Teachers work hard. We spend endless hours planning, thinking about planning, looking for resources, thinking about our individual students and what might work best for them, and reflecting on our teaching. Most of the time our effort pays off. But what about when we feel as if we are working and working and the students for whom we are working are just going through the motions or, worse, just passively sitting there and doing nothing? No bueno.
We need to think about what we’re doing. As hard as we’re working, we need to motivate our students to work even harder than we’re working.
Here are some ways to do that.
Build Relationships
*Like almost everything else, it all starts with relationships. When you have strong relationships with your students, they will work harder for you than they will for anyone else. As you are getting to know your students, it’s important to smile a lot, to be positive, to be firm about your behavior expectations, to emphasize that you want the very best for your students. Communicate to them that you have high expectations for them and that you will help them to reach those high expectations. See my posts about building relationships HERE.
*As you are building those strong relationships, begin promoting the idea of having a growth mindset. Promote effort and taking baby steps of progress towards a goal. Talk about your own goals and relate your students’ classroom effort and challenges to your own effort and challenges. Keep the emphasis on consistently moving forward and building good work habits towards success. Many of the following tips will also help build this growth mindset.
Give Specific Feedback
*Make your student feedback as targeted and specific as possible. I realize that doing this takes a lot of time. You might choose to focus your feedback on one specific academic task or one specific behavior. Then choose something else for specific feedback the next time. You will never be able to give everyone specific feedback on every single aspect of their work every single time, so don’t try. Decide what will make the biggest difference in your students’ progress at this point in time and give feedback on that one task.
*As you are reading this, you might be thinking, “I don’t even have time to do that for all my students!” Then try it with one or two “target” students.
For example: even if a student got a math problem wrong, point out what they did that was positive. You might say: “You got the problem wrong, but let’s look at all the good things you did. You drew a diagram. You must have read the problem twice because your diagram shows that you know what the problem is asking. You set up the multiplication correctly. But look — is this fact correct? No? Start here and see if you can fix your error.”
What if they work on it again and still get it wrong? Praise the fact that they went back and tried it again. Assure them that you will keep working on these kinds of problems. Give them a suggestion for practicing multiplication facts so they won’t make the same kind of errors.
When you feel that they are showing better work habits and more motivation, “target” some different students and do the same with them.
*Much quicker forms of specific feedback can be given as you monitor student work during independent work times. Keep a class list on a clipboard with you as you walk around the room and check off students’ names when you stop to give them specific feedback.
If a student is on track, point out to them what you notice that they are doing “right”.
“I see that you are reading the question carefully.”
“Great job of labeling your circulatory system diagram neatly.”
“Your first paragraph has great details that got my attention and made me want to read more.”
If they are off track somewhere, point out a quick fix for them to get back on track.
Set Clear Objectives
*Set the objectives. It’s important to let your students know, “This is what we will be learning today” and post the learning objective. But what about the behavioral objectives, or the HOW we will be learning this?
For example: to determine the theme of a story (the learning objective), you might also give students some simple objectives for HOW to do this. Such as: reread, think about one word that the writer is emphasizing, then think about what message the writer is saying about that word.
You could also set behavior objectives for your math block like this:
*read the problem three times
*draw a diagram or solve the problem on paper (not in your head)
*be sure your solution matches the question
Behavior objectives for your independent reading block might look like this:
*have your book(s) ready
*get into a comfortable space or position
*when you get distracted, get back on track by rereading
Use Novelty & Choice
*Remember that the brain loves novelty! So change things up from time to time. Have a game day in math one day (using online tools like Kahoot or Quizizz), read outside or take your class lesson outside, use art or drama to teach a new concept.
*Offer different options for learning throughout the day. Have some time for quiet, independent work time, and other times for group work and hands-on projects. This allows all of your students to experience at least one of their preferred learning methods.
*”Gamify” your classroom when you can. Anything that seems more like a game and less like test pressure helps relieve students’ stress. Emphasize positive competition and working together to achieve a goal.
*Give students some control. Let them choose three out of five problems to solve or make a choice of which book to read. Notice that it’s not a choice to NOT do anything! But allow them to have some choices within the scope of what you want them to do.
*Give students opportunities to be responsible. Maybe they can organize center supplies or your classroom library. Can they put papers in alphabetical order for you to grade? Asking a student, especially one who often feels unsuccessful, to help you in some way allows the student to feel more connected to you and will boost their learning.
*Allow students to work as partners or in groups whenever you can. You will need to closely monitor to be sure that no one is getting “stuck” with doing all the work while other students just talk and watch them work. Set goals or challenges for groups to meet to help ensure collaboration.
*Make things fun as much as you can. This goes along with “gamifying” your classroom. Look for ways to make ordinary practice more fun and engaging. Changing where you read, for instance, can be fun and motivating. The brain loves novelty so look for ways to make something fun and different.
That being said, not everything is going to be fun. That is just a reality. But looking for ways to change things up occasionally keeps school fun and interesting for your students.
Use Praise & Positive Reinforcement
*Use as much positive reinforcement as possible. While there are times that you have to impose consequences for different behaviors, focusing on the good that students are doing is very important. Reinforce good learning behaviors and remind students of the successes they have achieved before. When appropriate, have some sort of celebration for achieving a goal.
*Thank students publicly or praise them publicly when possible and appropriate. You don’t want to offer empty praise, but calling attention to the positive work that students are doing and thanking them for it is incredibly motivating.
