It's this time of year when I start noticing a glazed over look in my students eyes. I start seeing more shoulder shrugs, hearing more sighs, and listen to students tell their friends "I don't care." They've been working hard since August and after seven months of challenging material I am starting to lose them. For my students who try their hardest each and every day but still struggle with the subject matter, their defenses are starting to go up. That 'if I don't care then it won 't matter' attitude is starting to set in. I also have students who find every classroom task easy to accomplish and now they have started to make careless mistakes. All of my students seem to have one thing in mind, "When's vacation?" Because they, just like the rest of us, need a break.
So, how can we make our students care? You're probably going to notice that most of my suggestions center around the teacher increasing their own motivation. Whenever I start thinking about my students' work ethic and attitude, I always have to think about my own first.It's hard to keep students motivated when you reach a point where you can't motivate yourself. Since that realization (and many others) this is what I have found to work for my third graders.
Small Changes
Let's start with the simple stuff. It is hard for anyone to walk into the same room every day, do the same routine every day, and still be excited about it. I don't like to change my students' routine, I think we would all agree that is dangerous territory. But the classroom appearance? This is where we have to stay motivated enough to keep our rooms inviting for students. I use flexible seating with my students so adding a different seating option can really go a long way. Changing up the seating arrangement, decorating for holidays, or even putting up pictures of characters from your read aloud stories can really make a difference. They may seem like no-brainers, but they are small changes you can make to give students a refreshed view of your classroom. .
Revamp What Works
You know that awesome behavior chart you put up in the beginning of the year? Or the Class Dojo account you so diligently used but have since backed away from for some inexplicable reason? Guess what? It still works! It just might be in need of a face lift. One that gets the students motivated.
I think we all feel as teachers that at this point in the year students should understand the rules and expectations and follow them a lot more easily. We start to trust that they will so we back off from our own classroom management, and at the same time they start to slip. Coincidence?
In my classroom I use a combination of Class Dojo and Whole Brain Teaching's Super Improver Wall. If you haven't looked into the Super Improver Wall, I highly recommend it. You can check out their website with an explanation here. You can also pick up some freebies I made here and here.
Whatever you are using, make sure you update it regularly. I don't do tangible rewards, I threw out my treasure chest a few years ago and never looked back. My students use their Class Dojo points every week for in class rewards like being the line leader or first choice seating, and those points can transfer into Super Improver stars which unlock other non-tangible rewards like a few minutes of free time on computers at the end of lab every day.
But how does this increase their motivation? Let me be clear, nothing will work if you're not willing to put in the work. Student motivation might be down, but teacher motivation tends to coincide. When you're already starting to feel the stress, don't make it super complicated. Use what you already have, and update it regularly.
I swear by Class Dojo, I love the ease of connecting with parents and other teachers and I love how flexible it is. I can make any positive or negative deduction category I want. I have the usual behavior points, but I also have "Word Detective" for anyone who can find me a spelling or vocabulary word in their reading, and "Using vocabulary" for using newly learned words correctly when speaking or writing. But it is not enough to just have them there, I absolutely have to be using them. The more I use them, the more the students try to earn them.
Whatever you use in your classroom make sure you are making rewards not only on behavior, but also for academics. Keep it interesting and fresh, and try to add in something new every few weeks.
Teacher-Student Conferences
Every professional development I have been to recently lays out the benefits of conferencing with the students about their progress and goals. But there is always that voice in the back of my mind saying, who has the time? The sad truth is you don't always have the time to go over things with every student one on one as often as you'd like. On the other hand, you don't need to do this with every student every day. I try to see at least two students one on one a day to talk about something. It doesn't even need to be an official conference where I have their binder open. Sometimes it is just me on the playground talking to a student who's been falling asleep in class or failed their last reading test. We need to talk about what is going on so we can make a plan to get them on the right track. When my students tell me they don't care, I always tell them that I care. Even when I'm incredibly frustrated with their attitude, because that is probably when it is the most important time to say it.
Conferencing with your students helps them understand the progress they are making in class. More importantly, it helps them see that you care about the direction they are headed and that you've got a plan to get them there.
Make Learning Meaningful
This one can be very tricky. No matter how hard I try, I just can't find a way to make every standard meaningful for every student. Sometimes you've just got to figure out what is driving them. This is when I ask the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" It seems like nearly every job requires a degree, so the conversation usually segues pretty easily into preparing for college. Where I teach, college is not something every student sees in their future. I start with students talking about it, then I give them a career interest/aptitude survey I created. This gives them an idea of careers they would be interested in and, depending on the interest level, I will let students research some of their possible career choices. Just having these conversations can help students dream bigger and want to work harder to achieve those goals. If this sounds like it would work for your class, you can pick it up here.
Cooperative Learning
This one's my favorite. It's also most of my students' favorite. I have mentioned Whole Brain Teaching in this post already, but I would also like to talk a little about Kagan. If you haven't been to a conference for either of these, at least look it up on YouTube. Cooperative Learning puts the learning in the students' hands. It gives your students multiple opportunities to discuss and clarify their thinking; you are simply the facilitator for their learning, and that is a really cool feeling.
A few summers ago I went to the Kagan conference in Orlando and the speaker said,"What do kids want to do? Talk and move. What do we always tell them? Sit down and be quiet." Both Kagan and Whole Brain Teaching give students time to talk and move. All. Day. Long. My students can now discuss informational text just as easily as they would talk about their weekend plans. And it is all thanks to cooperative learning.
The problem is that at this point in the year I find myself reverting back to a standard lecture and asking one or two students for the answer approach. You've got to keep yourself motivated too! Teach a new learning structure to get your students, and yourself, amped up about learning again!
What do you do to keep your students motivated? I would love to know!
