MDE’s Promising Practice: Improving Early Literacy Achievement with Ignite Engagement

Our educational world is in a state of restoration and renewal, where the potential for renovation exists. What we decide to do with this opportunity will tremendously impact the lives of our students.

Students Need Authentic Engagement

In an article by Andy Hargreaves, titled “The Future of Learning Lies in Engagement,” he encourages educators to focus on engagement as the right path to rectify learning losses and prioritize well-being. Hargreaves notes, “The best paths forward will be those that increase students’ engagement with their learning, with each other, and with their lives.” (Hargreaves, 2021)

The program Ignite Engagement was developed in response to the identified need for students to be more authentically engaged while learning. It is now completing its fourth year of support, impacting over 2,400 students in Kent County since 2019.

Developing Professional Learning Cohorts

Teachers, coaches, and principals work together to construct learning through a cohort model of partnerships, acknowledging the need for system-level change for dramatic results to be achieved. In their year-long commitment to the program, cohort members engage in various learning activities based on the state’s Literacy Essentials, guided by Ellin Oliver Keene (author of Engaging Children), Dr. Gholdy Muhammad (author of Cultivating Genius), and Kent ISD consultants, including coaching visits, learning labs, and monthly learning community meetings.

Many other programs or strategy outcomes result in an increase in student participation, which is different from an increase in student engagement. Ignite Engagement cohorts redefine engagement, in comparison to compliance, participation, and motivation.

Ignite Engagement asks:

• How can we help children become truly engaged?
• How do we help children learn to engage on their own?
• How do we help children reengage?

During this transformative process, program members begin examining ways that students can take ownership in their engagement process. They begin cultivating a culture that promotes and encourages this newly defined level of engagement.

Students Take Ownership of Learning Through Choice

One cohort member, Sherry Kilpatrick of Appleview Elementary in Sparta, gave her students the freedom to choose a current world problem they were passionate about in her nonfiction literacy studio unit. In response to a family trip to an aquarium where there was a turtle rehabilitation program, one student was inspired to do research and take action to save turtles.

“(Student) became so engaged that he chose to make clay turtles and sell them to raise money to donate.” says Sherry. Over spring break this year, he returned to the aquarium to make the donation in person. The aquarium staff were overwhelmed with gratitude and awe at the passion and call to action this young student could unleash when provided the opportunity in the classroom.

This is just one of the many examples illustrating that the outcomes are limitless when a community of engagement and belonging are cultivated.

The Promising Practice Exchange

The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) and the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators (MAISA) have collaborated to create a Promising Practice Exchange. This public platform encourages educators to share evidence-based strategies showcasing enhanced learner outcomes related to Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan goals. The Exchange launched on August 11, 2022, and MDE is actively seeking promising practices supporting Goal 2: Improve Early Literacy Achievement.

Recently, the Ignite Engagement program received accreditation from MDE as a Promising Practice. With improved outcomes for learners being the top priority, we continue to reflect and refine our systems for data collection and analysis of Ignite Engagement. A celebration in this regard includes a comparison from 2022 spring i-Ready data for an entire 3rd grade in a single building (this data was from a teacher in her first year of the Ignite Engagement cohort). The results show that the cohort classroom students outperformed students in the other classrooms. 

*Typical Growth is the average growth of students at the same grade and placement level. Stretch Growth is more than typical growth for the same grade and placement level, designed to help students catch up if they are behind over 1+ years depending on their starting level.

In addition to testing data, we recognize that perception data and constant reflection of the culture of the classrooms in the program also remain a high priority. “The students who are in classrooms with teachers in the cohorts are thriving. You can feel the difference walking into each of these rooms.  The positive student relationships, the level of ownership of students, and the passion that radiates are more than clear.  It is truly a blessing to be able to watch the teachers I work with reignite their own passion for teaching through this work.  After all, an inspired teacher will always be a better teacher,” says one of the district coaches in the program.

The Future of Student Engagement

As we think about what the student experience in our schools will entail moving forward, let us think about how, “the pandemic has equipped us with greater knowledge about student engagement and disengagement. Let’s show wisdom by avoiding a return to the worst of a disengaging past and embracing an educational future full of magic, meaning, and mastery.” (Hargreaves, 2021)

For more information about the transformational experience of Kent ISD’s Ignite Engagement program, contact Brenna Fraser.

Sources

Hargreaves, A. (2021, December 6). The future of learning lies in Engagement. ASCD. Retrieved April 17, 2023, from https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/the-future-of-learning-lies-in-engagement

The Four Pillars of Engagement. The Four Pillars of Engagement. (2018, July 5). Retrieved April 17, 2023, from https://blog.heinemann.com/the-four-pillars-of-engagement

Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan. Promising Practices Exchange. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2023, from https://mipromisingpractices.org/

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This blog post was written by Brenna Fraser, Early Literacy Coach for Kent ISD and edited by Amanda Walma, Professional Learning Coordinator for Kent ISD.