Motivation and prior knowledge are key aspects in creating successful learners. We need motivation to do almost anything. I need motivation to get out of bed in the morning when I am exhausted. Motivating students is an essential part of engaging students in the learning process. Teachers should get to know their students as individuals and find their interests. Once a teacher truly knows their students they are able to easily motivate them by linking the lesson to the students interest. This is especially important for ELL learners. They need to feel included in order to further develop their language skills. I personally am not interested in a topic if it is presented to me in a boring way and I don't know a stitch of information about it or what it relates to. So, why should we expect students to be willing to learn if we never motivate them and capture their interests? Students should be excited about learning they shouldn't have to dread coming to school every day. A classroom of students represents a range in motivation levels. Some students have unfortunate past experiences in specific content areas that henders thier motivation in any content area. It is very important for a teacher to recognize this issue in students and make a point to find a way to interest and motivate the student. Helping the student to build new experiences that are positive will aid in building their motivation level in content areas.
Activating prior knowledge is a very important part of learning. Students are intimidated by unfamiliar topics that seem dull and difficult. A teacher should always activate students prior knowledge when beginning a lesson in order to create a sense of familiarity about the topic. When students can link something they know to something new they develop a much deeper level of understanding. They are able to think critically and find similarities and differences among topics. Sometimes students may have a very limited amount of prior knowledge of certain topics. In this case teachers should present information in very small amounts. Which makes sense to me. If I am learning about a topic that is foreign to me and seems way over my head I have to break it down piece by piece. The idea is to start out small and concrete and build to broader more abstract ideas. Some strategies teachers can use as a way to activate students prior knowledge include: anticipation guides, K-W-L, and PReP.
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Hi, Sara. I really enjoyed this post. I especially like how you related how the students are feeling to how you feel. I think it's important that we always remember the things we hated about school and use that as teachers.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious as to whether you have any suggestions for motivating the child that seems to have no interests. Or the child that has interests, but still doesn't seem to care. These are the students that I fear the most.
Hey, Sara. I really agree with what you said on motivation, but I'm with Lisa on ways you will reach those students who don't seem to care. Those strategies you named was great strategies, but how would you specifically use them?
ReplyDeleteI too am fearful of students that don't seem to have an interest in learning. I think the best thing to do as a teacher is to first get to know the student. In doing this you can find the source of the students lack of interest. Maybe they have had a bad experience in the past in a particular content area that has caused them to shut down. Some students as you suggested have several interests but just don’t care to learn. For these students I think it is important to motivate them by tying their interests into content areas. For example, if a student enjoys playing soccer the teacher could include soccer in a math lesson. Also it may be helpful to find a content area that the student enjoys and link that content to other content areas. I think there will always be students that the teacher struggles to reach. All you can do in these cases is find creative ways to reach the students.
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