Increasing Engagement in High School Students in the Early College Learning Program
Athena Rebecca Axiomakaros, Kingsborough Community College
Bio
Athena Rebecca Axiomakaros is an art history professor at Kingsborough Community College and Nassau Community College. She attended Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center where she studied Art History before continuing on to The Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts where she earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Theory. She is presently continuing her research in the field of embodied ontology and the tattooed body.
Course Setting
My course setting is off campus at Lafayette High School teaching an art history course, Art 3400: Survey of Art History from Renaissance to 19th-Century Art, in the KECSS program. I work primarily with 10th grade students.
Problem of Practice
How can I increase and consistently maintain engagement from students during class with notetaking and after class with the discussion posts and filling out review sheets for tests, and as a metric increase grades, assignments submitted, and classroom engagement?
Strategy
To address my challenge of increasing student engagement, I used Planning and Organization (Long and short term goal setting, Task chunking with date, Calendaring & to-do lists), Metacognition (Pre-assessment for new content, Debrief major assignments).
For increased engagement in note taking, I provided paper and pens/pencils for note taking and take time before the end of class for the students to collect their cell phones and upload their work to Brightspace. For the discussion posts, I introduced them on Monday for the Monday/Wednesday class and remind them to choose a question to keep in mind while taking notes. I also discussed what I meant if some of the information was complicated or unfamiliar and directed them to where to find the information to answer the question (e.g. in the lectures/discussion in class or in pdfs or videos on Brightspace). On Wednesday, I showed them the questions again and remind them to keep their question in mind while taking notes and that the assignment is due Saturday. For the review sheets, giving them the sheet two weeks ahead of time to give them enough time to fill in the sheet even if they procrastinate. To date, they have only taken the midterm.
These strategies will introduce the students to the material earlier and get them thinking about their homework throughout the week rather than procrastinating until the end of the week. By providing materials, I eliminate the anxiety of not coming to class prepared but also make sure the student is best able to do their work. But providing time at the end of class to upload their notes, it gets them in the habit of turning in the work before the due date when it was done eliminating “I forgot.”
Documentation
Discussion Post and Sample Student Response #1
A screenshot of a discussion post and an example of a student response.
Figure #1: Discussion Post and Sample Student Response #1
Discussion Post and Sample Student Response #2
A screenshot of a discussion post and an example of a student response.
Figure #2: Discussion Post and Sample Student Response #2
Measuring Impact
Discussion Participation Grades
Data from Semester 1 to Semester 3 (incomplete at this time) that measures participation in discussions in percentages of students each semester as changes are implemented.
Figure #3: Discussion Participation Grades
Notetaking Grades
Data from Semester 1 to Semester 3 (incomplete at this time) that measures participation in note taking in percentages of students each semester as changes are implemented.
Figure #4: Notetaking Grades
Analysis
I feel that my strategy was very successful and that they addressed my PoP directly. I can tell because the percentage of completed assignments went up between Semester 1 and 2 when the changed were first implemented and again between Semester 2 and three when they were slightly tweaked.
I feel my students are benefitting from my modifications of the class in a positive way.
My predictions were accurate because when students received the information for their assignments multiple times and in different ways, an increase in participation was shown.
Between Semester 1 and 2, the data showed that there was a considerable improvement in student engagement with completing the discussions and notes. It showed me that continuing to implement changes to these assignments will continue to show increases in engagement and completion.
Next cycle I may make the students choose a question between Monday and Wednesday and submit it to me ahead of time to keep them engaged with the work throughout the week. Now that I also have an early college learning email, I can send out reminders to the students about assignments.
I have also been thinking about adding an additional question to each of the discussions that allows the students to review a video and give a summary of it. I have been testing this with 2 or 3 discussions this semester to see if there is any interest in these questions. It has the potential to be piloted next semester.
Recommendation
I would suggest that even if you don’t participate in this fellowship, you are able to make one or small changes to your curriculum a semester and collect the data to see if it improves your classes.
We should always be working to make ourselves as educators and our classes the best they can possibly be. This comes from testing new ideas and new strategies and being able to adapt to the changing needs of students.
