How to Increase Student Engagement in Math Class

If you’ve checked out the other posts in this mini-series, you know I am all about using student engagement strategies in math class.  We’ve addressed what student engagement is, and how to address the challenging aspect of ensuring your work is at the appropriate challenge level for your students using low floor high ceiling math tasks. Today we answer the “I don’t care” . We will tackle the age old question that we MUST answer for our students to engage… 

When am I ever going to need this?

If you are looking for student engagement strategies that work, you need to be focusing on keeping the mathematics real + relevant for your students. Depending on your own comfort level and district demands, I challenge you to create your next unit focusing on one of these two strategies:

• Real + Relevant Performance Tasks
• Project-Based Learning

Using Performance Tasks to Increase Student Engagement

Our friends at Defined Learning indicate that “A performance task is any learning activity or assessment that asks students to perform to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and proficiency. Performance tasks yield a tangible product and/or performance that serve as evidence of learning.” 

Awesome–students need to take their math knowledge and demonstrate that understanding in a way that yields some form of tangible product. Kind of sounds like it could be a project, but it is often less involved and can occur within a class period or two. My challenge to you, is to provide opportunities for students to engage in performance tasks that are both real AND relevant to them–emphasis on the relevant. A good performance task is grounded in both a real world scenario that  depends on the mathematical knowledge requested, AND is connected and relevant to our student’s daily lives. Some examples that are prime for Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 teachers during this global pandemic include using exponentials to study how a virus overtakes the body, the spread of disease, how to slow the spread of disease. 

Project-Based Learning the Key to Student Engagement

Without a doubt, project-based learning is my go-to strategy for increasing student engagement. And while project-based learning is a buzzword in education, and there are many opportunities to learn about project-based learning in general, very few resources are available to demonstrate how to use project-based learning in math class. 

Project-based learning is about challenging students to engage in the learning process in a meaningful and authentic way. The authenticity is where many teachers, and pd providers, struggle in designing a quality project-based learning experience for their math students. 

Project-Based Learning Ideas for Math

Again, I want to emphasize that our goal is to increase student engagement by using these practices. In order to do so, we must pose problems that are both real and relevant. We must consider what is going on in the lives of our students. What are their interests? What major world events are impacting their lives? All questions to ask before we design a project. I’ve seen many projects (even my own!)  just miss the mark by providing a real, but not relevant problem for their students to tackle. 

What topics are relevant to students today?

• Technology of all Sorts
• Global issues: hunger/famine, politics and war, disease (Check out this COVID-19 plug and play PBL designed with you in mind!)
• Social Justice + Systemic Racism
• Monthly Events/Themes (not just for Elementary school students!– check out these great Black History Month resources to get you started thinking about how to incorporate events into your plans)

Also consider what is going on in your local community that may be of particular interest to your students. Connecting the problem to people in their own community increases both the authenticity and the student engagement level. 

Think you’ve got an idea, but not sure where to start? 

Get your hands on the exact same planning template that I use to create project-based learning units for my students! Grab your project planning template today, and see the difference tomorrow!

And if you want more support and guidance directly from me, I’ve got you. Introducing….

Kick Ass Math Class! A Roadmap to Project Based Learning in the Secondary Math Classroom launching in summer 2021! Get ready to be the teacher EVERY student wants,… Are you ready to never hear “When am I ever going to need this?” again?! 

Be the first to know when the course is ready: sign up here