George Lucas Educational Foundation
Edutopia

Student Engagement

What strategies really work to involve students in their own learning? Discover and share ideas.

  • How to Make Student Choice Work

    One teacher shares her strategies to address possible student choice pitfalls like accountability and classroom management.
    Lauren Gehr

  • Developing a Love of Reading in Students

    Exposing new readers to a variety of genres can help them find the books they love. Plus, reading comprehension strategies to deepen their engagement.
    Kathryn Starke

  • Supporting Students in the Hospital

    One teacher shares her advice for teaching a student who is hospitalized and her tips for reentry into the classroom.
    Kelley Spainhour

  • A Student-Centered Model of Blended Learning

    When educators at a Washington, DC, high school ditched their lectures and devised a self-paced blended learning model, their students thrived.

  • Talk Less So Students Learn More

    Productive struggle is important for students to retain what they learn.
    Shannon McGrath

  • 8 Proactive Classroom Management Tips

    New teachers—and experienced ones too—can find ideas here on how to stop disruptive behavior before it begins.
    Youki Terada

  • 3 Ways to Ask Questions That Engage the Whole Class

    These techniques guide all students to process course content and then actively demonstrate their learning.
    Pérsida and Bill Himmele

  • 30 Techniques to Quiet a Noisy Class

    Most teachers have a method of calling for quiet, and we’ve collected a variety of good ideas for elementary, middle, and high school.
    Todd Finley

  • A Student-Driven Approach to Experiential Learning

    See how a Reggio Emilia–inspired elementary school in Australia fosters student interests to spark curiosity and joy in learning.

  • A Strategy for Boosting Student Engagement in Math

    A four-step approach to group work can get students talking and boost their mathematical and metacognitive thinking.
    Ashley Taplin

  • How to Keep Your Elementary Students Focused

    5 research-backed tips to keep your elementary students on-task.

  • Want Mastery? Let Students Find Their Own Way

    Prominent scholars say that to drive deeper learning, students need to become accustomed to confusion—and develop the persistence to find their own answers.
    Emily Kaplan

  • 6 Strategies for Building Better Student Relationships

    A teacher shares her best practices for establishing strong relationships with her class at the start of the school year.
    Cicely Woodard

  • 19 Big and Small Classroom Management Strategies

    Successful classroom management relies on a handful of fundamental strategies and a larger number of quick interventions.
    Todd Finley

  • 5 Highly Effective Teaching Practices

    We teachers are always looking to innovate, so, yes, it's essential that we try new things to add to our pedagogical bag of tricks. But it's important to focus on purpose and intentionality -- and not on quantity. So what really matters more than "always trying something new" is the reason behind why we do what we do.
    Rebecca Alber