"The fundamental difficulty is that the work in which the schools seek to engage the child is not significant to him. It does not satisfy the needs which the individual child experiences. It does not gratify any hunger or yearning he has felt. It does not answer any questions which his experiences have raised in his mind. It does not contribute to the solution of any problems which he has encountered in actual life." Does the sentiment of this quote about students' motivation sound familiar? It comes from chapter one of The Motivation of Schoolwork, by H.B. Wilson and G.M. Wilson. This book was published in 1916.
Jump ahead nearly 100 years, to 2014, and an article written by Emma Brown in The Washington Post entitled "U.S. Students Stall In Math, Reading." This article about United States students' scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress highlights the stagnation of twelfth-graders' scores recently, and actual decline in reading scores since the early 1990's. In the article, readers see this analysis: "Some analysts contend that the 12th-grade scores are evidence only of an unsurprising truth: that high school seniors are not motivated to try their hardest on tests in which they have no real stake. 'We all remember exactly how engaged your 17-year-old high school senior is,' said Frederick Hess of the conservative American Enterprise Institute."
Teachers have grappled with how, optimally, to motivate students for at least 100 years. The fact that it's hard to motivate children is old news to parents. Anyone familiar with Bill Watterson's work in Calvin and Hobbes or Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman's contemporary comic strip, Zits, will recognize these authors' spot-on depictions of parents trying to motivate their children to help with chores, eat healthy food, join in family activities, and be better students. But, take 10 Calvins or Jeremys, put them together in a room with 10 more students, and have the goal of teaching all 20 some aspect of an academic subject, such as symbolism, the causes of the Great Depression, multiplying fractions, or cell division. Maybe now it's understandable why the engagement of students has been a topic of study, discussion, and debate for so long.
On a theoretical level, why is motivating students so challenging? Take a look at Learning Theory Fundamentals. This web site examines the learning theories of just six psychologists and theorists: David Ausubel, Albert Bandura, Jerome Bruner, Robert Gagne, B.F. Skinner, and Lev Vygotsky. Yet each one has his own theory about where students derive their desire to learn. For Ausubel, motivation comes out of learning. Bandura thinks students' self-efficacy is at the root of their motivation. Bruner believed intrinsic rewards encouraged students to achieve. In Gagne's view, students are motivated by feeling more capable. And Skinner held that external rewards are what motivates students. Finally, Vygotsky's research led him to conclude that students are driven by appropriately challenging and engaging tasks. What's the problem? These and other researchers are all right, about some students.
No two students are exactly alike. While some students want to do well because they take pride in their work, others can't get to this point because they've developed negative beliefs about their own capacities to learn. Some students love to get stars, bookmarks, and homework passes for doing well. But others will only try if the work they complete shows they can earn "A's."
So, how do I light the fire to learn in my students? Learn, practice for excellence, and experiment. On a practical level, Jon Saphier, Mary Ann Haley-Speca, and Robert Gower identify, in The Skillful Teacher, three areas of teaching which address motivation: expectations, personal relationship building, and classroom climate. In the book, they present multiple actions teachers can take, in each area, to improve students' motivation. I could spend the rest of my career learning to use these research-supported actions, and I still wouldn't perfect all of their ideas. But a few I've worked on developing are sticking with students, actively listening to students, and instilling positive beliefs about risk taking.
I also have to take what I learn from theorists and my coworkers and devise my own approaches to test on students. Recently, all of my students took standardized math, reading, and language use tests, as they had done in the fall, and some took again in the winter. A coworker who teaches math aimed to motivate her students to do well on the math portion of the test. She handed them the math scores they earned when they most recently took the test. She then talked to them about how, if the students did well enough this spring, they might move to a more advanced level of math class next year. A good plan, I thought, employing both Vygotsky and Skinner's theories of motivation.
By chance, I was privy to two students' thoughts about my coworker's motivational tactics. The first I overheard talking to some friends. And from what she said, I gathered she felt concerned about doing well enough to be promoted to the higher level math class. What she said and her tone conveyed that she felt threatened by the challenge. The second student told me about this challenge and confidently stated that she believed she would be up to it and was capable of advancing to the more challenging level of math. My analysis of these two incidents--the first student operates under Bandura's theory of motivation while the second is motivated according to Gagne and Skinner's theories.
Since I wanted to encourage my students to try their best on the reading and language use tests, but didn't want a repeat thought process for the first student I describe above, I decided to tweak my coworker's approach. I gave my students their last scores on the tests. And then I appealed to their sense of wanting to show how they've become more capable by challenging them to do their best, so I had a true sense of how much they had grown in their learning.