*Encourage self-reflection. You can create a form for this or just ask some simple questions. Ask your students to think about whether or not they did their best work. If they say that they did, what helped them to do their best work? If they say that they didn’t, what could they do differently next time that would help them improve?
*Be enthusiastic about everything you are teaching. Fake it if you have to! Act as if what you are teaching them to do is really fun and will be rewarding to learn. They will pick up on your enthusiasm and will be more motivated to learn.
*Get to know your students and their interests. Have conversations and check-ins with them frequently, even brief ones. Students work harder for teachers who know them and show that they care about them.
*Point out your students’ successes whenever possible. This may be whole class praise or it can be praise of individual students. Find out how your students want to be acknowledged. Some students thrive on being singled out in front of their classmates, but others cringe at the very thought. Praise your students in ways that work for them.
Build Intrinsic Motivation
*Help them build intrinsic motivation. While this is easier said than done, there are ways you can do this. Ask them to think about their goals for the future and then help them break those goals down into what they need to be doing now to help them reach their goals. “Do well in school” or “try my best” are great goals, but what does that mean for them, specifically? How can they “do well” or “try” in class today?
Here’s an example. I have two girls who struggle with math. They hate it because they feel “dumb” when they don’t understand something as quickly as other students in the class.
First, I explained to them (in a private conference) WHY other kids “get it”. The first reason is that they have either seen it or learned it before (from parents or older siblings). So seeing it again in class is just another opportunity to continue practicing with something they already know how to do.
Second, we identified, together, some of the “success habits” that they see other students use. Successful students listen during the lesson, they practice when it’s time to practice, they ask questions, they ask for feedback, they correct questions that they missed, they solve the problem on paper instead of trying to solve it in their heads.
Third, we set one or two small goals for them to work on today. One girl’s goal was to write down the solution to the problem (instead of trying to do it in her head). The other girl’s goal was to get started with our weekly homework on Monday, instead of procrastinating until Wednesday or Thursday. This will allow her to ask questions if she is confused by something.
Last, we set up a regular time to meet together. They were more excited about that than anything else. Just knowing that we will get back together and discuss how well their strategies worked and to get some extra help was motivating to them because they weren’t being sent off to “just do it”. They have a safety net, but they are still expected to do one small thing towards the goal of understanding one concept at a time.
Keep Your Students Informed of Their Progress
*Along a similar line, keep your students informed about their progress toward different academic goals or standards. We do this for parents but we don’t always keep students in the loop.
Some teachers worry that students will lose motivation if they find out how poorly they are doing. I understand that concern, but I believe it’s all in how you frame it.
Instead of saying something like, “you are failing math”, you can point out which standards (if any) where they are doing well and which standards are causing them problems. (If there are a lot of standards that they are failing, just choose one or two.) If there are not any standards they are passing, then choose some math behaviors or habits that they are doing well.
Then suggest some things that the student could do to help them learn and practice the difficult standards. Let them choose one thing to do today. When that is “mastered”, have them choose another.
Taking baby steps toward a big goal is the key. It will feel like slow progress to you, but daily consistency is more important than a once a week “cram” session that will not stick.
*What about students who are working at the higher levels of understanding? They need to set goals too! Every one of our students needs to be making progress and moving forward in their learning. Maybe they need to work on standards at the next grade level. For math, Khan Academy is a great resource for individualized practice. In reading, I suggest using goals from The Continuum of Literacy Learning by Irene Fountas & Gay Su Pinnell for pushing your students’ level of thinking, writing, and discussion about books.
*Teach your students to track their own progress. This can take a variety of forms and you will want to start with only one or two things to track.
Tracking progress helps students stay motivated and keep moving forward because “passing” or “getting an A on a test” does not always come easily or quickly. But — thinking about how they are moving forward and continuing to work on the areas that will get them to that goal is very much under a student’s control.
Possible data to track: time spent practicing on an individualized math website (Reflex Math, iReady, Khan Academy); number of books read; using certain “math behaviors” (such as rereading questions, using paper to solve every single problem, asking questions or clarifying something that was confusing); using certain “reading behaviors” (staying focused on reading, getting back on track when you get distracted, stopping to think about what is happening in the text after each section/paragraph/page).
When Needed, Give a Motivational Speech!
*Give a “motivational speech” when necessary. I love Michael Linsin’s website Smart Classroom Management. Here is a link to his post about making a motivational speech.
The quick steps for the speech are:
1 – tell them what you are seeing that you don’t like. Don’t single anyone out. Just name the behaviors.
2 – tell them why it’s wrong and why it will ultimately hurt them.
3 – tell them what you want. Model it if necessary. Be specific.
4 – ask them to tell you now if they believe that they cannot do whatever it is you are asking them to do. Tell them you want to know now and you don’t want to wait until you see the same old behavior again.
5 – challenge everyone to stand up if they are committed to doing what you are asking them to do. If they’re not committed, they should stay seated. (They probably won’t stay seated. Peer pressure is on your side here.) Have everyone put their hands in the center of the group and challenge them to prove to you that they can do whatever it is you are asking them to do. Then do some kind of “cheer” like “one-two-three-BE YOUR BEST” or something similar.
Nothing works for every student all the time. Hopefully, this list of tips can be your “go-to” list when something isn’t working in your classroom. I’d love to hear how these tips work for you!