MOTIVATION and ENGAGEMENT
CONTENTS
About motivation, and…….
A motivation teacher checklist – then examples of motivation
and engagement strategies, starting with
1.
The story of the cottonwood
star
2.
Picasso
in a bag
3.
Everyone
has a story to tell
4.
Filtering
your thoughts
5.
Reading
The New York Times
6.
Building
a marble run. 6a. Building a bridge. 6b. Building a tower.
7.
What
to do with blank index cards
8.
Make
the world’s smallest boomerang.
9.
What
to do with picture cards
10.
Sharing
time: What’s in the Treasure Chest?
11.
What’s
in the tin?
12.
Collecting
wishbones
13.
The
wishing rock
14.
Capture
the moment – forever.
15.
The
sea star story
16.
Inspiring
teachers
17. The paper crane ritual
About Motivation
Motivation is critical for learning, Learning does not take place without a motivational event (Girmus, 2008).
Motivation has been divided by education researchers into two components, intrinsic and extrinsic.
·
Intrinsic
motivation represents the inner drive or passion students have to excel in
class.
· Extrinsic motivation represents the drive to achieve rewards, such as colored stickers or candy. There’s a consensus that both play a motivational role in classroom settings.
This booklet concentrates on intrinsic motivation and
describes a variety of strategies (aka protocols) that I use to engage students in the processes
of learning.
‘Every
classroom, like every community, has its own distinct culture, values and
rules. By building a community in the classroom, teachers create a common and
predictable cultural experience that helps students feel connected to others. A
community is a place where individuals share common values, goals and
activities. In communities, everyone does not do the same thing at the same
time, but groups work together to achieve common goals. A community is a place
where social bonds are established and individuals can flourish.‘
(Bredekamp
and Rosegrant, 1992)
First, a Motivation
Checklist
(After Girmus, 2008, adapted 2010)
The classroom environment
Check
|
Focus
|
Description
|
Books and other resources for
learning
|
Are the classroom books and
resources well displayed and accessible?
Is there is a wide range of
topics and levels of difficulty?
|
|
Environment
|
Is student work prominently
displayed?
Do bulletin boards feature the current
lesson focus?
|
|
Classroom furniture
|
Are the tables and chairs well
placed for student collaboration, allowing easy access to all resources?
|
The classroom’s atmosphere
Check
|
Focus
|
Description
|
Positive atmosphere
|
Are the students welcomed at the
door?
Is the atmosphere warm and respectful?
|
|
Conveys expectations
|
Does the teacher enjoy being with
students and want them to succeed?
Does the teacher expect students
to learn, achieve and work well with each other?
Do the students know the classroom
expectations – and those for behavior?
|
|
Conveys effort and participation
|
Does the teacher emphasize the
importance of student effort and
participation?
|
|
Conveys collaboration and support
|
Does the teacher emphasize the
importance of working with and for each other?
|
|
Conveys encouragement
|
Does the teacher provide consistent
encouragement for good behaviors, learning successes and classroom
helpfulness?
Does s/he provide immediate and
constructive feedback?
|
|
Encourages risk-taking
|
As making mistakes is part of
learning, does the teacher encourage students to take chances?
|
|
Encourages persistence and
independence
|
Does the teacher discuss the
importance of persistence in accomplishing learning goals?
|
|
Models interest and enthusiasm
|
Does the teacher share genuine
interest in
learning and academic matter?
|
|
Student choice
|
Are there opportunities for
student choice in learning?
|
Instruction
The teacher…….
Check
|
Focus
|
Description
|
Attention to school work
|
Communicates its importance.
Checks and corrects all schoolwork.
|
|
Encouragement of student
understanding and reflection
|
Monitors student understanding.
Encourages self-correcting.
|
|
Clear directions, goals and
objectives
|
Gives clear directions and sets realistic
goals and objectives. Communicates the value of learning.
|
|
Concrete activities
|
Uses hands-on activities,
encourages students to create and explore.
|
|
Connections
|
Relates lessons to other lessons
and the real world.
|
|
Collaborative learning
|
Uses collaborative learning
strategies.
|
|
Critical thinking
|
Helps students to develop
critical-thinking skills by modeling and explaining.
|
|
Curiosity and suspense
|
Stimulates curiosity and builds
suspense by using authentic engagement strategies
|
|
Games
|
Uses games/playful activities
|
|
Home-school connection
|
Communicates with families and
integrates them into the learning experience when possible.
|
|
Lesson Planning
|
Is well planned and organized.
