Motivation

1. Motivation The maker and the breaker of an education

2. Aspects of Motivation • Motivation • An internal state that arouses us to action, drives us in particular directions and retains our attention/engagement in activities (Shedd, 2008) • Arguably, it is an “acquired disposition that is amenable to change” (Weinstein & Mignano, 2007 p. 186) • This means that it is up to the teacher to create a classroom that motivates students to get involved

3. Aspects of Motivation Cont’d • Expectancy x Value • Motivation equal a students expectancy of success on an activity times their value of the activity • If either is missing, there will be no motivation • To foster motivation, teachers must help the students believe they can succeed while also making them recognize the value of the particular task The information above is from Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J. (2007). Elementary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

4. Why is motivation important? • Motivation increases energy and activity levels • Motivation initiation of certain activities and a persistence in those activities toward a certain goal • Gets students thinking deeper about the activities and making more abstract connections • If a student is motivated to learn, they will work harder to learn the information and the information will stay in their long-term memory much longer The information above is from Shedd, Meagan (2008). Motivation in Relation to Literacy Learning. Presentation for TE 301, East Lansing, Michigan

5. What motivates children • What motivates children to learn directly correlates to Brophy’s Strategies for Enhancing Motivation to Learn • These Strategies are split into increasing expectation of success and increasing perceived value Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J. (2007). Elementary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

6. What motivates children Cont’d • Increasing expectations of success • Provide opportunities for success • If reading tasks appear too difficult, students may not even try to complete them • Open-ended literacy assignments that provide for a variety of responses is one way to help this situation • Another way is to vary instructional approaches so that students who learn differently from others have an equal access to the information Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J. (2007). Elementary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

7. What motivates children Cont’d • Teach students to set reasonable goals and to assess their own performance • A sheet of literacy goals for the students to fill out at the beginning of the year/unit helps students visualize success • A portfolio of written work/books read over the year helps students see if they’ve met their goals Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J. (2007). Elementary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

8. What motivates children Cont’d • Help students recognize the relationship between effort and outcome • When students have difficulty with reading or writing, they often blame it on a lack of ability. • What students need to realize is that it is more often than not, a lack of effort that leads to bad grades • Whenever possible, commend students for their hard work Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J. (2007). Elementary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

9. What motivates children Cont’d • Provide informative feedback • Providing feedback as quick as possible lets students know their grades and that their hard work/lack their of actually led to something • Feedback should also be informative • Any possible comments should be made so that the students knows what to improve upon and what they did right Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J. (2007). Elementary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

10. What motivates children Cont’d • Provide special motivational support to discouraged students • Extra encouragement may be needed for students with limited ability in literacy • When working in pairs, they should be with someone that is patient and helpful • Encouragement should also be given to work extra hard and possibly seek extra help outside the classroom Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J. (2007). Elementary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

11. What motivates children Cont’d • Enhancing the value of the task • Relate lessons to students’ own lives • If lessons are relevant to students’ lives, they are more likely to value them • Special effort should be made to relate literacy content to students in the class who are not from the dominant culture • An example would be a report on their culture/history Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J. (2007). Elementary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

12. What motivates children Cont’d • Provide opportunities for choice • Students experience a sense of autonomy and self-determination when given the choice of what to learn, which in turn gets them intrinsically motivated to learn • Intrinsic motivation is when a student is motivated because of an internal desire to do the task • Of course, opportunities for choice mostly refers to books to read individually and paper topics to write, not material discussed in class

13. What motivates children Cont’d • Model interest in learning and express enthusiasm for the material • The more enthusiastic the teacher is about literacy, the more enthusiastic students are likely • Even if they seem annoying, the “peppy” teacher is always better than the “hate everything” teacher Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J. (2007). Elementary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

14. What motivates children Cont’d • Include novelty/variety elements • These activities often don’t seem like learning to students because they are so much fun, but the academic content is there • Provide opportunities for students to respond actively • Actively engage in plays and poetry • If nothing else, this technique gets students motivated when they know they will have to respond to the information they are learning Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J. (2007). Elementary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

15. What motivates children Cont’d • Allow students to create finished products • Finished products give meaning and purpose to exercises and drills • Writing letters that are actually sent and writing books that are edited, revised and “published” are both examples of this Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J. (2007). Elementary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

16. What motivates children Cont’d • Provide extrinsic rewards • Extrinsic rewards triggers extrinsic motivation when a child is motivated because of the expectation of receiving the award • Social rewards: verbal and nonverbal indications that you recognize and appreciate a students’ behavior or achievements (smile, thumbs-up and pat on the back) • Special activity rewards: include free time and listening to music • Tangible rewards: physical rewards that children actually receive (cookies, key chains, candy, etc.) • The amount of extrinsic rewards should be limited though, since our main goal as teachers is to get students intrinsically motivated, not extrinsically

17. Classroom management and motivation • A safe, caring classroom • Students must feel safe from humiliation • Understand that it’s alright to take risks • Know they are accepted and respected • Without this, motivational strategies are no use The above information is from Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J. (2007). Elementary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

18. Assessments • The pdf of Measuring Attitude toward reading: A New Tool for Teachers contained in this folder is a good assessment of a child’s motivation to read • Taking an anonymous survey from the class over likes/dislikes of literacy concepts is another good assessment of motivation

19. References • Weinstein, C. S., & Mignano, A. J. (2007). Elementary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. • Shedd, Meagan (2008). Motivation in Relation to Literacy Learning. Presentation for TE 301, East Lansing, Michigan • Mckenna, M.C.,& Kear, D.J. (1990). Measuring Attitude toward reading: A New Tool for Teachers. International Reading Association