Engaging Learning Practices

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Supporting long-term success for students includes finding ways to engage them, support them, and nurture their independence in the classroom. On this page, you'll find strategies, mindsets, and best practices for effectively and equitably supporting all students.

Engaging Learning Practices refer to the beliefs, expectations, and actions that encourage and equitably support all individuals in their life-long learning journey. 

Belief in the Potential of All

Members of the school community believe in the potential of all students. 

High Expectations, Strong Support 

Schools hold high expectations for youth, and provide supports to meet them. 

Trauma Responsive School Culture

School cultures are trauma responsive. 

Differentiation for Learner Variability

Schools utilize learner centered design. 

• How is the belief that all students can learn communicated to the students?
• How do staff demonstrate unconditional positive regard for their students?
• How do staff engage in self-reflection that potentially surfaces biases that might impact students' belief in themselves?
• How do teachers speak to their students?
• How do teachers listen to their students?
• How do staff manage challenging behavior?
• How do staff consider and talk about families as partners in their students' education?

Mindsets

• Staff believe that all students have the capacity to learn.
• Staff believe that all students have the capacity to work hard.
• Staff believe all students are inherently good people. 
• Staff believe all behavior is communication.
• Staff believe that all families want good outcomes for their students.

Skills and Practices

• Staff use a strengths-based approach to discussing and interacting with students.
• Staff regularly examine their own biases about student potential.
• Staff help all students develop emotional and behavioral skills in order to be successful in the classroom.
• When staff observe challenging behavior, they consider which skills the student may need to develop and then teach those skills. 
• When staff observe challenging behavior, they consider the function of the behavior and the underlying needs.  
• Staff assume positive intent from families.
• Staff communicate positive beliefs about student capacity with families.

• How are all students held to explicit, high expectations, behaviorally, socially, and academically?
• How does your school ensure learning and behavior expectations are developmentally appropriate?
• How does your school ensure learning and behavior expectations are culturally responsive? 
• How are learning objectives selected and communicated in the classroom?
• In what ways are behavioral expectations established, communicated, taught, and reinforced?
• When students don’t meet expectations, how are they encouraged and supported?
• In what ways is scaffolding adjusted as students gain more skills and move toward independence? Do accommodations empower students to access more content?
• How are adults held to high expectations in their actions? 
• How do staff engage families as partners in their students' education?

Mindsets

• Staff are willing to examine their biases and work to address them.
• Staff understand that high expectations require strong support to ensure students meet those expectations.
• Staff have high expectations for behavior and professionalism for themselves and their colleagues. 
• Staff believe that collaborating with families is critical to supporting students.
• Staff expect that students will learn and achieve at different rates and with different levels of support.

Skills and Practices

• Staff hold high academic, behavioral, social, etc. expectations for all students.
• Staff create individualized expectations and goals that are developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive.
• Staff encourage students to use a growth mindset for skills they haven’t acquired “yet.”
• Staff regularly provide challenging content for students.
• Staff allow students to showcase their skills in different ways.
• Teachers are aware of, and able to access, different types of support from the school community. 
• Staff provide scaffolding for students not yet able to meet expectations.  
• Staff fade scaffolding as students increase their skills and are able to more independently meet the demands. 
• Staff hold each other accountable for their behavior and interactions with students. 
• Staff include families in decision-making processes.
• When students struggle, staff consider what supports may be provided to the family as well as the individual student.

• How is the culture of the school trauma-responsive?
• How do staff self-regulate?
• How are staff taught to understand the impacts of trauma including how trauma affects student behavior in school? 
• How are staff taught to recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma in students? 
• How do teachers create structured and predictable environments to minimize the impacts of trauma? 
• How do adults interact with students? 
• How do teachers use reminders, redirections, and reinforcements to support student behavior?
• What proactive classroom management strategies do teachers use?
• How does the teacher use and teach self-reflection, co-regulation, perspective-taking, problem-solving and empathy?

Mindsets

• Teachers know that trauma has an impact on learning.
• Teachers recognize the signs of trauma.
• Teachers believe that it is part of their role to respond to trauma.
• Teachers are aware of cultural trauma.
• Teachers understand how re-traumatization can negatively impact students who've experienced trauma.
• Teachers know that resilience is possible for everyone.
• Teachers know that resilience can be cultivated and taught.
• Teachers know that what they do matters. 

Skills and Practices

• Staff will prioritize safety, connection, and belonging in all spaces and interactions with students.
• Teachers tune into their own needs, feelings and states to best support students. 
• Teachers are aware of the circumstances under which student(s) struggle and plan ahead. 
• Staff promote positive relationships within the classroom.
• Staff strive to notice, appreciate and connect with all students.  
• Staff self-regulate so that they may interact with youth in warm, consistent, and predictable ways.  
• Staff practice and exhibit self-management skills when interacting with unwanted student behavior. 
• Staff prioritize structure and predictability through developing intentional classroom environments, which include routines, rituals, roles & responsibilities, rhythm, and order.
• Staff learn about trauma and how it can affect people and groups.
• Staff are trained to recognize the signs of trauma.
• When staff recognize signs of trauma, they can connect students with additional supports.
• School have emergency and crisis response procedures in place to address when potential traumatic events occur.

• How do staff include components of Universal Design for Learning?
• Do teachers know their learning objectives associated with each lesson and activity? Can they explicitly identify how each component of the lesson works toward an objective?
• How do teachers adjust teaching practices to meet individual student learning needs? 
• In what ways do teachers demonstrate multiple means of representation? 
• How do teachers use multiple means of engagement?
• How do teachers motivate all students to learn? 
• How are students provided multiple means of action & expression?
• How do teachers break large concepts or expectations into smaller, discrete tasks?
• What high leverage practices are regularly used in classrooms?
• How do teachers ensure representation of diverse groups are included in lessons?
• How are students with IEPs, 504s, ALPs, or other formal service plans supported while also ensuring these students are integrated as much as possible in the general education settings (i.e., least restrictive environment)? 

Mindsets

• Teachers believe that there isn't a "one-size-fits-all all" approach to learning.
• Teachers believe that individual students will have unique learning needs. 

Skills and Practices

• Staff plan for lessons in activities with the end in mind, so that every activity is purposeful and drives toward the learning objectives.
• Teachers customize learning for each student's strengths, skills, needs, and interests (i.e., personalized learning). 
• Teachers allow for student choice in the classroom, including at various times, allowing students to choose what and how they want to learn.
• Teachers represent concepts in multiple ways.
• Teachers use multiple strategies to motivate students to engage in their learning.
• Teachers incorporate diverse perspectives, cultures, and ways of thinking, into their lessons to ensure students see themselves in the material.
• Staff allow students to demonstrate what they’ve learned in multiple ways (Action and expression).  
• The school has a strong system of support where various staff are able to support special education services while ensuring that students remain in the least restrictive environment possible. 
• Staff use a variety of high leverage instructional practices in the classroom.