Brewster, C., & J. Fager. (2000). Increasing Student Engagement and Motivation: From Time-on-Task to Homework . Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.

This article explains that there are many factors that contribute to students’ engagement levels that teachers may have little control over. For instance, as students transition from elementary to middle school, they become less engaged in learning. However, there are also certain practices that increase the amount of time students spend on a task and also make assigned work more engaging and effective. The article mainly focuses on the importance of motivating students. Most successful people are motivated extrinsically and intrinsically so educators must build on both types of motivation to fully engage students in school. Compared to my other resources, this article provides a lot of background information in addition to strategies that teachers can use to engage and motivate their students. It is also helpful that it focuses on the middle years age group, which is the age range that I am working with during my practicum.

Trocki, A., Taylor, C., Starling, T., Sztajn, P., & Heck, D. (2014). Launching a Discourse-Rich    Mathematics Lesson. Teaching Children Mathematics, 21(5), 277-281.

This study focuses on teachers using the think-aloud strategy, repeatedly modeling mathematical thinking out loud, to engage students in math lessons. In a second grade classroom, this study found that students were more engaged if the teacher initiated a lesson using this method, and more readily shared their thinking with peers. They were also quicker to get started working on problems as opposed to lessons that did not begin with a think-aloud. This article relates to my inquiry question because math is a difficult subject for many students and it is important for teachers to understand that strategies that work well in one particular subject may not be as effective in another academic area. Students can become easily discouraged in math so knowing how to effectively implement such strategies will not only allow students to talk to about their own thinking but it can also encourage students to inquire and ask questions about their peers’ line of thinking.