ENGAGE

The **ENGAGE** component of the e5 is intended to capture students’ attention (**‘tuning-in’**, hook them in), get the students thinking about the topic, raise questions in their minds, stimulate thinking and access their prior knowledge. The teacher elicits prior understandings and stimulates students’ involvement by defining the problem, asking questions, using visual representation to //**ENGAGE**// and focus students on the instructional tasks. The importance of eliciting prior knowledge and understandings from students is crucial in ascertaining what students already know before commencing the unit. It is important to realise that students construct knowledge from their existing knowledge and experiences.
 * __ENGAGE:__**

To elicit students’ prior knowledge teachers can ask questions such as: § What do you think...? § What do you already know about…? § What can you find out about…?  § Why do you think it is important to learn about...?  § Can you list three…? At the **//ENGAGE//** stage of learning, the teacher can conduct assessment using mindmaps, KWL, concept maps or other tools to assess the prior knowledge (assess for teaching) of students and use the information gathered to plan the unit of work. The data gathered from the assessment for learning guides the teacher to plan future lessons.