Reimagining Student Engagement

"""Engagement is not an either/or situation. In this book, Amy Berry describes a continuum of engagement that can be taught to students so that they can monitor and adjust the choices they make to engage. As students learn to drive their leaning, they become active agents in their education and develop strong self-regulation strategies. In doing so, they learn more and better and are able to reach the high expectations they, their families, and educators have for them."" -- Doug Fisher, PhD ""Reimagining Student Engagement by Amy Berry is a welcome additional to every teacher’s personal library. It provides a research-based and common-sense approach to understanding student engagement (and dis-engagement), and includes practical processes, ideas, and approaches for enhancing student engagement in learning. When I work with teachers in classrooms across the country, I often hear laments about how difficult it is to engage unmotivated students. This book will be a helpful guide for any teacher struggling to engage all students consistently. Through her Continuum of Engagement, Berry provides a helpful way for educators to understand and describe the different types of student engagement they experience during teaching and learning, from students who strive to disrupt learning to students who seem to be able to drive the learning all on their own. When teachers have a better understanding of the different ways students engage in learning, it empowers them to develop strategies and approaches to strengthen meaningful and productive engagement during instruction that they design. In addition, two aspects of Berry’s book particularly stand out and set it apart from other books on engagement. First is Berry’s willingness to provide thoughtful and effective ways for teachers to understand why students disengage from learning and what they can do to improve this. Second is Berry’s emphasis on the role of the teacher in collaborating and partnering with students in order to optimize engagement. In sum, and particularly because of both of these features, this book is a must read for all new teachers and should become a staple for pre-service teacher programs across the country."" -- Kevin Perks ""Amy Berry’s work on engagement has been nothing short of transformative for me. She has transformed our understanding by moving us forward from its psychological roots to its classroom expressions. The engagement continuum, and most importantly, the teaching that accompanies it, are changing students’ relationships with learning and with their teacher. This book is a gold mine for every caring educator who is looking for ways to redefine what schooling looks like. Let’s stop relying on low-level compliance as a measure. This is a road map for truly partnering with students.""   -- Nancy Frey"