Building an Engaging and Motivating Student Learning 
Environment

​

TLC Educational Solutions Strategy-Based Professional Development workshops and remote sessions are specifically designed to provide the skills needed for educators to teach and interact with today’s students, "to stay on the cutting edge of their profession". Educators are challenged to maintain a classroom climate that has students clearly on task, well behaved, motivated, and actively engaged in the lesson. With the support of our TLC Educational Solutions Training Resource Manuals, which each workshop participant receives, step by step strategies are provided and can be incorporated into lessons the very next day. Whether at an on-site workshop, web-based workshop, or remote-learning session, we provide teachers and administrators with strategies designed to motivate and actively engage students resulting in an increase in student learning and less disruptive behavior.

​

Building an engaging learning environment that motivates students is attained by incorporating research-based, classroom-tested Routine, Reflective, and Rigorous instructional strategies. Educators equipped with these strategies can engage students and increase their ability to learn in a variety of ways.  Formative feedback, involving students with their own learning, learning with their peers, and higher-order thinking strategies pave the way to a highly engaged and motivated classroom.

​

Workshop Sessions

​

Engaging Students with Strategies That Support a Variety of Intellectual Abilities

Engaging in strategies that develop an understanding of the unique ways in which individuals learn provides a basis for expanding student skills and empowering them to learn in a variety of ways. Utilizing these strategies and skills, teachers can meet students where they are, stretch them to develop their abilities and provide opportunities for all students to learn.

​

Motivating Students with Formative Feedback

Perceiving feedback as an on-going exchange between teacher and student is essential. Successfully implemented feedback informs teachers in making real-time adjustments in learning opportunities for their students.  Likewise, it informs students allowing them to be actively involved in their own learning.  Feedback strategies that can be used throughout the learning process are the focus of this session.

​

Involving Students in Their Own Learning and the Learning of Their Peers

Developing student ownership of their learning has a profound impact on student engagement, motivation, and self-esteem.  These self-learning and peer-learning strategies assist teachers in opening the door for students to overcome the challenges of complex tasks and shift the responsibility from the teacher alone to a shared student and teacher responsibility. An atmosphere of collaboration and communication directly results from peer partnerships in solving problems, creating products, and completing tasks.

​

Incorporating Instructional Strategies that Promote Higher-Order Thinking

Incorporating strategies that focus on higher-order thinking raises the cognitive demand of learning experiences and develops the students’ capacity to process information at a higher level of cognition. A crosswalk of Bloom’s and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge provides a guide to this shift toward higher-order thinking experiences including critical thinking and problem-solving.

​

Training Agenda Topics

​

Engaging Students with Strategies That Support a Variety of Intellectual Abilities

• Understanding the brain’s role in student engagement and motivation

• Developing differentiated instructional practices that support all learners

• Engaging students in strategies that develop the ability to learn in a variety of ways

• Providing students with multiple ways to demonstrate knowledge and skills

• Motivating students to engage in their learning

​

Motivating Students with Formative Feedback

• Optimizing Routine or Day-to-Day feedback strategies

• Incorporating Reflective formative feedback practices

• Engaging students in self-monitoring, self-assessing, and self-correcting skills

• Raising student cognitive skills with Rigorous formative instructional strategies

• Providing the opportunity for all students to demonstrate what they know, understand, and are able to do

 

Involving Students in Their Own Learning and the Learning of Their Peers

• Engaging students with active learning instructional strategies

• Shifting the learning responsibility from the teacher alone to a shared student and teacher responsibility

• Developing student ownership of their learning

• Communicating with and learning from each other in an atmosphere of collaboration

• Recognizing the power of peer partnerships in solving problems, creating products, and completing tasks

​

Incorporating Instructional Strategies that Promote Higher-Order Thinking

• Raising the cognitive demand of learning experiences with strategies that focus on higher-order thinking

• Developing student capacity for processing information at a higher level of cognition 

• Incorporating a crosswalk of Bloom’s Taxonomy and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge as a guide to the shift toward higher cognitive demand experiences

• Utilizing instructional strategies that promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills