning. This podcast is copyright, material and intellectual property of Curriculum Associates.