In 100 words or more, comment on the following:
What can you to in your classroom to try to activate the desire to learn in students who do not have it intrinsically?
Don’t forget to comment (in 50 words or more) on another participant’s comment on this question.
8 comments:
One idea my school is focusing on to help students find their own motivation is making lessons relevant to students. If a student finds the relation between the lesson and how paying attention and learning the content can help them personally, then that student will be self-motivated to participate and do the work. That student will also retain the knowledge better because it will have more meaning. In my own classroom, I try to help students see the relevance of the lesson to their lives by getting them to discuss how the topic is important to them. It is important for a student to be able to express in their own words why it would be important to learn something instead of just parroting back why I think it is important. I try to have a student centered classroom, where they do lots of talking and questioning, instead of a teacher centered classroom where I stand up in front and talk at them in their desks.
One of the benefits to teaching the very young is their desire to learn. When I get my kiddos they are happy to be at school and are excited about the opportunities before them. I do harness this excitement and take every opportunity to balance the playing field for my impoverished students. I do what I can through modeling, caring, and careful constant authentic evaluation to give each student the desire to learn. I want them to WANT to learn :-) To feel the success and pride that comes from being a learner, it is these feelings of accomplishment that will give them the desire to seak more knowledge.
A: response to Sheri
I have also found that younger students are more likely to think school is fun and are more naturally enthusiastic about learning. Something happens along the way that takes the joy out of learning for some students, and I'm glad to work in a district that recognizes and tries to prevent that from happening.
A:response to dstark
Yes, I absolutely agree that if students see the relevance in the learning that is taking place that they will "buy into it." The reality is everything we do is relevent, we just need to point it out and explain that relevence to the kiddos directly so they see it to :-)
Initial Response to Question 6A
As an educator, I must find a vast variety of teaching methods to reach every student. The article states that children "may come to school with musical or bodily-kinesthetic intelligences more developed due to the types of experiences and modeling children of poverty may have in their home environments." I find this to be true on many occasions. Often it is the disadvantaged child who first demonstrates success with a rhythmic activity in my music class. I have even had classroom teachers demonstrate surprise at the fact that "Johnny" received a G in music, when he received an N in many other areas. While I believe that it is important to know each child's background in order to help foster learning, having pre-set expectations based on prior experiences of another teacher is not helpful. Each child enters my room with the opportunity to succeed--what they do with that opportunity is up to them.
I set high expectations for all of my students. For example, my fifth graders often perform a musical which encompasses up to thirty songs, five or more dance features, and many speaking parts. Considering that they must learn all of this in about ten hours of class time, they definitely know that it will be a challenge. I am amazed at how most students relish the challenge. Following our performance, I ask them to write a letter to future fifth graders. I tell them to explain how they felt when I told them of my expectations. Then I ask them to explain their feelings now that we have finished. The comments are amazing! I save these anonymous letters for future students to read, just in case they are not intrinsically motivated.
Responding to dstark (Question 6A)
I like the idea of a student-centered classroom because I believe the students can learn a great deal from each other as well as from me. Do you find that this type of classroom stays on task? I have tried this approach with fifth and sixth graders at times, but often found myself mediating (off-subject)arguments instead of facilitating productive discussions.
When it comes to working with children in poverty, it is especially important for teachers to find creative and applicable ways to motivate children to learn. These children can be the most difficult to motivate. One suggested resource I would recommend is a book by Ruby Payne called “A Framework for Poverty”. You may have heard of it already, but if not it would definitely be a good one to check out. It deals with the cultural and social aspects of poverty, and how to address some of the issues that go along with it. Payne gives examples of motivators that work in poverty situations, and are more relevant to the lives of kids in poverty such as you should do this because you will be smarter, stronger, have control, be the winner etc. These are slightly different answers to the question of “why do I need to do this” than we would typically use with other students, but like I mentioned before, may be more applicable to kids in these situations.
in response to dstark;
you mentioned making the learning relevant to the students' lives in a previous posting, and I really think you are right on when it comes to student motivation. Even if we think of ourselves as adult learners, none of us is going to willingly, or easily learn something that we can attach no relevance to in our own lives.
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