Tools for Teachers

Motivation: The reason or reasons that one has for acting in a particular way.

 

The task of a teacher is hard.   Trying to influence young minds to promote growth, awareness, and responsibility is a daunting task whichever way you look at it. Accomplishing this with students who are unwilling to participate just compounds the workload. We rack our brains trying to come up with lesson plans that will engage our students and allow them to grasp the content, but often times we fall short.   After repeated attempts with several of our “less motivated” students we come to our wits end and often times just write them off as a “troubled child.” I know that at times I’ve done this. But I soon came to the realization that these students aren’t “less motivated,” they just aren’t motivated to do what I want them to do.

In order to change a Student’s motivational focus, you to change what they are motivated to do to what I want them to do.  This is no easy task, but it can be done.  The first step to solving this problem is to contemplate things from a student’s perspective. Perceptual psychology suggests that people behave according to their personal view of the world at any given moment. As Atticus Finch puts it, in Harper Lee’s classic novel To kill a Mocking Bird “In order to know how a person thinks you have to walk around in their skin for a while.”

Every free person on the planet will always ask the question, “Why should I?” when they are tasked with doing something. The answer to this question is the incentive or perceived incentive that they will gain from doing the task.   There are two types of incentives out there Informal incentives and Formal Incentives. The Informal Incentives are usually found in the family setting, a child will do something that a parent asks them to because they love their parent and want to please them. The informal incentive for the child is the continued love and affection from the parent. A formal incentive represents an agreed upon exchange of goods and services. Your paycheck is such an incentive. (Jones pg. 189)

Incentives equate motivation. Finding the right incentives for a student is a challenge, but it can be made easier if you incorporate a choice for the student and find activities that they enjoy, or are at least less boring than traditional class work.

 

Teachers:

Bribery and incentives are often confused in the classroom. Some teachers feel that if we offer the students something on top of the regular “good grades” then we are bribing the students to do their work. However there are very few people on this planet that will work just for works sake. The implied incentive in school is that if you do the work and study hard you will pass the course. However this incentive does not work on all students, some need more of an incentive than just passing or getting good grades. Some students need further incentives. Some teachers choose to use candy or treats as an incentive for class cooperation and participation.   This however can become expensive and can have negative results in the future, some students might expect the treat and won’t do the work if none is offered. Below is an activity that might be used as an alternative.

 

Modern Culture Test:

At the onset of the school year, as an icebreaker and to get you class’s buy-in start the year off with a modern culture test.

• Create a video montage of clips from 20-30 videos. The video montage does not have to be more than 5-10 minutes long.
• These clips can be from any films, TV shows, music videos, or any form of popular media.
• These clips need to be age and school appropriate.
• Create a test sheet with the corresponding number of clips that you have chosen and hand them out to the class.
• As the class is watching the montage have them write down the name of the film, TV show, music artist, or whatever that the clip comes from.
• When the montage is done have the students exchange their papers and grade the text from the key that you place on the overhead projector.
• The students who got the highest score will have their names placed on the Modern Culture Champs Board. (MCCB)
• The MCCB should be posted on visibly in the classroom for all students to see.
• Explain to the students that a modern culture test will be give at specific intervals throughout the year as an incentive for the class as a whole to turn in 85% of the homework assignments.
• This incentivizes the whole class to do their homework and does not set up unrealistic expectations of 100% compliance.
• Do a class homework check in about a week out from the proposed date for the Modern Culture Test to see how homework compliance is coming along.  Allow the students who are behind in homework the opportunity to turn in missing assignments.
• Any student has an equal opportunity to get onto the MCCB if they participate in the activity.

The Modern Culture Test is designed to encourage students to participate in the class activity without them feeling a need to be competent in class material. It allows for students that might be struggling with class work to have an equal opportunity with the more active class participants in a contest that they might otherwise feel deficient in. This grants the students who might feel displaced due to their lack of aptitude in school to feel like part of the class. This activity satisfies their need for belonging and because of the homework compliance piece will foster a desire to comply with homework requirements.

 

The Hook:

For teachers to keep students interested in the lesson the student has to find some value in the lesson. The last thing that a student wants is to waste their time; the moment that they feel like they are wasting their time they will stop paying attention. To gain the students attention teachers need a hook at the beginning of their lesson. Something that is relevant to today and their age group. This hook will bridge the gap between what the student might think of as old, boring subject matter and something that peaks their interest today.

For example William Golding’s classic novel The Lord of the Flies, thematically explores man’s nature as innately evil. A good hook to this lesson is putting together a video montage of evil and good characters from the Star Wars movies and asking the students to describe a good character versus an evil character from this video.

• Make a montage video of good and evil characters throughout modern culture.
• The video should be no longer than 5 min
• Place the students into groups of no larger than 4
• At the conclusion of the video have the students discuss and write down characteristics of good guys and bad guys
• The groups should come up with at least five characteristics for each category
• Have the groups elect a spokes person to relay their findings to the class
• The teacher should write the common characteristics on the board creating a group consensus
• The teacher will then write down any more characteristics that the class agrees should be added to the list through discussion
• The teacher then introduces the class unit material, The Lord of the Flies and relates to the class how good and evil play out thematically through the novel.

These pop culture references can be used throughout the unit lesson to tie the novel into student experience. If students are allowed to talk about what they know in reference to what they are being taught then they gain pride from their competency in the subject matter.

 

Your Choice:

Teachers, every student wants to be in charge of their own destiny. The biggest push back that you will receive is when you try to force an assignment onto your students.   Allow students to choose their own projects. Give students an option when assigning work for class.

For a major project in class allow the students to choose from one of 5 to 10 options that you provide for them.

• Provide a hand out to students listing 5 to 10 project proposal topics for them to consider.
• Allow the students a little time in class to go over their options explaining the nature of the project and the expectations.
• Have the students write down their choices and then explain to the class why they chose what they did.
• Give the class a handout that clearly outlines project expectations and due dates
• Break down the project into manageable components, due dates, and peer review dates
• Establish peer review groups that the students can turn to for guidance and assistance.
• These groups will ideally consist of students that have chosen the similar topics if not the same topic, but it is not necessary.
• Make sure that the students know that you will be there for assistance should they need it, but to ask a peer for help first.

Most students will be happy to give a reason why they made the choice that they did and will work harder for a topic of their choice. You might get a few students who will not be happy with the choice of topics, allow them the opportunity to pitch an idea to you. Make sure the idea is relevant to the unit topic, but give the student the chance to direct his or her own learning. Once their topic has been chosen and recorded assign them to a peer review group.