Engagement
Overview
The Engagement rating is based on student behavior across the observation. It is focused on student engagement in learning not on compliance. At the end of the observation, you will have an overall picture of how involved students were in learning across the entire lesson and during each activity phase.
Activity Phases
Before you rate Student Engagement, the app will ask you to select the Activity Phase of the lesson. Choose the Phase that best describes which portion of the lesson you are observing. The app will average the Engagement ratings for each Phase.
Intro Activity: Some teachers do a warmup activity to transition to math such as a song or review exercise. Others might start their lesson off with a “math talk” or calendar discussion.
Main Task Setup: Usually, the teacher will explain the main learning or talk objective of the lesson and/or introduce a new concept.
Main Task: This is the main activity of the lesson, whether done individually, in small groups, or in whole group.
Share and Discuss: This is usually a whole group review of the Main Task where students share what or how they completed the task.
Wrap-Up: This is at the end of class where the teacher ties everything together.
Free Choice: Use this category when 75% of the class has moved on to free choice activities.
Transition: Use this for any transition time between activities. It may or may not be math- related.
Other: If the activity does not fit into any of the above categories, use “Other.”
Rating Anchors
1. Low: No instruction occurring (transition) OR if instruction is occurring, children exhibit the following behaviors: Students are not interested, lack of attention to teacher or materials, sitting quietly when participation is elicited, eyes not focused.
2. Medium Low: Students show lack of interest, distracted.
3. Medium: Students show some but not intense interest in the activity, they seem to be listening and watching.
4. Medium High: Students are consistently interested.
5. High: Students show intense concentration and/or are highly active in the math activity.