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Intellectual Engagement: Putting It into Practice
One of the main tenets of culturally responsive teaching is the intellectual engagement of every student. In other words, how do you provide every student with regular opportunities to learn challenging content at a deep level?
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How to Think about Intellectual Engagement “We know that with the right planning and management, we can achieve a 90% engagement rate in any classroom,” said Marty Oliver, a faculty member and mentor at CUE, instructional coach, and former middle-school teacher. “What that means is that students are actively involved in intellectually engaging work 90% of the time during a specific lesson.” It’s a high bar, but she firmly believes it’s achievable.
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We value you as a partner! Please help us fill the teacher pipeline.
REFER A FUTURE TEACHER
It takes a village to prepare teachers for success in urban classrooms. Do you know someone who is interested in becoming a teacher? Ask him or her to watch a short video about why UNC Center for Urban Education is a an excellent option for people who want to gain experience in classrooms while attending classes.
HELP KEEP CUE STUDENTS IN SCHOOL
Want to help a future teacher stay in school? Sometimes a financial emergency, like a car battery dying or an unexpected doctor visit, can mean a student has to leave school for a semester. Contribute to our students’ success! Make a donation of $100, $250, or $500. Click here to send us an email about making a contribution to the Center for Urban Education, or call CUE Director, Rosanne Fulton, at 303-637-4334.
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When creating an intellectually engaging classroom, consider these points:
- Every learner is an expert—you need to find out in what. Use the confidence they have in that subject to show them they can build confidence in other subjects as well.
- All students are capable of learning at a deep level. It’s your job to find out how to engage with them in a way that makes sense to them—talking, drawing, building, analyzing, modeling, acting, singing.
- It’s necessary to share power in the classroom by not being the only “expert.” The children can also teach. In his book, For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood, author Christopher Emdin (2016) notes that peer-to-peer teaching “…is commonplace in classrooms in which students are celebrated for having the courage to express their lack of understanding or their dissatisfaction with the way content is being taught, as well as for their willingness to support their peers.”
- You can serve as a “warm demander.” That is to say that you can set challenging learning goals for all students and support them with care and kindness while they attempt to achieve those goals.
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Examples of Classroom Routines The daily and weekly routines include time for the students to organize learning logs that include vocabulary words, class notes, and class assignments. Students refer to their notebooks to formulate answers to questions during small-group problem-solving times. On one occasion, the teacher asks her students to add the word “area” to their logs. Students use a standard graphic organizer and write down the definition of area, other key words associated with area, and examples and non-examples of area, including pictures and diagrams. Later that week, this teacher refers students to their logs and graphic organizers when she asks, “If you are stuck, what do you need to do?”
Teachers can make it a common routine to pause in the middle of a large-group discussion and ask students to work in their small groups again. This gives the students many opportunities to think about the confusion or disequilibrium that they are experiencing.
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Examples of Influencing PerformanceA teacher says, “I have to see you trying. Then I can help you.” Her steady and specific encouragement influences her students’ work ethic, engagement, and performance. When redirecting a student who is off-task, the teacher says, “You are missing some very good information.”
“The most important thing is that I want you to figure it out on your own and not have me tell you how to do it, because then you will remember it longer,” another teacher says. This teacher is being clear that he expects each student to work at figuring the problem out in the way that makes sense for them.
One teacher regularly communicates her belief in each student’s capacity for learning. The teacher asks, “Who can tell me my next step, and why? There are only three hands. Now four. Now five. We need more people who are willing to help, don’t you think?”
A student says, “It is good to get another perspective on a problem. If we have different ideas and we’re not on the same page, then our brain really gets to start thinking when we talk about it.”
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Self-Assessment Two questions that will help you evaluate where you are on the spectrum of intellectually engaging students:
- I differentiate to meet the needs of students from varying backgrounds and have high expectations for all.
- Most of the time
- Some of the time
- Never
2. I provide the support the students need in order to attain their own learning goals.
- Most of the time
- Some of the time
- Never
What One Thing Can You Do Tomorrow? Take five minutes, now or at the end of your day today, to think about how you can intellectually engage your students. What one idea did these examples or self-assessment questions spark that you can implement tomorrow?
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CUE Helps Others Build the Teacher Pipeline
Representatives of the Center for Urban Education and the Colorado Department of Higher Education were invited to present at the SHEEO Summit on Project Pipeline Repair: Restoring Minority Male Participation and Persistence in Educator Preparation Programs. SHEEO is an organization of higher education leaders that holds several conferences per year.
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 | (left to right) Rosanne Fulton, Director, Center for Urban Education
Brittany Lane, Director of Educator Preparation,
Colorado Department of Higher Education
Cassandra Mason, District AVID Director, Cherry Creek School District
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In early October, they traveled to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to share how the Center partners with schools and districts to prepare teachers who are confident and competent in urban classrooms.
With the help of Denver-area school leaders, we are working to decrease the number of unfilled teaching positions and correct the mismatch between teacher and student demographics. Currently, at least 70% of the students at the Center for Urban Education are people of color, and 15% are male. All of our students learn culturally responsive teaching strategies so that they can apply them in their K–12 classrooms after graduation.
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Newsletter Archive
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