ESR announces the upcoming publication of Activators: Classroom Strategies for Engaging Middle and High School Students, a deep dive into a core teaching practice that incorporates individual think time with purposeful social interaction to increase emotional, cognitive, and behavioral engagement in learning. Featuring concrete, hands-on activities that can be completed efficiently, Activators help to:
- Increase engagement in learning
- Support a well-paced lesson
- Generate connections to prior knowledge
- Provide students with opportunities to practice skills and deepen understandings
- Support formative assessment
Educators can use Activators at any point during a unit, lesson, or topic when teachers want to invite and include all students’ voices and participation. Although Activators have different formats, they all share two key components: individual think time and purposeful social interaction, which support students to develop quality responses to content and ideas while engaging with peers. Authors Nicole Frazier and Donna Mehle, who are veteran educators and ESR trainers, offer detailed facilitation tips for each Activator that are critical for fostering the conditions necessary for engagement in learning.
Each chapter provides a concentrated look into each Activator that offers a clear understanding of what it is and how it works in specific settings. Content area examples for English-Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, and World Languages accompany each Activator; the ELA and Math content examples are aligned to Common Core Content Standards for grades 6-12.
Frazier and Mehle created Activators with careful attention to the latest research on the most effective ways to foster engagement among adolescent learners. They were motivated to write Activators to share this powerful core practice more widely. They note, “In our 25+ combined years of teaching experience as well as our work as educational consultants who support middle and secondary teachers around the country, we’ve witnessed up close the ways in which these activator formats ignite students’ attention and interest, maximize participation and drive well-paced lessons that deepen learning in meaningful ways.”
Activators will be an essential resource for educators who are committed to harnessing the power of engagement in the service of student learning.
To download a flyer about Activators, click here.
Activators: Classroom Strategies for Engaging Middle and High School Students is priced at $28.00 and is scheduled to be released in July 2013. For more information, including bulk sales discounts, contact Denise Wolk at 800-370-2515 ext. 20, or dwolk@esrnational.org.
