Bøger af Aaron Daffern

Engaged students are learning students. When students fully involve themselves in the lesson, classroom behavior and achievement improves. Students that are active learners, rather than passively compliant, think more critically and use more conceptual thinking strategies. When quality instruction meets motivated students, great things happen. Put simply, increasing student engagement can restore the joy of teaching.Engagement is more than fun activities and tech-driven solutions, however. Instead, it begins with discovering what motivates students. Over 30 years of educational research shows that students are driven by five facets of motivation: competence, relationships, autonomy, value, and emotions. When teachers design instruction that incorporates these areas, engagement and active learning soar.Using a 30-day guidebook approach, this book explores what makes students tick through stories, anecdotes, and practical suggestions. By the end of the journey, teachers will feel confident about their ability to assess and address the motivational needs of their students. They'll walk away with many easy-to-use ideas that will transform their teaching and jack up the level student engagement in their classrooms.

For too long, vocabulary instruction has suffered from inattention and quick fixes. Sometimes thought of as an instructional stepchild, many students are denied the power of a rich vocabulary. When teachers don't fully understand the various components of a robust program, instruction often boils down to copying definitions or memorizing static word meanings. Pouring over research and proven strategies from literacy experts, Aaron Daffern has identified five parts of a powerful vocabulary program: prepare, present, place, process, and play. By utilizing these five components, students will go beyond simple knowledge and will begin to wrestle with words as they integrate new vocabulary into their semantic knowledge systems.The first component, prepare, details how to select the highest impact words and avoid spending instructional time on words that are either obscure or common. Second, presenting new words is more than simply telling students what a word means. Teachers can utilize activating prior knowledge, bases/affixes, context clues, descriptive definitions, example/non-examples, friendly words/synonyms, and even grammar usage to define new terms.The third component, place, provides a variety of methods for students to take new words and tie them into what they already know. The fourth and largest component is process. Both basic and complex tasks should be employed to help students wrestle with new terms and analyze them in a variety of contexts. Finally, students can play with words to extend knowledge and explore shades of meaning.As a teacher, campus principal, and district instructional specialist and curriculum coordinator, Aaron Daffern has been educating students in Texas since 2000. He trains schools and districts around the country in student engagement and vocabulary instruction. Check him out online at AaronDaffern.com.

Powerful vocabulary instruction consists of five components: prepare, present, place, process, and play. This manual, along with the official training from Aaron Daffern Consulting, leads educators through a series of exercises designed to maximize vocabulary instruction. Learn more at AaronDaffern.com.

As a teacher, principal, and district-level curriculum coordinator, Aaron Daffern has been educating students in Texas since 2000. Using his experience as a professional educator, Daffern offers an exciting solution to the classroom engagement dilemma: tapping into student motivation. Daffern synthesizes over 30 years of educational research into his CRAVE model of student motivation. In trying to uncover what social-cognitive researchers have discovered about what drives students to do what they do, he found five common themes: Competence, Relationships, Autonomy, Value, and Emotions. Students are motivated and engaged when they feel able to complete the task at hand (competence). Relationships between students and teachers have a large motivational impact on the classroom. When students feel a sense of control (autonomy), their willingness to participate skyrockets. Tasks that have meaning for the students (value) are much more likely to be completed. Finally, student emotions affect not only engagement but also learning itself. Using the five facets of motivation, Daffern provides instructional design tips and teaching strategies that harness the power of student motivation. Readers will not only know what makes their students tick, they'll also revolutionize their classrooms and greatly impact the education of their students. Daffern trains schools and districts around the country in designing instruction to motivate every student. Check him out online at aarondaffern.com.

Classroom engagement is the interplay between instructional design and student motivation. This training manual, as part of the Solving Student Engagement one- or two-day training, will give teachers the tools to affect both components positively. The five facets of student motivation are listed below. Competence - Can I do this? - Confidence builds success. - Beliefs are powerful. - Confidence is malleable. - Reasons shape motivation. - A growth mindset helps learning. Relationships - Does this connect me to others? - Teachers motivate students. - Relationships affect emotions. - Relationships strengthen learning. - Students watch classroom interactions. - Relationships help at-risk students. Autonomy - Do I have to do this? - Intrinsic motivation requires autonomy. - Autonomy helps regulation. - Autonomy boosts learning. - Structures support autonomy. - Teacher control dampens autonomy. Value - Why am I doing this? - Value increases engagement. - Learning for learning's sake is better. - Learning to achieve something has mixed results. - There are different types of performance-approach goals. - Teachers can influence goal orientations. Emotions - How do I feel about this? - Interesting tasks are engaging. - Interest affects learning. - Emotions impact creativity. - Emotions affect learning. - Negative emotions hurt academics.

Drawing from the fields of social-emotional learning, classroom management, culturally-responsive teaching, neuroscience, behavioral therapy, and even parenting, the Take CHARGE model consists of six strands that weave together the various components into an actionable framework. Confidence - Teachers learn to enter the classroom confidently when they are grounded in their purpose, choose positivity, and understand that their primary role is to protect students.Heart - The heart of teaching is students, not content. These relationships are strengthened when teachers respect students, both their potential and the cultural strengths they bring with them, rather than holding a deficit view. Finally, the heart of teaching is releasing control, honoring students' autonomy and building their agency.Anticipate - Veteran classroom teachers know that one (but not the only) key to successful classrooms is the implementation and maintenance of procedures. Additionally, good teachers maximize productivity to reduce down-time and take care to plan their lessons carefully.Reinforce - What you focus on in the classroom, you get more of. By constantly nagging students and chiding them for minor infractions, you only guarantee that you'll get more of the same. By using the power of their attention, teachers can increase actions and attitudes that meet their expectations without shaming students for their poor choices.Grow - Teachers can explicitly teach and help students grow interpersonal, intrapersonal, and intellectual skills to help them succeed. While teachers do want students to stop calling out or hitting others, that merely inhibits poor behaviors. They can teach their students about resilience, growth mindsets, and curiosity, to name just a few beneficial traits.Engage - The most well-behaved class will be primed for learning but not guaranteed to achieve unless academics are addressed. First, students are motivated by a combination of five facets and instruction that leverages these will be far more captivating. Second, students make meaning by processing new information and tying it to prior knowledge, not sitting and getting. Finally, new work on memory and retrieval practice shows simple tips for greatly improving retention and achievement.