I also used two metaphors. First, I explained how in individual sports, such as cross country running, there can be only one winner. But what everyone else can do is improve on their previous best time. This, I hoped, would touch upon the students' self-efficacy by making the goal less daunting, try to better than last winter or fall. My second comparison was about Michael Jordan not making the varsity basketball team as a sophomore in high school. I relayed to students what the coach said Jordan needed to work on in his game, and how, within a few years he was a star college, and eventually pro, player. And I also highlighted how Jordan's success must have come from hard work and desire to improve in those aspects of basketball. The point I eventually made was, even if students didn't score the highest in seventh grade, they still had a lot of growing to do, and could still end up strong readers and writers if they kept working at it. Here, I tried to instill an intrinsic reward.
For me, focusing on techniques that encourage my students is a critical part of what I do each day in my classes. Challenges continue to present themselves, and discovering and utilizing the solutions to these problems takes effort. But I see a strong payoff in continuing to better myself at tackling the complexities of motivating students.
Thank you,
Brendan
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Expect Key Moments in Class
According to Jon Saphier, Mary Ann Haley-Speca, and Robert Gower in The Skillful Teacher, anticipation is an important ingredient to being a successful teacher. We must anticipate when students will need clarification, when there may be lulls in a lesson, and how to best group students for an activity, just to name a few parts of any lesson where it could get derailed if things aren't considered ahead of time.
So, expect the unexpected should be a mantra of mine in the classroom. Yesterday, I didn't foresee one development in my lesson. Fortunately, what took place was a pleasant surprise.
We've begun our final writing unit, an argument of judgment. I'm following the approach presented in Teaching Argument Writing, Grades 6-12: Supporting Claims with Relevant Evidence and Clear Reasoning, by George Hillocks, Jr. He suggests starting the unit by considering a simple argument of judgment, what comprises a good school mascot. So, two days ago, we discussed our school mascot, the Lebanon Raiders, and the examples of unusual, but real school mascots Hillocks, Jr. shows in the book. We discussed what students thought of the mascots, whether or not they liked them and thought they made sense, and why.
Yesterday, picking up where we left off, I had students work together to generate descriptors of what a good mascot should be. By the time students had exhausted their lists, in each class we had over 15 descriptive words and phrases. After presenting students with the concept of criteria, and with the intention of having students write a brief argument of judgment about our school mascot in groups, I then told students we needed to narrow our criteria for a good school mascot down to the top five.
And this is when I was happily caught off guard. Up until this point, students worked dutifully and diligently. But, suddenly, hands shot up all around, some being waved by their owners. And thus began lively discussions of which criteria were most important. Was "courageous" a top five criteria? Did a majority of the students think "intimidating" should be one of the most important standards? How vital was it for the mascot to be "original"? All around the class, students were flexing their brains, reasoning out why they made their choices, listening to what their peers said and respectfully either adding to the other student's position or rebutting it. Class-wide, rudimentary arguments of judgment sent the energy levels through the roof.
These discussions lasted 10 or 12 minutes, and a majority of the students participated in them. By the end of each deliberation, I had the sense that my students' grasp of criteria and an argument of judgment was stronger. I've spent years honing my skills at predicting when there may be problems in a lesson and planning accordingly. What I realized during this lesson is that I should also look ahead for points in lessons that will be strong, and plan to make my students' learning even greater during these moments.
Thank you,
Brendan
So, expect the unexpected should be a mantra of mine in the classroom. Yesterday, I didn't foresee one development in my lesson. Fortunately, what took place was a pleasant surprise.
We've begun our final writing unit, an argument of judgment. I'm following the approach presented in Teaching Argument Writing, Grades 6-12: Supporting Claims with Relevant Evidence and Clear Reasoning, by George Hillocks, Jr. He suggests starting the unit by considering a simple argument of judgment, what comprises a good school mascot. So, two days ago, we discussed our school mascot, the Lebanon Raiders, and the examples of unusual, but real school mascots Hillocks, Jr. shows in the book. We discussed what students thought of the mascots, whether or not they liked them and thought they made sense, and why.
Yesterday, picking up where we left off, I had students work together to generate descriptors of what a good mascot should be. By the time students had exhausted their lists, in each class we had over 15 descriptive words and phrases. After presenting students with the concept of criteria, and with the intention of having students write a brief argument of judgment about our school mascot in groups, I then told students we needed to narrow our criteria for a good school mascot down to the top five.
And this is when I was happily caught off guard. Up until this point, students worked dutifully and diligently. But, suddenly, hands shot up all around, some being waved by their owners. And thus began lively discussions of which criteria were most important. Was "courageous" a top five criteria? Did a majority of the students think "intimidating" should be one of the most important standards? How vital was it for the mascot to be "original"? All around the class, students were flexing their brains, reasoning out why they made their choices, listening to what their peers said and respectfully either adding to the other student's position or rebutting it. Class-wide, rudimentary arguments of judgment sent the energy levels through the roof.
