Oops, I posted in the wrong category!

[Lilac]

Sorry for the double post, but I accidentally posted my motivation question under the management discussion board.  I wanted to make sure people had the chance to help out if they wanted to, so here's the question again.

I teach high school English and it seems like more of my students are coming in to class totally disinterested and unwilling to participate.  I try to pick out good books to read and hold interesting discussions, but nothing seems to make a difference.

Do you have any ideas for me to help motivate these teenagers?  I really love teaching, but I know I would love it more if the kids also were enjoying themselves.

[Darren Barkett]

So many teachers struggle with this.  I struggle with this.  I think everyone has struggled with this at one time or another.  Really good teachers are able to weave together their curriculum into a seamless almost story-like unfolding that grabs the kids' attention from day one and holds them throughout the year.  Others can work together units that help motivate their students for a month or a week.  Still others work every day to "sell" their students on whatever it is being done in the class that day.

Whichever level you're on, I think this "selling" process of getting your students to see the reason and personal meaning behind what's happening in class is crucial to motivation.  Remember that you'll only ever be able to motivate at most 95% of your students.  That other 5% will have to motivate themselves because nothing you do will help...

But for that 95%, and this depends on the level you're teaching, find out a way to tie your curriculum directly to their lives.  Different teaching personalities take different approaches.  For me, I start the year talking about goals and what will need to be done to achieve those goals.  We talk about jobs and making money.  I jokingly ask, "Who can't wait to be poor?"  or "Who wants to be a thousandaire?"  "I can't wait to make dozens of dollars!"  They quickly get the point that our goals help define the processes by which we learn.  I reinforce how the most successful people in the world have set goals for themselves and work towards them every day. 

In essence, I become a motivational speaker for my kids.  Then, as we switch gears into the direct curriculum, it's a lot easier for me to tie that into their life long goals. 

This is really a short answer for a very long response.  I'm planning an entire mini-course on exactly this topic.  That way I'll be able to spend some serious time on these issues and we'll be able to discuss ways to motivate and methods that have worked for us in the past.

Anyone interested?

Darren

[fireboat]

Good advice, Darren.

Another thought that should work well in an English classroom--

Try a cooperative "Book Club" or "Literature circle" approach.  Divide kids into groups.  Each night when they read the book, assign certain jobs to the students.  One student can be in charge of writing discussion questions for his/her group.  Another student can be in charge of reporting a brief "plot summary" to the group.  Another student can be in charge of discussing the moral/theme/lesson in the chapters.  And so on.

By giving each student a job, they are held responsible.  By allowing them to work in groups and discuss the book with friends in a book club format, they'll be more motivated. 

After each book club session, you can bring the group back together at the end to give a short lecture or have them share thoughts from their group's discussion.

It's a format that's worked well for me in the past.  And it's a nice change from the teacher directing the disucssion for the whole class.

Good luck.