Uses manipulatives/artifacts to teach lesson concepts. Scaffolds/models to
assist struggling students.
|
|
Stimulates cognitive and creative
thought
|
Provides lessons that promote
higher-level thinking - encourages
students to be creative.
|
|
Value of education emphasized
|
Communicates the value of
learning and how it can impact the quality of one’s life
|
Classroom management
The teacher……
Check
|
Focus
|
Description
|
Appropriate pacing
|
Monitors the pace of lessons for
students with differing abilities.
|
|
Classroom adult helpers
|
Has parents and other adult
helpers to assist all students
|
|
Classroom rules
|
Has clear and negotiated classroom
rules posted for all to see.
|
|
Explains decisions
|
Discusses reasons behind
activities, rules, procedures and routines.
|
|
Intrinsic motivators
|
Has a range of strategies to
introduce the day, the lesson, the activity.
|
|
Group work rules
|
Has students working in groups,
have assigned roles.
|
|
Positive management strategies
|
Uses positive, constructive and
consistent management strategies.
Consequences are appropriate.
Devises rules, procedures,
policies and routines that provide smooth transitions between
activities/lessons.
|
|
Self-regulation
|
Provides mechanisms for students
to monitor their own learning and transition independently between
activities/lessons.
|
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Engagement
PROTOCOLS
that motivate,
engage and
build
community
John Paull (johnpaull2011@gmail.com)
Learning is social.
We inevitably learn through and with others, even though what
is finally understood is our own mental construction (Bransford, Brown &
Cocking, 1999).
Cooperative Learning…..………
transforms
the classroom from a collection of individuals to a network of groups. That
alone alters the social structure of the classroom from one of being an
audience (collection of students) focused for long periods of time on the performer
(the teacher), to a social system comprised of interacting groups. (Shlomo Sharan)
ABOUT PROTOCOLS
I’m
privileged. For over 14 years I regularly visited 40 classrooms in 14 schools
and worked with over 400 aspiring teachers and master teachers. I saw how they
built involved and motivated communities of learners through a range of authentic
and engaging activities and rituals while teaching a content-based
curriculum. I saw how they valued students’ interests and passions, and I saw
how the teachers created a classroom ethos that encouraged students to work
collaboratively.
These
teachers:
· Know that it’s important to
capture student interest and involvement by beginning a teaching session with
an engaging story or activity that models the key point of the ensuing lesson.
· Know that students ask
questions about stories, artifacts ,and activities that interest them.
· Know authentic discussion and
inquiry are fun and enjoyable; and it matches what we know of how students
learn
· Know that most students have
a need to chatter about what they see – as talking, it seems, aids their
understanding.
.
· Know that such interactions
encourage students to collaborate with each other, AND have a settling, brain-break
effect.
· Know that an atmosphere of
learning may be achieved by encouraging students to bring things into the
classroom and talking about them during meeting time.
· Know that once students are
involved practically, group/class discussion will usually raise new and
interesting problems, so that one inquiry leads to another, and the work
continually develops.
· Know that when students use
their own efforts to discover for themselves, the flash of insight seems
to give them special satisfaction, which affects their attitude towards other activities.
· Know that writing is a
process better understood by students if there’s a real point to it.
· And, they know that
displaying students’ pictures and words around the classroom completes the
record of ‘work’ done and acts as a reference, a resource, and a stimulus for
others.
When
I teach, I often start with an authentic story that links with the day’s/lesson’s
goals – invariably, experiences I have away from school, at home, in my garden,
on a morning walk. I also have something
in my pocket or in a tin to show my students (for example, a rock that I have
found). I show it and I talk about it – where and when I found it.
This
and other strategies help my students unwind and feel comfortable - and help me
engage and build my community of learners. I also use them as frequent ‘brain-breaks’
and to:
· create group activities
that involve everyone;
· ease transition from one
activity to another; and to
· focus attention on the
seminar/lesson/session ahead.
This
booklet describes some of these strategies.
Some
strategies are specific to the start of the day or to various parts of a
presentation or lesson; some provide a focus for group activity, or to
celebrate and close our time and our work together.
You
may find them helpful in your teaching.
I certainly hope so. Please feel free to adapt and adopt. JP
1. COTTONWOOD
STARS
During weekend walks, I
collect the twigs that have fallen from the cottonwood trees. I break them at
the growth scar. If I’m REALLY lucky, I find a beautiful star inside the twig.
I then collect as many as I can and bind them in threes and give them to my
students, telling them the Native American legend that all stars in the sky
come from the earth below our feet.
The
first time I met a class of pre K-8 students or teachers or university
students, I used the cottonwood star protocol to celebrate each learner. I told
them how I was looking forward to everyone shining like a star!!
The Secret of the Star…..
Some Native Americans believe all things come from
Mother Earth. They believe that stars form in the earth and search for the
roots of the magical cottonwood trees.
