Hey everyone,

You know the stereotype: an “engaged” learner is bright-eyed, hand-raising, emoji-reacting, maybe even scribbling notes like they’re in a ‘90s montage.

But that’s just one flavor of engagement. If that’s our only metric, we’re missing half the class.

This issue is all about what engagement actually looks like (spoiler: sometimes it looks like nothing at all), how we can measure it, and how we can build it intentionally.

Stillness ≠ Disengagement

Especially in creative spaces, deep engagement might look like:

• A furrowed brow and zero eye contact
• Staring out the window because they’re critically thinking
• Sitting quietly… because they’re absorbing and synthesizing

This is me. I’m that learner. It also means I’m not the person you want in a crisis. I’ll be the one in the corner, silently processing while the world burns. That’s probably why I married a police officer and chose music composition over live performance. Also explains why I read slower than most people.

But enough self-therapy, let’s get back to your learners.

How do you measure a blank face?

There are three types of engagement:

Behavioral → Emotional → Cognitive (A collection of research on this)

They get harder to observe and measure the further right you go, but why?

Behavioral engagement is visible: participation, effort, on-task behavior.

Emotional engagement is trickier, but you can spot signs that may correlate to behavior: tone, facial expressions, energy.

Cognitive engagement is often invisible unless we create space for it to surface.

You need activities that make cognitive engagement transparent, and a quiz is NOT it.

::don’t need a segway into my strategies section, smooth like butter::

Strategies to Measure AND Build Engagement

Because you can do both at once :)

🎯 Prioritize meaningful tasks

Tasks that help YOU answer: Are they making intentional choices or just coasting?

In music ensembles, try playing the same passage twice with no/minimal direction on the second take. Over time, this will become a trigger for their subconscious to re-engage, performance improves, and the next passage hopefully won’t require 2 takes!

💭 Metacognitive exit slips

At the end of your time together, have learners answer a question like…

What’s something you understood better today?

OR

What’s one moment you felt most present or connected?

Not every response will be profound. The process tells you who’s tracking and helps them start self-assessing.

👂 Peer observation

My favorite. Ask students to observe each other and provide feedback. This:

• Shifts focus from the teacher
• Builds listening, empathy, and collaboration skills
• Learners begin paying attention to each other, not just the task
• Demonstrates mastery through contextual feedback

Updates from the Music Room

MARCHING BAND SEASON, WOOO! I’ll share more if I survive my 17th year teaching band camp.

In the meantime: I just finished a beginner string orchestra piece called Drip Dance, inspired by Jackson Pollock’s action painting.

It weaves standard lines with sounds made by the performers (vocally and physically). There’s a “Creative Cadenza” where students co-create a sequence of sound, however structured or chaotic, reflecting abstract expressionist spirit: creative process over perfection/representation.

Will it be inspiring… or will directors tell me to GTFO with this nonsense in elementary school? I’ll let you know when it lands next year.

Your Thoughts

Engagement, how do you spot it in learners, and how do you grow it?

​Share your thoughts here​

Get Inspired,
Evan

​Previous Issue: The Quiet Power of Leadership​​​

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