For many years as I taught grade school then transitioned into school administration we always seemed to talk about on and off task behaviour. In fact, I can remember people coming into my classroom with a stop watch and timing the amount of on and off task behaviour a student displayed over a half hour period of time. To this day, when students are off task they often get check marks, they lose privileges or get phone calls home. It was always about the student, and what was wrong with the students and how we could use coercive and persuasive techniques to increase on-task behaviour.
It hasn’t been until now, that a number of pieces of information, a few different books I have read, and the latest Professional Development I have been involved in did it become apparent to me that on or off task behaviour was not necessarily the fault of the child. In fact, off task behaviour in most cases falls directly on the shoulders of teachers. We as teachers cannot make a student be more on task, but we can design tasks that result in an increase in student engagement. In fact, in most cases, when tasks consists of elements that engage students, guess what? Students are engaged.
But why should we hold teachers responsible for designing tasks that result in student engagement? Shouldn’t students be required to complete the work assigned to them? This visual clearly speaks to the role of the teacher and the requirement for effective teaching. I realize there are many qualities that meld together to create a “high-performing” teacher but there is definitely no argument that one of the key qualities is the ability to design tasks that result in student engagement.
So just what are tasks that result in high levels of student engagement? What are the attributes, components of these tasks? To answer these questions, I will include the information the staff at Erin Woods School recently compiled. In a two-hour work session, our staff came together to think, discuss, and synthesize the following information.
Here is the trick to changing off-task behaviour:
Lessons that are designed to engage students do just that! Listed here are the attributes of tasks that result in differing levels of engagement.
|
Low Level of Engagement |
Medium Level of Engagement |
High Level of Engagement |
Examples: Work sheets – pre-made Yes/no tasks (one right answer) Drills Coloring Fill in the missing word Write a word 5 times Word Search |
Examples: Mad Minute Personal Dictionary KWL Charts Any searching, finding, looking for answer Making Words Work with more than one right answer |
Examples: Games or challenges Hands on or multi-modal Solves real life problems (math, social studies) Experiments (with a hypothesis and solution) |
What this information tells us is task design is the key to on-task, high engagement behaviour from students. In the end, it is not the student who is at fault. When those students so many years ago were timed for on or off task behaviour I don’t think we even considered whether or not the task they were being asked to do was appropriate for the learner or had the attributes of a task that often results in engaging behaviour. As educator Phil Schlechty says, There is a 0% chance that children will learn from work they do not do.” And we know they will not do boring, un-engaging, un-related, senseless tasks, would you?
Related articles
- What Your Rules Say About You (attheprincipalsoffice.com)
- Do Your Rules Lead to Student Engagement and Meaningful Learning? Nine guidelines… (kidsconsortium.org)
- Effective Techniques for Classroom Teaching (podiumproapp.wordpress.com)
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profesorbaker
February 13, 2012 at 7:09 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Hi,
I enjoyed reading this post. It’s a great post, informative, practical: lots of ideas to put in practice is offered.
Thanks for this, it’s really useful, in a tomorrow-kind-of-way!
Regards,
Thomas
David Kanigan
February 13, 2012 at 7:25 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Great post. And very compelling McKinsey chart which I will share. Thank you. (From a fellow Canadian!)
llcullen
February 13, 2012 at 10:16 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Thanks David!
Shira Leibowitz
February 14, 2012 at 3:13 AM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Hi Lori,
I love the examples of activities to engage students. Even more, I love the reflective process in which your teachers engaged to create the lists of learning activities.. Perhaps there is another level to add to your list engaged teacher learners lead to engaged student learners.
Thanks for another thoughtful blog post to help me reflect!
llcullen
February 14, 2012 at 7:20 AM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Yes the piece about engaged teachers did come up in our discussion and it is so right! Thanks Shira!
Christina
February 14, 2012 at 6:53 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Absolutely true about engaged teachers leading to engaged students. If we are excited about the activity/lesson then the students will be excited. Our students live in a world of hands on computers, ipads, ipods etc. We need to understand each students form of learning and in turn we will find the key to engagement for each student. Great post Lori. Thanks.
High performance requires every child to succeed… – Lead.Learn.Live.
February 13, 2012 at 7:22 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] you At The Principal’s Office Share this:Like this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Filed Under: Grow, Inspire, Lead, Life [...]
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February 19, 2012 at 12:25 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Are Those Students Off Task Again? Examples of How to Engage All Students by [...]
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February 24, 2012 at 11:17 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] is a topic that concerns teachers, parents, and perhaps most importantly, students. I found this chart on low/medium/high engagement interesting. Share [...]
I Call it Accountability « ………..At the Principal's Office…
February 25, 2012 at 1:17 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Are Those Kids Off-Task Again? One Trick to Change Off-Task Behaviour (attheprincipalsoffice.wordpress.com) Share this:TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmailLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Leave a Comment by llcullen on February 25, 2012 • Permalink Posted in Learning, Teaching Tagged British Columbia [...]
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March 4, 2012 at 4:10 AM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
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March 4, 2012 at 4:20 AM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
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March 4, 2012 at 9:25 AM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] been working at our school to systematically do so. Previously I posted ideas from our work on student engagement as much of our work this year has been focussed in this area. It is impossible however to focus [...]
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March 6, 2012 at 3:20 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Are Those Kids Off-Task Again? One Trick to Change Off-Task Behaviour (attheprincipalsoffice.com) [...]
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November 2, 2012 at 5:17 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] understanding, lesson design is critical. We know that certain types of learning tasks lead to student engagement, but it is also critical to incorporate these tasks into well designed [...]
What Your Rules Say About You | voicEd.ca
December 31, 2012 at 8:35 AM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Office . Since that time it has been viewed over 500o times. A companion post Are Those Kids Off Task Again is worth the read as [...]
Be A Pro-Active Principal With Student Behaviours » At the Principal's Office
April 7, 2013 at 5:10 PM (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Are Those Kids Off-Task Again? One Trick to Change Off-Task Behaviour (attheprincipalsoffice.com) [...]