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Motivation

The maker and the breaker of an


education
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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

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