Student Engagement & Motivation

Reach Every Student. Every Day.

Practical differentiated instruction strategies that capture attention, build motivation, and engage every learner — including those who have already checked out. College credit eligible.

🏫 On-Site Training🎓 Train-the-Trainer🎓 College Credit Eligible

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Student Engagement Training

See the strategies in action

What This Training Does

Stop competing for attention. Start earning it.

Today's students are the most distracted generation in history — competing with hundreds of channels, social media, and an overstimulated world. Traditional approaches often inadvertently teach students when it's safe to check out.

This training gives educators the specific methods to re-engage every learner — through randomization, storytelling, student voice, multiple modalities, and strategies that make content genuinely relevant to students' lives.

Designed for K-12 teachers, instructional coaches, reading specialists, Title I staff, and school leaders. Supports RTI, PLCs, and other fine programs.

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Reach the unreachableSpecific strategies to re-engage students who have stopped trying — including those with different learning styles, backgrounds, and ability levels.
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Differentiate without doubling your workloadPractical DI strategies you can implement immediately — without spending hours creating separate materials for every student.
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Honor student voiceMethods that give students more ways to respond, explore content, and connect lessons to their own experiences — increasing engagement and retention.
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Build self-efficacyStrategies to help students learn to work under pressure, earn their knowledge, and discover how they learn best — for life.

Five Components

The five components of student engagement.

Promoting Positive Feelings

Students learn best when they feel positive about their experience. Strategies to create readiness and willingness to learn — for every student, regardless of what they're bringing from home.

Promoting Attention & Interest

Through randomization, storytelling, and specific questioning techniques, educators re-engage students and increase participation — using student vernacular, experiences, and points of view.

Promoting Connectedness & Relevance

Students attach meaning to content when they can connect it to their own lives. Synectics and student voice strategies that end the "myth of the struggle."

Promoting Self-Efficacy

Dynamic tension strategies that teach students to work under pressure, earn their knowledge, and discover how they learn best — preparing them to perform on demand.

Sharing Best Practices

A powerful matrix system for teachers to share their most effective lessons — building professional collaboration, improving retention, and preventing reinventing the wheel.

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Core Belief

All students are different. DI is for all learners — big or small, experienced or new, all students deserve the best opportunity to learn in the way that works best for them.

What Educators Will Know

Leave with strategies you use tomorrow.

Practical methods to build interest with even the most disengaged students

How to motivate the unmotivated using their interests and experiences

How to use storytelling for deeper, more memorable learning

Randomization techniques that keep all students engaged

How to incorporate fun, divergent ways of learning into any lesson

How to develop critical thinking in your students

How to use human graphing for immediate real-time feedback from students

How to quickly assess whether your lesson is landing — and adjust on the fly

Training Agenda

A full day of practical differentiated instruction training.

Morning — 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM

Foundations of Engagement

Connect differentiated instruction with student engagement and motivation
Clarify what DI is — and what it isn't
Understand how multiple intelligences and modalities impact engagement
Explore ways to bring more of yourself into your classroom
Use movement to stimulate positive affect and deepen understanding
Discover randomization and questioning techniques that drive participation

Afternoon — 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM

Relevance, Self-Efficacy & Collaboration

Design lessons that score high on the meaningful and relevant meter
Guide students to make personal connections to key concepts
Prepare students to respond on demand and under pressure
Learn safe, fun ways for students to show what they know
Use the sharing matrix to build a culture of professional collaboration
Reach students you have never been able to reach before

What Educators Are Saying

Hear from educators who attended this training.

Since my Differentiated Instruction training, I have incorporated Randomization, Storytelling, Concentric Circles, and Entry/Exit Tickets into my courses. Not only do these strategies promote engagement in classrooms — they work powerfully with adult learners too.

Dr. Randy Boardman, Senior Training AdvisorCrisis Prevention Institute (CPI)

Student referrals in our middle school dropped 30% on average every year for three years straight. Because of these strategies I can say with pride: Every day, I teach.

Keith Johnson, Teacher & Technology DirectorReading Community Schools, Michigan

Academic Validation

The Time To Teach® Differentiated Instruction program was the subject of a doctoral dissertation at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, which found measurable increases in student opportunities to respond and significant decreases in off-task behavior following teacher participation in the one-day program.

Macon, A.K. (2015). The effect of differentiated instruction professional development on response and engagement in the middle school classroom. University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

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Bring a Trainer to Your Campus

A Time To Teach® master trainer delivers the full Student Engagement & Motivation training for your staff on-site. Customized to your school community. We respond within 24 hours.

Request a Quote →

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College Credit Available

This training is eligible for up to 3 graduate-level credits through UMass Global at an additional fee. Ask about requirements when you request a quote.

Learn About College Credit →