How Meaning and Relevance Drive Student Engagement

I was going to fail out of college. It wasn’t an “if” it was more of a “when”. Here I was facing a third year with a 1.6 GPA, almost no credits for the time I spent in classes, and I had changed my major for the third time.

My biggest problem, besides the student loans piling up, was that I was not sure I even wanted to continue going to school.

I’d enjoyed high school, but that was more because of friends, sports, and activities. Now, at university, I had jumped from history to business, to accounting, and finally to a journalism major. 

It didn’t matter. Most of the classes were dry, boring, and long. The assignments were challenging and time-consuming. I had plenty of interests, but rarely did they match up to what we were learning in our classes.

I was retaking two classes I had failed in an earlier semester, all because I could not get myself to attend the lectures.

It was all squarely on my shoulders and my fault. I understood this, and took responsibility for my actions, but did not know what to do except continue trudging along as I was supposed to do at 19 years old.

Everything changed in one journalism and writing composition class. Fittingly, it was not because of the class, but instead the experience.

A Moment of Relevance

The professor shared out the syllabus during our first journalism class of the new semester. I did not pay much attention, but when she got to a final piece my ears started to perk up.

“Each of you will have to attend at least six writing zone tutor sessions in order to fulfill your requirements of this class. In doing so, your final assignment will be to write about what you learned spending time as a mentor to young writers.”

I wanted to ask a question but did not dare raise my hand.

A classmate sitting in front of me took the opportunity that I let slip by and asked, “What is the writing zone?”

The professor shared that a local high school, West Chester Henderson, had a writing zone where students would come for help on their essays, papers, and class assignments.

We would support this by volunteering to tutor a few times during the semester, and then writing about our experience in the final exam.

At that moment, I felt a bit defeated. If I couldn’t get myself up to go to class, how would I be prepared to clean up, and dress appropriately for this situation? I knew I could do it, and part of the experience piqued my interest, but I questioned my own ability to follow through.

Two weeks later, I found myself standing at the front office, checking in to the school, and getting a Visitor’s badge made for my first session.

An Unexpected Meaning

It was my fourth Writing Zone session where something magical happened. I was working with a student on their upcoming American History essay when the door to the library swung open.

The writing zone was in the back of the library, and students would walk in for all kinds of reasons. I lifted my head to check it out, but didn’t think much of it until a student and his friends started walking towards the writing zone, pointing and chatting.

As they got closer I started to perk up and look at what was happening. The Junior student was wearing a football jacket, and took his backpack off. He was searching inside for something before pulling out some crinkled papers.

They kept walking towards me and eventually said, “Hey man! Hey, ya - you! Check this out!”

The group was now surrounding the tutor table inside the writing zone, and I smiled as they looked excited to show what he had pulled out of the backpack.

“Do you remember helping me out a few weeks ago man? You really did your thing! Look at this!” He said while holding up the paper.

I could see a red-inked “B-” on the front of the paper, and instantly worried that I had failed to help this student get the grade they were looking for.

Then his friends started clapping and yelling, “He’s eligible for the game this weekend! Let’s goooo!”

They all started smiling, and I realized he was ecstatic about the B- grade.

At this point, the librarian came running over to see what all the commotion was about. The boys were ushered out of the library, but not without one final “Thank you, for helping me”. I said, “No problem, it was all you!”.

His final words were to the young student I was working with, “Hey, listen to this man, he’s the real deal…” and then they were gone.

A Feeling of Accomplishment

That moment changed my entire trajectory as a college student, and I would like to think my career and life.

I thought a B- grade would be a bad thing, but he was so happy.

I understood, maybe for the first time, that everyone has different expectations and goals. He was trying to get from his point A to point B – that looked very different from what I was used to.

There was this feeling inside of me that continued through the rest of the day. A feeling that I had rarely had while at college: A sense of accomplishment and significance.

For the first time in years, I felt like I had not only helped someone, but I’d done it in a meaningful way.

A few months later, at the end of that semester, I changed my major for a fourth time. This time, to Education. I was going to be a teacher, I was going to help kids like the B- student at the writing zone, and that feeling of meaning and relevance would be something I would chase time and time again.

Everything Changed

I graduated (yes, it did take me five years instead of four) with a 3.65 GPA. I loved my education classes, made great friends along the way, and ended up getting a job at a fantastic school right out of college.

In a matter of months, I went from not caring about my path and worried about a future that did not inspire me, to fully employed and pumped to be teaching and coaching like it was always my dream.

The only thing that changed is school went from a “thing I had to do”, to a “thing I get to do”.

Once I found meaning in my coursework, I cared enough to pay attention, show up, and try.

Once I found relevance in my learning, I wanted to be there, wanted to participate, and wanted to get better and grow.

This may seem like it happened by accident. But, the entire time I was going from major to major, class to class, I was searching for something.

Our kids in our schools today are doing the same thing.

We go through the motions of learning. We are compliant. Or maybe we are resistant. Or maybe just apathetic. 

But, we are always searching. It is the human thing to do, to search for meaning, and try to find relevance in our daily work and learning.

So, why isn’t school set up to support that type of learning? Why aren’t we always trying to connect meaning and relevance to our classes, texts, materials, and curriculum?

Why did it take 13+ years of my schooling experience to find something to really connect to?

The answer lies in Dale Carnegie’s work.

Worms and Strawberries

In 1936 Dale Carnegie wrote a book called How to Win Friends and Influence People. It went on to sell over 30 million copies. It still sells today and is probably one of the best books on how to improve your social skills.

In the book, he shares a quote that resonated with me so much, it was an epiphany in the middle of my student-teaching experience:

“I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing, I didn’t think about what I wanted. I thought about what they wanted. I didn’t bait the hook with strawberries and cream. Rather, I dangled a worm or grasshopper in front of the fish.”

Do you bait your students with strawberries and cream? Do you focus on what interests you when you teach? Or do you understand that our learners want something else? 

This simple mental exercise changed the way I taught forever. 

I asked myself before every lesson, in every unit: What is the strawberries and cream vs the worms?

There were plenty of times I could connect the two, but leading the learning from a place of empathy always had more impact than what I had to cover.

Find out what engages your students (you can do this from conversations) and use it! Maybe it is something to do with technology, maybe it is a connection to something in pop culture—but whatever it is, use it to boost the learning experience. Great teachers find new ways every year of delivering content that would otherwise be stale.

It’s About the Learners

When we think of “engagement” I always go back to Schlechty’s work and research. 

Engagement = High Attention and High Commitment

Hight attention without commitment is just strategic compliance. Compliance can only get you so far.

For me, that was my second year at college, wondering what I was supposed to do with my life, because all I had ever done was just go through the motions.

It took me a while to realize that as a teacher, I was spending most of the classroom time on strawberries and cream. 

Then, when I led with a worm, like Genius Hour – the students lit up. 

When I continued with a worm-like Project: Global Inform – the commitment was there (not just the attention).

When I focused on meaningful and relevant opportunities for learning, everything changed for the learners. And as a teacher, when the kids are excited, invested, and committed to the learning process–everything changes for us, too.