Motivating Students

Motivating Students... Maybe this is too simplistic, but this is my philosophy...

We ALL are motivated by something.  We graduated from high school to get a diploma to go to college to get a job to feel a sense of accomplishment and earn a pay check...  Without a diploma, degree, sense of accomplishment or pay check, most of us would have changed paths and gone a new direction.  In fact, some of us did. 

To truly motivate students, we must know what THEY want ... short term... AND...long term goals.  In many cases, we must help them set these goals by helping them to see their potential and the impact that current decisions make on future possibilities.

I once asked a first grader, whose teacher was beyond frustrated, what he would like to work toward... His teacher had been offering matchbox cars and candy, but he was never able to earn either.  He said to me very matter of fact, "I'd like to sit in the teacher chair and eat lunch with the teacher".  The teacher said if he'd stay on task and display appropriate behavior that she would gladly allow him to sit in her chair.  (She was not willing to offer a lunch date just yet. ) When I went back to visit, she reported that there had ben a big improvement in motivation and behavior and that she simply had to remind him of the expectations to remain in her chair.  She even reported that she had added the option of eating lunch with her on Fridays as his BIG reward.  Now, this is a simple example of an immediate reward to RESHAPE behavior. 

Motivating children to read is a little more complicated but certainly related.  When we are asked to do something that is hard,  we are more willing to persevere when we have a motivator helping us through the tough times.  The important thing to remember is that we are not all motivated by candy or matchbox cars.  Some of us simply are motivated by time and attention... We must KNOW our students to know what motivates them to work through the hard times.  I seriously doubt most of us would continue to teach in these very challenging times without the motivator of a paycheck, confirmation through our progress monitoring, individual stories of success, etc.  We are all motivating to "keep on keeping on" by some extrinsic or intrinsic motivator.  The challenge is knowing the specific motivators for our children.

SIDE NOTE: Rewards and Bribes are DIFFERENT... Bribery is the inducement to do something that is WRONG... A reward simply encourages good decisions and  appropriate behaviors.