In thinking about student engagement, we often overlook the power of dynamic instruction. The manner in which teachers deliver content is just as vital as the content itself. Dynamic instruction entails approaches that ask students to think critically, reflect, discuss, make conceptual connections, problem solve, and utilize other high-engagement cognitive processes, so they come to understand content through active learning. Such instruction stimulates thought, expands ideas, and gives students the ability to solve complex problems, comprehend what they learn, and synthesize new information into existing schema.

So, what does dynamic, stimulating instruction look like? It starts with a teacher explicitly expressing high expectations for students to engage with the content, then involves active learning in which students explore, hypothesize, discuss, create, and take risks. Teachers often start by asking introductory questions to kick off a lesson or using a story or analogy to draw students into key concepts. It takes place in a learning environment that respects and encourages diverse ways of knowing, thinking, expressing, and interpreting material.

Consider a series of lessons focused on how racism currently affects Black people that Mrs. Walker, a high school English teacher in Los Angeles that Tyrone (one of the coauthors) works with, conducted with her students. Mrs. Walker was teaching a lesson on anti-Black racism, and she opened the class by saying she was excited to hear students’ insights and perspectives around the question of how racism affects Black lives in the United States today. She then established ground rules for student discussion (rules she uses for all “courageous conversations” in her class):

She placed students in groups of four and told each group to choose one of the following questions, then research pertinent topics and form a response to the question:

Over the course of a week-long lesson, students were asked to find and study related research articles, primary/secondary artifacts, and video clips and to construct possible counter-arguments to their initial responses to the questions. Essentially, students had to be aware of an argument running counter to the answer they gave to the question, even if they didn’t accept that counterstance. Students then participated in a jigsaw activity in which students from each group shared their responses with students from other groups. Mrs. Walker then brought everyone back together to discuss these questions as a class. What followed was a rich, stimulating discussion. Students were clearly engaged and thinking about the content.

The dynamic elements here were the social, cultural, and political relevance of the content, which has been shown to increase student engagement (Howard et al., 2019); the collective research, thinking, and discussing; and an arrangement involving no “right” answers.

5. Create Meaningful Partnerships with Families

Developing relationships and partnering with families is a crucial part of engaging students in learning. Parents and caregivers are critical to students’ intellectual and emotional growth and achievement, and the quality of the relationships between students’ families and their educators tremendously impacts educational outcomes.

Connecting with families gives teachers insight into how students communicate at home, what they are interested in, and what their families value. This is especially important when engaging with Black families because the overwhelming majority of classroom teachers are white. This racial and cultural mismatch makes it imperative for non-Black educators to position themselves as learners interested in the families of Black students—their practices, culture, and values—which allows educators to develop meaningful connections with these caregivers.

Teachers should develop a set of practices and approaches centered on the notion that Black families have assets to share. Quality connections between home and school can dismantle traditional hierarchies between caregivers and teachers by honoring the equally valuable assets that families, students, and educators each bring to the learning enterprise. Here are some ideas for connecting with families and recognizing and tapping the assets they have to offer.

As former teachers ourselves, we believe deeply in the power of teachers to create classroom environments that yield student success. We believe it’s educators’ responsibility to create such environments and to find ways to engage and motivate all students—but especially Black students, who often find their need for relevant instruction unmet and, as a result, disengage from school. Rather than relying on students to come into the classroom attentive and eager to learn, educators must create the conditions that encourage students to be attentive and drive them to want to learn. The strategies recommended here don’t require any specialized training or unusual skills, though they may require some real changes in mindset—and definitely a commitment to listening and learning from Black students and their families in an effort to create classroom environments that work—for all students.