They finally come to rest in the small twigs at the end of the cottonwood
branches. Here, they wait.................until they are needed. When the
Spirit of the Night Sky decides that she needs more twinkling, beautiful stars,
she calls on the Wind Spirit to shake all the cottonwood trees.
The Wind Spirit blows and blows, and as the cottonwood
twigs break off, the twinkling stars are released and race up to a special
place in the Night Sky.
If YOU want
to add a new star to the night sky, find some secret cottonwood twigs, wait for
a clear night, and hold up your twigs to the sky - and SNAP!
Then, look up into the night sky again.
Can you see YOUR
star twinkling?
Imagine - you
have added a beautiful new star to the night sky kingdom......
2. Picasso in a bag!!
I used this protocol when I
taught a new class, and I heartily
recommend it to you as something to use at the beginning of a new academic year
– elementary and middle school especially.
It’s easy to resource and easy to
put in action. All each student needs is a large paper bag, a marker pen, and a
sheet of white paper.
I model the process by putting my
paper inside the bag. Holding my pen in hand, I rest it on the middle of the
paper and let the bag cover my hand. Then I look at a person next to me, and
without looking inside the bag, I proceed to draw his/her face.
It only takes a couple of
minutes. Then I ask the students to look at the person closest to them and do
what I did – draw the person’s face, resisting the temptation to look in the
bag! The room goes quiet as the students draw, and then erupts into laughter
when the results are shared. The drawing then becomes page one of each
student’s journal.
3. EVERYONE HAS A
STORY TO TELL
I often began a Monday morning
class by asking what happened over the weekend.
Someone always had an experience to tell that drew everyone’s attention.
4. FILTERING out all those thoughts
Students
come to classes with a lot on their minds. They need time to transition from
there to here or here to there.
I
ask my classes to take the time, no more than ten minutes, to write some of
their thoughts on a filter paper, and thus filter out what’s going on inside
their head.
Each
student writes on his/her filter paper and then shares with another person.
When the time is up, it’s time to move on with the lesson.
5. READING
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Tuesday’s edition of the New
York Times has a science section. My wife, Jeannine, glances through the
science section over breakfast, choosing one topic to share with her students
during science time. She tells me how that motivates discussion and science
activity with her students.
6. THE MARBLE RUN
Here are some powerful
team-building activities for all ages of students. First,
I challenge my class to work in groups of two to use the
materials supplied (sheet of card stock, strips of paper, adhesive tape, and a
marble) to build a marble run. I challenge my students to:
- Make a vertical marble
run.
- Make a vertical marble
run that takes 20 seconds for the marble to complete its travels.
6b. BUILD a BRIDGE from
newspaper
I
challenge my class to work in groups of four to build a paper bridge that links two tables together AND is able to
support the weight of a brick at its center point.
I
supply a complete Sunday New York Times for each group – and a roll of tape.
6c. BUILD A TOWER as
high as you can from
6 sheets of typing paper – and a roll of tape!
Can it support a glass of
water at the top?
Sometimes
I leave 10 cards in the middle of each classroom table. I challenge the class
to build a structure as high as they can WITHOUT tape! I end each of these
team-building activities with a discussion focused on:
What team roles did your group use to respond to
the challenge?
7. BLANK
INDEX CARDS
I use blank index cards for a
variety of community-building strategies - and for data collecting. I also use
the cards for literacy. My thinking/writing/feedback prompts for using the
blank cards include:
·
What
I don’t want to write about………..
·
What
I like and what I dislike
·
My
fears and my hopes
·
What
I want and what I got
·
I
liked this lesson because…………………..
·
I
didn’t quite understand …………………..
8. Use a blank index
card to make the world’s SMALLEST boomerang!
I give every student 1 index card and a pair of
scissors and challenge him/her to make the world’s smallest boomerang!
I also give them
these instructions/guidelines:
Cut out a 1”
square from one of the file cards
Draw and cut out
a small boomerang
Use the other card as the launching platform.
Balance the
boomerang on the edge and flick with your finger.
And the challenge?
Can you get the boomerang to return and land on
the launching pad?
9. Picture Postcards
I
collect pictures from newspapers that
I
think are interesting and provocative. Sometimes I use them in class. I also
collect interesting black and white art cards from a local bookshop.
I
give each student and ask: Can you
think of a caption?
The
students share their captions with a
colleague.
10. SHARING TIME: What’s in the TREASURE CHEST?
I start this daily first-thing-in-the-morning protocol by putting my
very special piece of amber inside a treasure box. I found my amber on the
beach when I was five. When my students are sitting in a circle around me, I
open the treasure box and take out my amber. I show the class and tell them its
story. At the end of the day, I invite my students to bring in something
special to them and place it in the treasure box. At our next meeting/circle
time, they take out their ‘treasure’ and tell the class about its history.
