ideas to improve student motivation

Students, even the best ones, can become frustrated and demotivated when they feel like they re struggling or not getting the recognition that other students are. Make sure that all students get a chance to play to their strengths and feel included and valued. It can make a world of difference in their motivation.

Recognize work in class, display good work in the classroom and send positive notes home to parents, hold weekly awards in your classroom, organize academic pep rallies to honor the honor roll, and even sponsor a Teacher Shoutout section in the student newspaper to acknowledge student s hard work.

Set high, yet realistic expectations. Make sure to voice those expectations. Set short terms goals and celebrate when they are achieved.

Show your enthusiasm in the subject and use appropriate, concrete and understandable examples to help students grasp it. For example, I love alliteration. Before I explain the concept to students, we improvsubjects they re interested in. After learning about alliteration, they brainstorm alliterative titles for their chosen subjects.

It s a classic concept and the basis for differentiated instruction, but it needs to be said: using a variety of teaching methods caters to all types of learners. By doing this in an orderly way, you can also maintain order in your classroom. In a generic example for daily instruction, journal for 10 minutes to open class introduce the concept for 15 minutes discuss/group work for 15 minutes Q&A or guided work time to finish the class. This way, students know what to expect everyday and have less opportunity to act up.

With students, create a list of jobs for the week. Using the criteria of your choosing, let students earn the opportunity to pick their classroom jobs for the next week. These jobs can cater to their interests and skills.

If students take ownership of what you do in class, then they have less room to complain (though we all know, it ll never stop completely). Take an audit of your class, asking what they enjoy doing, what helps them learn, what they re excited about after class. Multiple choice might be the best way to start if you predict a lot of nothingor watch moviesanswers.
After reviewing the answers, integrate their ideas into your lessons or guide a brainstorm session on how these ideas could translate into class.
On a systematic level, let students choose from elective classes in a collegiate format. Again, they can tap into their passion and relate to their subject matter if they have a choice.

You can also translate this student empowerment into an incentive program. Students who attended class all week, completed all assignments and obeyed all classroom rules can vote on Friday s activities (lecture, discussion, watching a video, class jeopardy, acting out a scene from a play or history).

Whether it is budgeting for family Christmas gifts, choosing short stories about your town, tying in the war of 1812 with Iraq, rapping about ions, or using Pop Culture Printables, students will care more if they identify themselves or their everyday lives in what they re learning.

In those difficult classes, it can feel like a never ending uphill battle, so try to remind students that they ve come a long way. Set achievable, short term goals, emphasis improvement, keep self evaluation forms to fill out and compare throughout the year, or revisit mastered concepts that they once struggled with to refresh their confidence.