A: For summer programs we look for opportunities for student movement, through various activities and by incorporating different modalities of learning. Secondarily, we incorporate projects that are really engaging in student life. For example, we have a student math fair where students created their own math carnival activity. Engagement is also promoted through student-staff relationships. Student staffing really enhances those relationships and promotes engagement.

A: We did do pre-summer trainings, but we did not explicitly address our student engagement strategies. Our hiring practice is to pick people that we think have student engagement skills already. I observe all my teachers in the classroom, prior to hiring them, so that I have the opportunity to see them and their teaching style. I am looking for the percentage of time the teacher is leading the class versus when the students are leading the class or speaking. I want primarily student voice when I observe teachers in the classroom. For TA’s, it is a little bit different, our trainings primarily focused on how to ask questions without guiding the students too much. I’m using a book called Teach Like A Champion to structure my training. We are really looking for TA’s to promote engagement by turning over responsibility to the student through project-based learning.

A: By setting high expectations. This summer TA’s are going to have to include their questioning in their project so I have a chance to preview what they’re going to be doing with the students and give them strategies to help them get there. For teachers, we hire people who already have these skills. While we don’t have to do all the training for teachers, we will, as a program, have a fair for students to display projects to their parents, which serves as a push for project-based programming in the classes.

A: It really depends on knowing the student. What I really value my TA’s for is their ability to build relationships with the students. If a student is not engaged, the TA’s are able to determine why. It could be that students don’t understand the material, or possibly something happened before class. I rely on the smaller student-teacher ratio to allow us to have the conversations to ascertain why a student is acting the way they are, and then problem solve. And that will be part of the TA’s training. For Summer Learning Project students we are now able to leverage the schools better than we have in the past. If there is consistent disengagement, we have the school looped in to be aware of what’s going on so that we have clear consequences, such as having to work through lunch or club activities instead of participating.