I've been having some conversations with myself and with others about what it means to have students engaged during a class period. To me, engagement means students are actively working to make meaning, understand concepts, and practice skills-and what that looks like can vary. It can look like a lab activity. It can look like a discussion. It can look like this:
Today my students were close reading some nifty informational text concerning plasma membrane structure and function. They each had two different colors of highlighters - one color represented what they understood, an.d the other color represented what they didn't get as they read. They had to read a few sentences and then think about if they understood what they just read or not in order to decide what color highlighter to use. It took them 13 minutes to read two pages doing this, which, from what I understand, is the point of close reading - to slow students down so they can interact with the text and make meaning WHILE they read instead of when they're trying to answer questions after they read. After the 13 minutes passed, I asked them what they thought of reading this way. Here were some responses:
- "I have to think about what I read."
- "I actually think I understood this better."
- "It was so much slower but I remember what I read."
As I walked around the room students were in their seats, silently pondering what they knew and didn't know. Some of them were probably not entirely accurate in their assessment of their understanding. Some of them were probably trying to wade through some of the tier 3 vocabulary sprinkled throughout the reading. Some of them have probably never really thought about whether or not they were "getting it" while they read a passage.
But I guarantee all of them were engaged, especially when you make reading an active process through close reading. Students don't have to be out of their seats in order for their minds to be wrapped around concepts or pondering if they understand something or not. Students up and about is always welcome; however, as long as students minds are busy with learning, engagement is happening.