11. What’s in the OLD TIN?
This
is my favorite and a protocol I use at the beginning of another year’s work
with a new cohort of teacher candidates/class of students.
I
take an old tin from my pocket. I open it slowly. Inside is a small artifact. I
describe it and tell the class why it’s important to me.
Then
I give the students an empty tin (usually an old, rusty one) and ask them to
take their tin home and fill it with artifacts that reflect some part of their
lives.
The
next day they share with a small group.
Tins have many other uses,
too, and can be great mini shadow boxes, displays and/or pocket museums.
12. WISHBONES
I
collect chicken wishbones. I clean and bleach them in hydrogen peroxide. I use
them to make wishes for the group’s success in working together, and bring
closure to the protocol by telling my students about the scientific interest in
chicken wishbones:
The FURCULA is the V shaped
bone that we call the wishbone.
Discoveries of the last few decades have shown that the wishbone is a
characteristic of bird-like dinosaurs (theropods), thus a major link to the
modern bird.
13. THE WISHING ROCK
This is one I use to engage a class either in the classroom or when I’m
on a hike. I find a smooth, round pebble, hold it in my hand, and then wrap my
fingers around it. As I do, I tell the group that I’m thinking about someone
very important to me……and then ask them to find their own pebbles and send
someone a wish. I go through the process again when everyone has a pebble in
their hand.
This requires some creative thinking!
Quarter fill a plastic bottle with water. When your classroom is buzzing with students involved in some inquiry, stand in the middle of the room. Turn the bottle upside down over a bowl. Take off the top. As the water runs out, the air and the atmosphere of excited learning rush in!
Think about what you’ve done. You have captured the time and the moment, the smells and the sounds……forever!
15. THE SEA STAR STORY
I
tell this familiar story to celebrate teachers and the impact they have on
their students.
Resources: A small sea star pin for each student.
One bright morning, just as
the sun was peeping over the horizon, an old man walked across a sandy beach.
Looking across the beach, he spotted a young man running towards the waves and
throwing something into the deep blue sea…………..
He watched the young man
turn, bend over, and pick up a stranded sea star and throw it as far as he could
into the sea………..
The old man gazed in wonder
as the young man, again and again, threw more small sea stars from the sandy
beach to the sea. The old man walked up to the young man and asked
him why he spent so much energy doing what seemed a waste of time……….The young
man explained that the sea stars would die if left in the bright morning sun………
But
there are thousands of miles of beaches and millions of sea stars. How can your
efforts make a difference?’
The
young man looked down at a small sea star in his hand, and then threw it to
safety in the sea…………….
Well,
sir,’ he
said, it sure makes a difference to that one……………’
16. THE TEACHER WHO
INSPIRED ME…
I
tell my students about the two teachers who shaped my life, how they influence
what I think, and how I teach today.
I then ask them to write on a card their
memory of their favorite teacher.
I
close the protocol session by reading John Steinbeck’s description of one of his favorite teachers, Like Captured Fireflies
In
her classroom our speculations ranged the world.
She
aroused us to book waving discussions.
Every
morning we came to her carrying new truths, new facts, new ideas cupped and
sheltered in our hands like captured fireflies.
When
she went away a sadness came over us,
but
the light did not go out.
She
left his signature upon us, the literature of the teacher
who
writes on students’ minds.
I’ve
had so many teachers who taught soon forgotten things
but
only one like her who created in me a new thing, a new attitude,
a
new hunger.
I
suppose that to a large extent I am the unsigned manuscript of that teacher.
What
deathless power lies in the hands of such a person.
17. THE JAPANESE
PAPER CRANE
Jeannine uses this protocol at the beginning of a new calendar year. The Japanese paper crane is a symbol of
hope.
Make
your paper crane and write all of your secret dreams and wishes for the New
Year on the white side of the paper. Include the names of people you love
and want to remember.
· When you fold your crane,
your secrets will all be safely concealed inside.
· Light each crane with a
match, and drop into an empty flower pot or fire proof container. Because
of the special dyes in origami paper, the flame will sometimes burn in unusual colors (bright
blue or orange). It can be quite beautiful!
Keep the burnt cranes in a glass jar (burned origami paper keeps its shape). Note: Paper made specifically for origami can be found at most craft stores.
Which
protocol did you like best?
Will
you try it out in your classroom?
If
so, I’d like to hear how it went – if it helped you build community in your
classroom.
Email
me with your comments and observation – and ideas for more protocols!!
Johnpaull2011@gmail.com
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