The Impact of Student Response Type on Engagement

Excel Data Dashboard

CASE DESCRIPTION

Prior to collecting data, a teacher was interviewed to determine how they hoped to provide equitable learning experiences for all students in their classroom. The class makeup consisted of about 80% students of color with several students reading below grade-level and many students receiving Enlgish Language Development Services. The goal was to ensure that all students were able to engage by providing more opportunities for dialogue.

Data was collected using automatic timestamps to track engagement over time. Data validation was used to categorize engagement and activity descriptions. I cleaned the data then utilized pivot tables to sort and analyze the data. The dashboard was presented to the teacher along with a detailed script to further discuss outcomes.

KEY FINDINGS

The majority of the class consisted of teacher talk. Though it should be noted that the teacher was utilizing a read aloud, so this should be taken into account when determining next steps.
Transition time time took about 25% of the class. During transitions, learning was not happening. Over the course of a year, it should be noted that this can significantly impact learning opportunity.
The student response type was primarily students shouting out answers and thoughts. While shout-outs often work well to engage students, they msut be done intentionally and with accountability. The data for this particular observation showed that student engagement was low during shout out responses.
Students were given the most opportunites to respond during whole group reading, and their engagement was highest while tracking along with the reader.
Student engagement was low near the beginning and middle of the class and peaked near the end of the class during partner-sharing activities.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To maximize student engagement and learning, the teacher should review transition expectations, and reflect on why transitions took so much time. Providing students with practice to build the skills and expectations for transitions could support this.
Although the teacher talked for the majority of the class time, student engagement was high during the read-aloud, suggesting that this method was an equitable way for all students to access and engage with the content. This practice should continue to be considered when reading is necessary to learning.
It can be assumed from the data that shout-outs elicited the least engagement. Usually this is due to only a few students shouting out the answer and the rest passively listening. To increase rigor and accountability, and to ensure all students have the opportunity to share their thoughts, the teacher should consider other strategies such as think-pair-share or sentence stems when asking questions. Additionally, this would provide a scaffold for students who are learning English as a second language.
To minimize shout-outs, the teacher should clarify their expectations when asking questions and remind students to give other students an opportunity to think before answering.
To ensure engagement is more consistent throughout the class, the teacher might consider utilizing partner sharing both at the beginning of the class and during the middle of the class.