These discussions lasted 10 or 12 minutes, and a majority of the students participated in them. By the end of each deliberation, I had the sense that my students' grasp of criteria and an argument of judgment was stronger. I've spent years honing my skills at predicting when there may be problems in a lesson and planning accordingly. What I realized during this lesson is that I should also look ahead for points in lessons that will be strong, and plan to make my students' learning even greater during these moments.
Thank you,
Brendan
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Modeling Good Social Skills
"Billy, can you please turn around and focus on working with Jim?" "Will you please hold on a second, Susie? I'm in the middle of talking to Mrs. C." "Guys, do you really think it's a good idea to be karate kicking a full water bottle off the table?"
Yes, these are all things I've said to students this year in attempts to manage their behavior and suggest to them that their actions may not be socially fitting for seventh graders. As a teacher, part of my job is to help students learn appropriate social skills.
A coworker recently emailed me a link to the article "Social Skills in the Digital Age: What's Screen Time Got to Do With It?" In this article, Norene Wiesen alerts readers to a concern about too much time spent in front of electronics' screens stunting children's social skills. The article suggests that excessive time devoted to electronics by children prevents them from learning to carry on normal person-to-person interactions.
This idea makes sense--time spent watching television, surfing the web, and playing video games is time spent either without conversation or having artificial conversations. There is no healthy exchange of ideas. There is no reading of physical cues. There is no consensus reached on a disagreement.
But what makes less sense is Wiesen's call to action. In my classes, students spend only a small percentage of their time in front of a screen. This article intimates that the excessive time students spend in front of screens is mostly outside of school. Yet Wiesen calls upon teachers like me to devote instruction to helping students learn healthy screen-time skills in daily life.
This is an unreasonable task to undertake. Most of the days school is in session, I only have my students for 42 minutes. Anyone familiar with the Common Core State Standards knows the depth of learning my students must achieve in English/Language Arts, and that learning takes time. Also, I don't think it's my place to suggest, through lessons, that students' choices for free-time activities at home are inappropriate--that's up to their parents. Finally, even if teachers do instruct students on using electronics in moderation, there's still the matter of instilling in students good social skills.
Having students learn good social skills is the crux of the matter, isn't it? I want to concentrate on teaching my students what to do, not what not to do. Wiesen does touch upon what should be an effective, embedded approach, modeling. On my whiteboard most days is a new quote of the day. These quotes are meant to provoke thought in my students, but many times, they also serve as reminders to me. Two that have made the board, and I don't know the source of either, are "Children have more need of models than of critics," and "Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing." Again, time in class is limited. Wouldn't modeling be the best and most efficient way for me to teach students good social skills?
But what social skills should I model? Here, too, Wiesen brings up an excellent source, Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends & Influence People. This book is filled with principles for how to handle people, get people to like you, bring people around to your way of thinking, and be a good leader--the skills needed to be socially successful. If I take these principles and apply them to my interactions with my students, my students will be witnesses to excellent social skills.
Here are a few examples. Carnegie posits that one of the basic techniques for dealing with others is to "Arouse in the other person an eager want." In other words, he suggests that we find out the other person's desires and then present ways we can help him or her achieve those desires. So, in my class, I can sit down with a student, learn about her goals, and then explain how what she will learn in Language Arts will help her achieve those goals. Another idea Carnegie presents is, to get people to like you, "Talk in terms of the other person's interests." With this in mind, I try to keep mental notes of my students' interests--Steve plays football; Jane plays basketball; George plays the trumpet; Alison is into hunting; Carl has chickens; Erica has a horse; Paul likes The Hunger Games; Rachel likes Harry Potter. Then, when I get the opportunity, I'll spark up a conversation with students related to their preoccupations. Finally, Carnegie opines that to be a good leader, one thing to do is "Ask questions instead of giving direct orders." You saw me do this in the first paragraph of this post.
Stephen Covey writes in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, "Goethe taught, 'Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be, and he will become as he can and should be.'" I have hundreds of interactions with students each day. There is ample opportunity, each day, for me to do my part in encouraging my students' social growth by modeling the principles Dale Carnegie suggests.
Thank you,
Brendan
Yes, these are all things I've said to students this year in attempts to manage their behavior and suggest to them that their actions may not be socially fitting for seventh graders. As a teacher, part of my job is to help students learn appropriate social skills.
A coworker recently emailed me a link to the article "Social Skills in the Digital Age: What's Screen Time Got to Do With It?" In this article, Norene Wiesen alerts readers to a concern about too much time spent in front of electronics' screens stunting children's social skills. The article suggests that excessive time devoted to electronics by children prevents them from learning to carry on normal person-to-person interactions.
This idea makes sense--time spent watching television, surfing the web, and playing video games is time spent either without conversation or having artificial conversations. There is no healthy exchange of ideas. There is no reading of physical cues. There is no consensus reached on a disagreement.
