The age old question for many teachers is "what motivates our students?"
Sometimes kids are motivated by food, bonus points, or other incentives. Sometimes students are motivated by their parents or standards that they have set for themselves. And sometimes kids just simply aren't really motivated.
Such is the case in my Advanced Algebra/Trig class. The class is comprised of only seniors, and seniors who aren't very good at math. However, they do need this class to graduate.
One would think this would be motivation enough, alas it doesn't seem to be so. I believe that we're still early enough in the semester that the kids are looking for short-term satisfaction (with not studying, not doing their homework, etc.) instead of using their foresight to see that they need to build a solid grade in order to pass this class.
Today we realized that many of the seniors thought they wouldn't have to take the EOC for this exam as long as they missed less than 2 of these classes. However, I believe this only applies for the spring semester. Because of this confusion, I think many of the seniors had been banking on not having to take the final. I also think that, subconsciously, a lot of the kids feel that since this is only the fall semester they have the cushion of the spring, if they so need it.
I've also talked to a few of the kids and they have all claimed that they are really good at "pulling their grade up right at the end of the semester." Being a student myself I know that that should only be used as a last-resort strategy, not a first-string plan of attack.
So how do we motivate these students NOW?
The first exam seemed to be a wake-up call for some of these students. Many realized that what they were doing wasn't quite cutting it. They made comments in class about being upset with how they scored and yet it seems as if very few have come in for test corrections. We are at the end of the first interim period and most teachers have started calling home. I think once my teacher starts contacting the parent we should see a turn around in a few of the students' behaviors.
Even still, because of the compositon of the class, the class is merely only striving to pass the class as opposed to getting an A.
I believe that next semester will have a bit of a different feel given that it'll be the spring. Most seniors will already be burnt out and only dream of what's to come in a few short months. However, I think that graduation will seem like much more of a tangible thing and that will motivate them to try a bit harder from the get-go.
I guess I'm not really sure what I can do personally in order to motivate the kids. I try and be as encouraging as possible to students so that they don't get frustrated and beat down. I'm not sure if that's motivating or rather just keeping them from being unmotivated.
Any thoughts, insights, suggestions, etc. would be much appreciated!
It was amazing how much missing homework got turned in and how many students started coming into class early for extra help after we sent letters home to parents of the students who had either a D or F. You could tell that their parents definitely "encouraged" them to raise their grades.
ReplyDeleteYou made some great points and I agree with Hillary I think wants parents find out things will start happening.
ReplyDeleteMy students also are procrastinators in bringing up their grades. A call home or a letter usually does the trick. There are going to be those students that just want the C to pass. I know in college I did the same thing in some classes. I guess we can't get “bogged down” by every student not wanting to make an A or B.
ReplyDeleteI think that sending a letter home/ email to the parent could be very effective, especially when you are trying to motivate the students to do their best. But I struggle with the fact that they are seniors and if you are preparing (hopefully most of) them for college, they need to find the motivation on their own. We am dealing with a similar problem right now in our class, except they are 10th grades and we want to encourage ways to be successful in our class, the rest of high school and then in college.
ReplyDeleteMotivation is a very hard thing. I remember being in high school, and I was not very motivated. Usually when there was a game or competition, I worked hard.
ReplyDeleteI do remember my early on in my first year of teaching and how I couldn't understand why/how students were not motivated by grades. I could see this happening, but had a hard time relating, given my own experience.
ReplyDeleteSuddenly motivation became more about what could be done with my classroom because long term goals did not seem to motivate students in the short term.
Keeping parents informed - as all of you mentioned, thinking about the activity you have in mind (strive for some variety), and building positive relationships...can all make a difference in terms of motivation, depending on individual students.