Promoting Student Engagement During Integrative Lessons: A Model Classroom

Abstract

Using integrative grammar- and vocabulary-related activities, the high school English language development (ELD) teacher in this qualitative case study engaged her students by involving them in their own education. Drawing on research addressing student engagement (Kelley, Lesaux, Kieffer, & Faller, 2010; Norton & Toohey, 2001; Ryan, 2008), I coded 25 hours of field notes for instances of engaged and noncompliant behavior during integrative activities over 6 months during the 2009-2010 school year. The focal teacher employed a mixed-methods approach, and I observed that engagement was high during activities that had students creatively manipulating new grammatical forms and vocabulary words in a variety of ways. My findings suggest that this teacher’s methods were generally successful in promoting the engagement of her high school ELD students.