Motivating Students by Barbara Gross Davis
University of California, Berkeley (1999)

According to the article, there are many factors that influence a child’s desire to learn. “Interest in the subject matter, perception of its usefulness, general desire to achieve, self-confidence and self-esteem, as well as patience and persistence,” it states. My question to that is, what if none of those factors are present in the students you teach? Then how do you solve that problem?
The article also mentions that, “Most students respond positively to a well-organized course taught by an enthusiastic instructor who has a genuine interest in students and what they learn.” Now, I know I fill the role of the enthusiastic instructor who has an investment in her students and their learning, but well-organized....... I’d like to think I’m well-organized at least! My room is organized. Their folders and notebooks are organized. But for a well-organized course, I think I’m missing the mark.

Now, I’m not sure if there is truly anything I can do about it though, and let me explain. My school currently has several initiatives for the literacy classroom. We have a writer’s notebook the students are to use a few times a week with planned lessons out of the literacy team’s book study on notebooking. Also, we have a reader’s notebook that the students are supposed to reflect on their independent reading that is to be done in the classroom. In addition to the independent novel, the students are also supposed to work in small groups with leveled novels in a literacy component called “reciprocal reading”. After that, they are supposed to read the textbook anthology together and I am supposed to teach a minilesson on the story we are reading. We also have to have a period of writing, guided writing, independent writing, shared writing, and peer editing. Then there is the time put aside for conferencing with students and their revision and word processing time. This has to be done each week. Did I mention I’m also responsible for teaching Social Studies?

Forget organization because it seems impossible in my school! Heeeelllllp! I have to do these initiatives, but there are too many interruptions and schedule changes to accomplish everything each week. How can I meet the demands of my employer while giving my students a well-organized course?

Strategies from this article that I will employ in my classroom:

-ask students to analyze what makes their class more or less motivating
(refer to instructor morale, relevance of material, course organization, appropriate level of difficulty, participation of students, variety, rapport, and understandability of examples used to explain in class)
-letting students have some say in choosing what will be studied (democratic teaching style)
-emphasize mastery and learning rather than grades (question: what if students don’t really care about their grades?)