Recently I watched a short from RSA Animate about Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. I wanted to apply it to my classroom and I wanted to remember that I should revisit these ideas and keep them in mind in the long term so I thought I would share them.
First, let's start with the video...
My take-away from the video was to look at my students' motivation in four parts...
When I look at the idea of purpose in the classroom I think of real world application. I have been exploring lessons from Dan Meyer and Robert Kaplinsky in order to bring more purpose into my classroom. I think the idea of purpose speaks to the notion that we should be building more connections. Starting with something as little as the determinant. Instead of just plugging in numbers and more numbers, it's important to refocus students on why it is important to find the x-intercept to begin with, and what it can mean in an application. In attempting to build purpose in the classroom I think I will build more connections to the big picture of what math is all about.
As the video points out, the idea of profit has very limited applications. I don't think that means that we can't use it at all, I think we just need to use it strategically. There are some simple tasks we ask students to do, copy notes, take out their materials when they come in, put their materials away when they leave - simple tasks can be rewarded with praise/stamps/stickers/candy and the idea of profit as a motivation can be useful.
The concept of mastery building motivation is something I have seen first hand this year. As part of the move to Standards Based Grading I have begun to incorporate more Assessment for Learning into my classroom. One of my favorite tools is a bar graph with all the standards for a unit, or semester, that students fill out when they receive feedback on assessments. Students chart their own progress and identify their own areas for growth. I've seen an increase in tutoring attendance and more motivation to make up the missing knowledge and skills after a test, and it's been great!
Finally, the idea of self direction in the classroom. This can take on so many forms, I needed a list!
- Can students choose their own seats? Or if you need to assign groups, can they choose their own role in the group?
- Can students choose how they study for a retake? Maybe it's YouTube, maybe it's a text book or a resource book, maybe it's doing a worksheet with a friend, maybe it's one on one help from you?
- Can students choose how they organize their work? Maybe one student uses a composition book and a pocket folder but another uses a binder?
- Can they choose how they solve the problem? If I need to teach three different methods maybe for an assessment they get ten problems and choose two to solve using each method?
Having some autonomy within the necessary boundaries in the classroom can be a good way for students to feel like they are a part of the process and not just on an assembly line, I think that's why it is such a motivation builder.
As I write this, I'm printing out the picture up above for the cork board over my desk because I think these ideas are not a one and done, instead I think we can use them as an ongoing assessment of our classroom practice.
