ELA engagement strategies to increase engagement

There are so many reasons to want our students to read: to acquire new knowledge, improve vocabulary, reduce stress, build empathy, etc. However, getting students to read can be a challenge. What can we do to get students really involved with the texts? Using question cubes, which encompass all the benefits of collaborative learning, is an effective strategy.

When we rely on worksheets, students often focus more on writing down answers than on actually engaging with the content. For some students, worksheets can feel repetitive and tedious. In addition, the answers to many of our ready-made worksheets are already online and easily accessible for students who want a good grade but may want to avoid the demanding work required to grapple with a complex text.

Like worksheets, question cubes use ready-made question sets, but they lead to a very different kind of engagement. Reading seems like such a solitary activity that incorporating collaborative learning strategies, such as using question cubes, seems counterintuitive. However, research has repeatedly demonstrated the value of interactions with others in student engagement.

Collaborative learning increases social skills, promotes creativity, develops higher-level thinking skills and generally leads to a better learning experience, which in turn leads to deep learning. Educational theorists such as Lev Vygotsky, with his social learning model, and Maria Montessori, with her focus on child-centered learning and cooperative play, understood the importance of social interaction in learning. Contemporary theorists such as John Hattie and Robert Marzano continue to support these findings.

Instructions for writing question blocks: When creating question cubes, I often use questions that contain a combination of Bloom’s Taxonomy levels. For example, in an English course, these questions might ask students to identify themes in the text, analyze their development over the course of the text, and draw conclusions while citing relevant evidence to support the answers. In science or social studies courses, these questions may ask students to recall specific details, discuss global impact, or identify implications for further research.

Constructing the cubes: I prefer to make my cubes from cardboard, but that’s not necessary: ​​printer paper works fine. I also make sure to copy each question set onto a different color of paper, color-coding each question. Once the cubes are copied, I cut, fold and tape them all together. Although students can build their own cubes, I have noticed that even some high school students struggle with this task, which can be problematic if there are no backups. I randomly distribute one cube to each student. Students then form groups in which each group has one of each question set, so that each group has access to all questions.

Students take turns rolling their cubes to reveal the questions the group will answer. I usually tell my students that the oldest student can throw first. Sometimes I switch it up and assign the youngest, tallest, or shortest student. After a student rolls, he or she reads the question and starts the discussion. During these discussions, all group members must reach a unanimous agreement before the answer is recorded. This promotes collaboration and ensures that each member feels comfortable with the final response.

Discussions should be long enough to allow everyone’s input, but concise enough to keep the activity running efficiently. In addition, the group must appoint a scribe to write down their final agreed answer. I’m old-fashioned; I always have students respond to question blocks on paper. I find that when I have students use Google Docs, they simply divide the number of answers required and type their answers into one document without arriving at a shared group answer for each question – which defeats the purpose of the activity. In addition, I ask students to use the Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) model to answer each question.

Depending on many factors, such as the available class time, the difficulty of the text and the class dynamics, I determine how many questions the groups have to answer. There are rarely all the questions on the blocks, so not all groups will answer the same. That’s why I like to discuss all questions as a class. Doing this creates a sort of randomized puzzle activity where some groups have become experts on some of the questions and other groups rely on these newly established experts to gain information and insight.

I also receive positive reviews from students about this activity. One student said, “It’s a fun way to ask questions,” and another said, “It’s better than putting questions on the board.” I also heard, “I like that you let us work with other people in the classroom.”

The real question, however, is whether question cubes improve my students’ comprehension of text. When I asked my students about this, some said, “It gave me a better understanding of what inferences I should eliminate” and “It helped me understand the lecture because it broke it down further and it just made it more interesting.” so much more sense.” Another student said the cubes “made me think about the text and use context clues to better understand the story.” Overall, the activity increases student engagement, and it also helps my students walk away from a text with a better understanding of it.

Question cubes allow students to discuss the text in smaller groups, giving all students the opportunity to share their thoughts, develop collaboration and communication strategies, and practice their analysis skills. Additionally, question cubes encourage student responses that deepen understanding of the text, ensure student equity and voice, and increase students’ capacity to take academic risks, promoting deeper engagement and learning.