Student Motivation: X Factor

Before I became a mother, I often had students' parents question my judgement on school related matters.  Parents told me that I didn't understand X, Y, or Z because I wasn't a mother.  We were discussing school related issues, not parenting issues so why did it matter? I revised my opinion somewhat after I became a parent of a school aged child.  Although I don't think being a parent makes you a better teacher, I do think it gives you a different perspective.

Student motivation was my biggest surprise as a mother. This is a topic that is often glossed over in undergraduate programs which is such a shame because your job is much easier when students are engaged.  We have endless inservice meetings about raising test scores, right?  Don't you think your students' scores would go up if they are more engaged and motivated about learning?  So, why not approach raising test scores from this direction?

Think about your own work experience.  Have you ever worked for a vanilla principal?  This is a principal who is competent, does all that is required of his/her job description, but is lacking the X factor.  It doesn't take Simon to tell when the X factor is missing!

Contrast that experience of working for a principal with the X factor.  When you are teaching under a Principal X, you stretch yourself professionally, collaborate more with your colleagues, and you build relationships with your students and their parents.  You can almost hear that song from the Coca-Cola commercial playing in your head.

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So if we as adults, who are mature enough to be intrinsically motivated, work differently for a principal with the X factor . . . what does this say about our students?  What are the qualities of a teacher with the X factor?

Although students are motivated by different things, we all want to feel like we have value.  You can show your students they have value in many different ways.  I found some great resources to give you some ideas to try.

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Motivating Students

I have a special friend named Sandy, who is a 6th grade teacher, which is middle school in California.  She was actually my daughter's sixth grade teacher.  We got to know each other through my volunteer work in her classroom.  Yes, teachers in middle school do let parents volunteer in their classroom.  I had been told it was quite the opposite of that.  With the move to California and my daughter beginning middle school,  I had planned to take that year off from teaching to help my daughter adjust to our move.  Little did I realize, that it was going to be a bigger adjustment for me not working (the first time in twenty years) than it was for my daughter to go to middle school.  I give my daughter's teachers all of the credit for her smooth adjustment.  This is a school full of amazing teachers!   Not only did Sandy let me help, but other teachers "adopted" me that year, too.  I volunteered about 10 hours per week in 2 sixth grade Core (lang. arts/social studies) classroom, helped the librarian, was a "copy cat" - copy materials for teachers, and assisted the reading specialist with the Read Naturally program.  I absolutely loved my volunteer work and by the end of the year I felt like I had been through a year of student teaching.  Although there are similarities with teaching elementary and middle school, there are more differences.  One of the first ones I noticed was motivation.  Motivating a first grader (which is the grade I was teaching before we moved) was so much easier than motivating a middle schooler.  First grader want their teachers approval, middle schoolers on the other hand want their peer's approval.  How many times a day does a first grade teacher hear, "Does this look OK?" (when they show you their work).  There were many middle schoolers that would take the path of least resistance - turn in work that you knew was less than their best because it was easier.  I remember one day I was working with a 7th grade boy with the Read Naturally program and discussing his fluency.  I told him to pretend he was reading the story to a group of first graders.  He read the story again with little improvement.  So, then I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.  He wanted to play baseball professionally.  I asked him what his plans were after baseball because they don't play the game very long.  He planned to be a sport newscaster after that.  I asked him what he thought his chances were of getting hired to read the sports news if he read the words like a robot. Suddenly, the light came on and he began reading with inflection.  He was capable of reading fluently before, but he lacked motivation.  It seemed to motivate them more if you showed how it affected them.  I found motivation to be one of the biggest challenges a middle school teacher dealt with on an hour by hour basis.  I thought I was tired when I taught kindergarten, but I think being a motivational cheerleader-teacher in middle school would be tiring, too.  Middle school teachers have my admiration and sympathy.

Here are some happy notes you can copy, cut apart, and staple on students' papers or handout when you catch your students working extra hard.  Maybe these little notes will give your students a little extra boost.

Click HERE to download the happy notes.

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Star Quality Work

Star quality work . . . how do you motivate your students to turn in their best quality work on a consistent basis?  How about with a touch light?  You can find lights like this at Dollar Tree.  First, you need to brainstorm with your class what star quality work looks like.  Here's a sign you can put at the top of your anchor chart:

Now that students have a clear understanding of your expectations, it is time to begin reinforcing high quality work.  There is research that shows it is better to give positive reinforcement intermittently.  You don't want your students to get in the mind set that they will only turn in quality work when they get something for it.  From time-to-time, when you are walking around the room monitoring your students, find an example of star quality work.  Show your class the assignment and tell them why this assignment is star quality.  You can either give them a star note or turn on the star touch light and set it on the student's desk.  Hopefully, with the right motivation, you will soon see a class full of stars!

You can get a free copy of star notes:

It is part of my FREE Happy Notes packet:

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