Designing More Engaging Lessons

Yesterday, I discussed the importance of making lessons engaging and relevant to our students.  I talked about the different levels of engagement that Schlechty identified in Working on the Work and how you can tell what at which level each of your students is engaged.  Today, I'd like to dig deeper into Schlechty's book and discuss the 10 qualities teachers need to keep in mind when designing lessons so as to create work that is meaningful, relevant, and engaging to students.

Love this!  Doesn't this just hit the nail on the head?  Cartoon courtesy of jeffersonchae.wordpress.com.

The first design focus Schlechty discusses is Content and Substance.  We know that our students need to be challenged and that we need to raise the level of questions we are asking and, therefore, the answers we are getting, so as to prepare our students for the future.  In order to elevate the thinking of our students, we must design lessons with the end in mind. If we want our students to think critically, our lessons have to be designed in such a way that analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information is built in to the lesson.  Through the use of rich text, project-based assignments, cross-curricular lessons, and materials that build upon our student's background knowledge and increase their levels of understanding, we can design lessons full of substance that cover the curriculum in a way that does more than allow us to check something off of our list, rather we will be able to see a true understanding of the concepts in the products our students create.
These types of lessons often take more planning on the front-end but less work from the teacher on the back-end.  More student involvement equals less work for you!
Product Focus takes the first design quality a step further and emphasizes that students are almost always more engaged when they are working on a project.  If students are given the opportunity to research an idea that is interesting to them and then use that information to create a product of their choosing, they are far more likely to be authentically engaged through-out the process.
Our students should never have to guess why they are learning about a particular topic and they should especially never have to guess what they are learning about!  In the past, I have walked into classrooms and been very unsure what the objective of the lesson was. When I have asked students what they are learning and why they are learning it, they are often unclear.  Let's not keep it a secret from our students, rather, let's make sure we have an Organization of Knowledge that is apparent to our students and to anyone who walks into the classroom.  This would also include tying ideas together across subject areas every time it is appropriate to do so.
Using rubrics, checklists and models can help develop Clear and Compelling Product Standards. It is even more powerful when students are allowed to help create these rubrics and checklists.  Students need to be aware of what the end result is supposed to look like and they will do even more work if they are challenged to go above and beyond.
Our classrooms must be environments where students feel both physically and emotionally safe.  They have to know that others are not going to make fun of them when they fail.  If we can create this type of an environment, our students will be assured that they have Protection from Adverse Consequences for Initial Failures.  They must also feel that it is alright in your eyes if they take a risk and they are not successful.  The use of sarcasm or teasing can often make students feel that it's not okay to try and fail and this prevents them from taking risks.  We can help build an environment of safety by using a Social Contract, which students must sign stating how they will treat others--with kindness, respect, dignity, and fairness.  Likewise, we can encourage students to use kind words and be helpful to each other.  This will allow students to feel more comfortable with their risk taking both socially and academically.
Affiliation is another way of looking at cooperative grouping or projects where students depend on others to complete the assignment.  Much the way that students become loyal to a sports team, they can create a bond with each other that encourages engagement.  Project based learning is an amazingly powerful tool that teaches the types of skills students will need in the workforce--the ability to work together, to communicate effectively, to delegate, and to synthesize various information from multiple sources.  Giving groups a team name and allowing them to socialize and focus on getting to know each other better is a great way to encourage affiliation.
Another way to encourage students to do their best and become authentically engaged is through Affirmation.  This includes praise from the teacher, other students, and other adults like various staff members, parents, visitors, etc. If students know their work is to be displayed or viewed by multiple people, they are more likely to put in extra effort.  Portfolio based projects are an example Schlechty gives that provide opportunities to design lessons highlighting affirmation.
We all know that students love to have the opportunity to choose, so the next design quality, Choice, is no surprise. Likewise, it is not difficult to work some sort of a choice into most lesson plans. Whether you are letting students choose something complicated like a topic for a project or an end product, or something simple like which chair they would like to sit in to complete an assignment, choice is an important way to create an environment where students are happy and engaged.
Students also love Novelty and Variety. There are hundreds of apps and computer programs that we can use in our classroom for legitimate teaching purposes that provide novelty and variety for our students. Try to work as many different technological programs into your lesson plans as you can.  But that's not the only form of variety we can employee.  Costumes, props, artifacts, samples, videos, songs, all of these things go a long way in building higher levels of engagement in our students.
The final design quality is also one of the most important. It's Authenticity and it's vital not only to encouraging engagement but to ensuring students understand the relevance of what they are learning. If we do not allow students to create products that are meaningful and relevant to them, we will not be able to teach them at the level they need in order to be successful.  Whenever possible, place an authentically engaging activity in your lesson plans in place of a menial task like a common worksheet.  In fact, replace all menial tasks with authentically designed activities and you will see that the level of authentically engaged students in your class will also increase. It just makes sense that authentically designed lessons will breed authentically engaged students.
I challenge you to use at least three of these qualities in your lesson plans the next time you sit down to plan. When you are planning with your teams, pull this list out.  Talk to them about ways you can all incorporate some of these qualities into your lesson plans.  If you hear someone suggest a worksheet, be ready with a more authentic lesson or activity instead.  Let us know how this affects the level of engagement in your classroom and the student learning outcomes.  We would love to hear success stories of how you've taken a not-so-engaging lesson and turned it into something amazing.