Motivation
is defined in our textbook as “initiating and sustaining a particular activity”
and “the tendency to return to and continue working on a task with sustained
engagement.” In my own opinion I believe
motivation is one of the most important factors in fostering children’s
learning. Without motivation a child
sees no reason to learn what we are teaching.
Thinking about it I could even relate this to college, I do not need
motivation from professors like a child needs, but I use self-motivation to
complete tasks. I admit that it is
harder for me to motivate myself if I see no benefits in an assignment, so we
can’t expect children who have not yet built that self-motivation to
successfully complete a task. Our book
shares two types of motivation, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation being the domain where
children engage in activities to get to the end result that could be rewards
such as stickers. While intrinsic
motivation is the desire to engage in behaviors for enjoyment, challenge,
pleasure, or interest. It should be our
goal as teachers to emphasize intrinsic motivation to our students because
there will not always be those material or extrinsic rewards in their
lives.
Our book
shares many ways to promote motivation in children when it comes to reading and
writing all of which are very important, but one way that stood out to me was
Choice. Providing children with choice
when it comes to reading and writing can make all the difference. Even as a 20 year old having a choice in literacy
gives me more motivation, if I am given a topic to read or write about that I
really have no interest in then my motivation level goes way down. I think we should try to provide our students
options in literacy activities in order to spark more intrinsic
motivation. Another way to promote
motivation that stood out to me was Relevance.
It is so important that we should teach lessons in literacy that can
applied outside of the classroom because if material is not relevant then
children’s motivation levels go down.
This applies to even students in college as well, our motivation levels
decrease when given irrelevant assignments.
To me, choice and relevance both make large difference when it comes to
student motivation, but I do find the other promotions in the book to be very
important as well.
Motivating
students can also be things maybe not incorporated into lessons, it could be
something as simple as providing a literacy rich environment. I really like on pages 323-325 where it
states features of Well-Designed Literacy Centers and has suggestions for furniture
and manipulative items such as puppets so children can act out a story that
they are reading. In this literacy rich
environment I like that the author suggests having a variety of books. Providing children with books that fulfill
their interest could give them intrinsic motivation to read! I know that I used
to (and still do) love stories about animals, specifically dogs and cats, so my
teacher would provide me with picture books about animals whether it was from
our own classroom library or the school library. This is what got me to enjoy reading at an
early age. I would really want to know
what would happen to Clifford next so I would continue through the series of
books, then as I got in upper elementary it was all about Junie B. Jones I had
to know what crazy thing she would do next so I kept reading.
As teachers
I also believe we really should model what it looks like to be excited about
literacy because if we do not seem motivated then our students are not going to
be motivated to read and write. I would share with my class that I read last
night before bed and ask if anyone else read or got read to, small things like
that. I love that our book talks about creative storytelling techniques, any
time I have seen classes act out a story, use a felt board, or just use props
to tell a story the children had so much fun and they have learned from
it. I would really like to use these
techniques I have shared in my classroom to motivate my students in literacy
and get them to that place of intrinsic motivation. What sort of techniques do you want to use in
your classroom and do your past experiences have anything to do with them like
mine?
Intrinsic motivation is key! Not only will students not always have extrinsic motivation, but extrinsic motivation only does so much. If you believe what you are doing is meaningful you will be more engaged in whatever it is that you are doing. As I commented in another post, choice is something I really believe helps motivation. Students need to feel empowered with their education, and making choices is a very important life skill. I also like what you said about fulfilling students interest with literature choices. Today I read a Superman book with the student I tutor in 430. It was the most engaged I have ever seen him during a comprehension activity. He not only comprehended the text better, but he was excited to talk about the book. I always try to talk about interests with him and cater to them because he is still discovering his interests, and the more he discovers the more he can explore in those subject areas using literature.
ReplyDeleteHi Sara! I totally agree with your belief on motivation! I think that it is so important to set goals for the students and give them an extra boost to accomplish more! I think that it’s very important to grasp an understanding on intrinsic and extrinsic and the best ways for them to be incorporated into the classroom. This chapter has made me realize that I would use intrinsic motivation for more short-term goals such as completing a homework assignment and receiving a gold star. I found that I’d use extrinsic motivation for more long-term goals and make sure that they are longer lasting and incorporate challenge into the situation. Another technique that I want to use the Library Corner in my classroom because of the way that it expands the knowledge of the children and lets them pick out different varieties. I remember in Elementary school, my teacher had a variety of books and it made our silent reading time even more exciting to know that we had the privilege of picking out the book ourselves. I think it’s important to remember experiences like that and to keep tactics that were discussed in the book because they help to make the literacy development become even stronger.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post!! Motivation truly is key to getting children excited about literacy and all the subjects in general. I remember not really being motivated to read in elementary school. We did AR but I was always behind a reading level and so I hated taking the AR tests. I had ONE teacher who told me that no matter what people think I can do, do more. I have always kept that quote in the back of my mind. It is something small but it keeps me motivated to work hard. I want my future students to be motivated readers. In order to accomplish this, I want to provide as many opportunities, books, stations, creative outlooks, etc. I hope that as we continue to grow as individuals and as preservice teachers, we keep in mind what you said: if we do not seem motivated then our students are not going to be motivated to read and write.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Sara! Motivation is a powerful thing that teachers need to be more educated on when trying to implement it into lesson plans. Students must be motivated in order to want to learn more. In elementary, I loved reading. We did have AR points, which was a great encouragement, However, I believe children can get too wrapped up in the rewards, and miss the true meaning of AR points, which is develop a stronger desire to read, not just for the points.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you that intrinsic motivation is the best motivation and that it is something that most people seem to struggle with their entire lives. Like Cooper I found that by giving the student I tutor in EDRD 430 a choice in reading material he was more engaged with the reading and the following lesson. I brought several comic books that he could choose from and ultimately we read Spiderman. He was super excited and asked where he could find more comics to read. This was a student who has told me multiple times how much he hates reading! I like that you brought up sharing that you read the night before and modeling how much you enjoy reading. I have never thought about doing this and I really like it. I read all of the time and hope to instill a love of reading to all of my students and I think this could be a way to start that. I have found that allowing students to perform a readers theater or any performance type of reading really motivates the students to read and to read as fluently as possible.
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