Engage Me

In the United States, our children enter school at 5 years and spend 12 years of full day education and 1 year of half day education.

   12 years * 176 school days/year * (6.5 hours/day - 60 minutes recess & lunch) = 11,616 hours
     1 year * 176 school days/year * (2.75 hours/day) = 484 hours
                                Total hours in public school = 12,100 hours

12,100 hours is a gift or a curse depending on how it is used. Think back to your journey through those 12,100 hours. What was asked of you during that time? What did you do during that time? Did your class look like this?

Did your class like like this?

While the tone is different in each scene, the scenes themselves are rife with minimal engagement. In most classrooms we no longer sit in rows, a teacher-centric formation, choosing pod or paired structures to encourage partner collaboration and communication. However, have our practices changed as with the redesign of our classrooms. How many of those 12,100 hours is teacher-centered information transfer or whole group conversation and how many are students doing things, conversing, making judgements, making mistakes, and correcting them. It's not enough to rearrange the desks, we need to rearrange our practice.

Walk into a classroom. 24 students listen to 1 child make a 5 minute presentation. Over the course of a week, each child presents:
                                  25 students * 5 minutes = 2 hours and 5 minutes

For 2 hours and 10 minutes of class time, that child is participating for 5 minutes. 5 minutes! Presentation is important. Learning to be an audience is important. Having an authentic critical audience is important. There are better ways. The same learning can be accomplished by breaking the class into five groups. Each having small presentations. Each sharing. Now, the audience experience is 20 minutes instead of 2 hours. Learning goals accomplished, and percent of time direct engagement has gone from 4% of the time to 20% of the time.

This same concept of time savings holds true in whole group vs. small group instructional design. When leading a math class, count the number of students who participate during the hour. Count the frequency of their participation and the amount of time they participate for.
Typical 25 student middle school whole group math class:
                                     10 minutes homework/concept review
                                     20 minutes teacher introduces new concept (7-10 children participate or ask ?s)
                                     10 minutes guided practice -  teacher rotates and supports
                                       5 minutes complete your assignment

Now that same class done as centers:

	0-15 Minutes	16-30 minutes	31-45 minutes
Group A - 8 students	Learn new concept with teacher (4 ask ?'s)	As a group, apply math concept to real world problem. Explain how you got there	Review assignment with classmates and determine why you have differences. If complete, try math challenge problem
Group B - 8 Students	Review assignment with classmates and determine why you have differences. If complete, try math challenge problem	Learn new concept with teacher (4 ask ?'s)	As a group, apply math concept to real world problem. Explain how you got there
Group C - 9 Students	As a group, apply math concept to real world problem. Explain how you got there	Review assignment with classmates and determine why you have differences. If complete, try math challenge problem	Learn new concept with teacher (4 ask ?'s)

The level of engagement increases as we let go of the teacher-centered design and move to an engaged learning experience. Student participation increases by the vary nature of the small group. The more intimate setting allows for more targeted instruction on the concept and with fewer students present, a child is more likely to be called on and more willing to ask questions. In addition, the other students not working with the teacher are more meaningfully engaged. Instead of sitting and listening to the teacher interact with one child at a time, they are doing things. Reviewing work, applying concepts, having critical academic conversations. They also could be doing either traditional or digital review of concepts previously learned. The shear number of students active in the class increases the learning productivity of that time. 

Is this more work for teachers? Yes. Does this mean we will be repeating ourselves multiple times? Yes. Does this allow us to be more targeted in our instruction? Yes. Will this be more preparation of activities? Some. Could this drastically increase student's engagement in math class? Yes.

12,100 hours is a lot of time. It can be the long drawn out experience in which the student is an observer or it can be a creative laboratory in which children are consistently given challenges and engaged in opportunities to over come them. The choice is our. How do we want our students to spend their time? What do we want to be the products of our time with them?