What Did The Teacher Do To Motivate Or Engage Students In Learning

1. What did the teacher do to motivate or engage the students in learning? Was the content itself engaging? Were intrinsic or extrinsic motivations used?

To motivate and engage the students in learning, Ms. Houck used a chunk and chew method, she had students use white boards, and she used a behavioral system. First, she used the chunk and chew (teacher teaches, students process information) method to engage students in the lesson. She would teach one strategy and then she would have the students turn and talk, record something on their white boards, or she would draw names and have students share individually. Students were not given the chance to disengage or to be off-task. Next, she used a behavior system to motivate students. When students
Houck used a video as her activating strategy, a flipchart for her main instruction, and a worksheet for the individual practice time. The video used as the activating strategy lasted for about six minutes. Ms. Houck would pause the video a different times and talk about the instruction pieces in the video. The flipchart was part of her core instruction and it lasted for about thirty to thirty-five minutes. The flipchart was interactive and it had student work through the content in a problem-based structure. The worksheet, that was for individual practice, lasted for about fifteen minutes. This particular worksheet was not graded and it was used to help students practice the material taught during instruction and to given them time to apply what they had learned independently. The sequencing and pacing was very appropriate for engaging students and promoting their learning. The pacing for this particular class was slightly slower then I expected. But, this class was an all-inclusive class (students with a variety of special needs, learning disabilities, or specific accommodations), which is a major factor in the sequencing and pacing of the lessons. Because the lesson was not rushed, it seemed as if the students grasped a better understanding of the content and they were able to apply the strategies independently during the activity time. Overall, the lesson flowed and she did not exceed the time even though she made sure to take her time and make sure the students
She was very good at asking before telling, which is something that I am working on for myself. It was interesting to see how she expected students to know it all, she always made sure to ask key questions before giving information. I was surprised at what students actually already knew about the material. Ms. Houck also used a variety of bloom’s levels when questioning. Remember, understand, and apply questions were used most during the whole group instruction. There were a few analyze and evaluate questions when she observed and talked to students during the activity time. Mr. Houck also used follow-up questions and prompts (how do you know that, what did you do to get there, etc.). While observing Ms. Houck, I thought that her wait time was very appropriate. She was also great at giving wait time, about 4-5 seconds, and then telling the student she would come back to them. This was a great strategy because it gave the student more time to think and it allowed other students a chance to share before returning to the