Digital Promise Signature Workspace

Fostering Student Engagement

Sense of belonging and a supportive classroom and school community are the foundation of student engagement. Building onto that foundation with strategies to support SEL, cognition, and content factors is a great next step.

Cognitive Engagement Strategies

Self-monitoring

Math 3-6

When students monitor their comprehension, behavior, or use of strategies, they build their Metacognition.

Self-instructions

Math 3-6

When students engage in a dialogue with themselves, they are able to orient, organize, and focus their thinking.

Reflect on Learning

Math 3-6

Providing space and time for students to reflect is critical for moving what they have learned into Long-term Memory.

Positive Self-talk

Math 3-6

When students reframe negative thoughts and tell themselves kind self-statements, they practice positive self-talk.

Encourage Student Self-advocacy

Math 3-6

Actively and authentically encouraging all students to seek support, ask questions, and advocate for what they believe in creates a safe space for risk-taking and skill development and supports a Sense of Belonging.

Cognitively Demanding Tasks

Math 3-6

Providing math tasks with high cognitive demand conveys high expectations for all students by challenging them to engage in higher-order thinking.

Student-generated Problems

Math 3-6

When students create their own number and word problems, they connect math concepts to their background knowledge and lived experiences.

Math Games

Math 3-6

Math games allow students to practice many math skills in a fun, applied context.

Literacy 7-12

Motivation is the desire and energy that guides behavior.

Graphic Organizers

Adult learner

Visualizing how ideas fit together helps learners construct meaning and strengthens their recall.

Math Centers

Math 7-10

Math centers with math games, manipulatives, and activities support learner interests and promote the development of more complex math skills and social interactions.

Emotional and Relational Engagement Strategies

Building Trusting Relationships

Math 3-6

Building positive and trusting relationships with learners allows them to feel safe; a sense of belonging; and that their academic, cognitive, and social and emotional needs are supported.

Discussing Emotions

Math 3-6

Teaching students how to label, identify, and manage Emotion helps them learn Self-regulation skills.

Foster Growth Mindset

Math 3-6

Teachers can help students understand that learning involves effort, mistakes, and reflection by teaching them about their malleable brain and modeling their own learning process.

Family Engagement

Math 3-6

Family engagement happens when educators and schools collaborate with families to collectively support their child's learning in meaningful ways, both at school and at home.

Mindfulness Breaks

Math 3-6

Short breaks that include mindfulness quiet the brain to allow for improved thinking and emotional regulation.

Collaborative Problem Solving

Math 3-6

As students solve problems in a group, they learn new strategies and practice communicating their mathematical thinking.

Expressive Writing

Math 3-6

Writing freely about one's emotions about a specific activity, such as taking a test, can help students cope with negative Emotion, such as math anxiety.

Behavioral Engagement strategies

Goal Setting & Monitoring

Math 3-6

Setting overall goals, as well as smaller goals as steps to reaching them, encourages consistent, achievable progress and helps students feel confident in their skills and abilities.

Student Choice

Math 3-6

Providing students a voice in their learning is critical for making learning meaningful.

Brief Instruction Steps

Math 3-6

Content that is provided in clear, short chunks can support students' Working Memory.

Predictability: Environment & Structure

Math 3-6

Maintaining consistent classroom routines and schedules ensures that students are able to trust and predict what will happen next.

learning science factors that may impact student engagement

Math 3-6

Motivation is the desire and energy that guides behavior.

Math 3-6

Learning is powerful when it is social—when we learn with and from each other.

Math 3-6

Self-regulation skills help students concentrate on learning.

Math 3-6

Emotions are complex psychological states stemming from our positive and negative experiences.

Math 3-6

Math Mindset includes learners' self-concept and self-efficacy beliefs as well as their mindset toward failure, all of which shape their willingness to get involved with mathematics.

Math 3-6

A student's Math Learning Environment encompasses the opportunities provided by their home, school, and community that contribute to their development of math knowledge and skills.

Math 3-6

Attention is the ability to focus on a specific task without being distracted.

Math 3-6

Metacognition refers to the ability to think about our own thinking and to pay attention to and control our cognitive processes.