But what makes less sense is Wiesen's call to action. In my classes, students spend only a small percentage of their time in front of a screen. This article intimates that the excessive time students spend in front of screens is mostly outside of school. Yet Wiesen calls upon teachers like me to devote instruction to helping students learn healthy screen-time skills in daily life.
This is an unreasonable task to undertake. Most of the days school is in session, I only have my students for 42 minutes. Anyone familiar with the Common Core State Standards knows the depth of learning my students must achieve in English/Language Arts, and that learning takes time. Also, I don't think it's my place to suggest, through lessons, that students' choices for free-time activities at home are inappropriate--that's up to their parents. Finally, even if teachers do instruct students on using electronics in moderation, there's still the matter of instilling in students good social skills.
Having students learn good social skills is the crux of the matter, isn't it? I want to concentrate on teaching my students what to do, not what not to do. Wiesen does touch upon what should be an effective, embedded approach, modeling. On my whiteboard most days is a new quote of the day. These quotes are meant to provoke thought in my students, but many times, they also serve as reminders to me. Two that have made the board, and I don't know the source of either, are "Children have more need of models than of critics," and "Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing." Again, time in class is limited. Wouldn't modeling be the best and most efficient way for me to teach students good social skills?
But what social skills should I model? Here, too, Wiesen brings up an excellent source, Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends & Influence People. This book is filled with principles for how to handle people, get people to like you, bring people around to your way of thinking, and be a good leader--the skills needed to be socially successful. If I take these principles and apply them to my interactions with my students, my students will be witnesses to excellent social skills.
Here are a few examples. Carnegie posits that one of the basic techniques for dealing with others is to "Arouse in the other person an eager want." In other words, he suggests that we find out the other person's desires and then present ways we can help him or her achieve those desires. So, in my class, I can sit down with a student, learn about her goals, and then explain how what she will learn in Language Arts will help her achieve those goals. Another idea Carnegie presents is, to get people to like you, "Talk in terms of the other person's interests." With this in mind, I try to keep mental notes of my students' interests--Steve plays football; Jane plays basketball; George plays the trumpet; Alison is into hunting; Carl has chickens; Erica has a horse; Paul likes The Hunger Games; Rachel likes Harry Potter. Then, when I get the opportunity, I'll spark up a conversation with students related to their preoccupations. Finally, Carnegie opines that to be a good leader, one thing to do is "Ask questions instead of giving direct orders." You saw me do this in the first paragraph of this post.
Stephen Covey writes in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, "Goethe taught, 'Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be, and he will become as he can and should be.'" I have hundreds of interactions with students each day. There is ample opportunity, each day, for me to do my part in encouraging my students' social growth by modeling the principles Dale Carnegie suggests.
Thank you,
Brendan
Friday, May 16, 2014
My Purposes
Two definitions of "reflection" in the on-line Merriam-Webster thesaurus are "a briefly expressed opinion" and "a careful weighing of the reasons for or against something." Education continues to be a broad topic of discourse and examination. In today's editions of my two local newspapers, there were eight articles related to education, and that's not counting the sports pages' coverage of local schools' athletics.
As my sixteenth year of being on the "front lines" of education draws to a close, I'm ready to join the discussion. Every day, an insight strikes. Every day, a challenge arises. Every day, an issue puzzles. One of my intentions here is to address the complexities of teaching I face. Some subjects may be applicable to others' situations, and some may be specific to my current experience.
Rosa Parks said, "Stand for something, or you will fall for anything. Today's might oak is yesterday's nut that held its ground." Reflections from the School is where I'll stand and wave my flag. Readers may not agree with everything I say, and I'll welcome differing insights. For it's through openly engaging in reasonable arguments that we can all grow.
Adding one more voice to the multitude may seem useless. But I hope otherwise. I recently explained to my students that most new ideas are simply expansions or twists upon, or syntheses of, older ideas. If, through this blog, I or someone else is elevated to a new level of thinking that improves education, then I'll count it a success.
Thank you,
Brendan
As my sixteenth year of being on the "front lines" of education draws to a close, I'm ready to join the discussion. Every day, an insight strikes. Every day, a challenge arises. Every day, an issue puzzles. One of my intentions here is to address the complexities of teaching I face. Some subjects may be applicable to others' situations, and some may be specific to my current experience.
Rosa Parks said, "Stand for something, or you will fall for anything. Today's might oak is yesterday's nut that held its ground." Reflections from the School is where I'll stand and wave my flag. Readers may not agree with everything I say, and I'll welcome differing insights. For it's through openly engaging in reasonable arguments that we can all grow.
Adding one more voice to the multitude may seem useless. But I hope otherwise. I recently explained to my students that most new ideas are simply expansions or twists upon, or syntheses of, older ideas. If, through this blog, I or someone else is elevated to a new level of thinking that improves education, then I'll count it a success.
Thank you,
Brendan
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