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| Image from Delivering Happiness |
So much of the work that we do has to do with motivating students. I recently read a great (and short) article on motivation by Carol Ann Tomlinson HERE. According to this article, there's no quick fix to solving a motivation issue, but there are 3 areas that you can consider for a student with motivation issues.
Here's a short synopsis of the article:
In this Educational Leadership column, Carol Ann Tomlinson (University of Virginia) says that when a student is unmotivated, something is amiss. “Either we can’t see what motivates the student in question,” she says, “or the student’s life is dangerously off course. In either case, ‘unmotivated’ behavior should register to educators as a call for help.” Teachers are crucial to motivation, and they should tune in to students’ unspoken questions in three concentric circles of their school lives to help build self-motivation:
• The personal sphere – Does the teacher see me? students wonder. How does the teacher see me? “Some students feel invisible in their classrooms,” says Tomlinson. “Some feel judged and found wanting.” Good teachers combat low expectations and provide all students with visible support and an appropriate amount of voice and autonomy.
• The social sphere – Do I belong here? students wonder. Am I valued? Do I have something meaningful to contribute? Good teachers help connect isolated students to peers and they model and insist on mutual respect.
• The academic sphere – Is this stuff worth my time? students ask. Can I do what’s being asked of me? Good teachers build wonder, imagination, and curiosity into lessons, link the curriculum to students’ lives, challenge students to work beyond their current level, and support all students to listen, ask, find out, reason, disagree, self-correct, and start over.
“Releasing the Will to Learn” by Carol Ann Tomlinson in Educational Leadership, September 2014 (Vol. 72, #1, p. 86-87), http://bit.ly/1rrSwEO; Tomlinson is atcat3y@virginia.edu.
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