Classroom motivation, the key to achieving learner success.
Have you ever walked into a classroom full of screaming, laughing kids, hell bent on tomfoolery rather that taking notice of your meticulously prepared English class? I think that we teachers have all experienced this at one stage or another. Be it school kids, classes in an institute, or even university students, we have all experienced that sinking, helpless feeling in our gut attributed to standing before a classroom full of disinterested students.
We all know through experience that students who are motivated are easier to teach, and more willing to learn, but, the age old question is, “How do we as teachers motivate our students to want to learn English?”
Almost every teacher in the world has stratagies that have worked for them, and from my own personal experiences, many of these are determined by the demographics related to who we are teaching, and where we are teaching them. I have taught students in schools, institutes and universities from the coast, to the mountains and even in the jungle, and even though the students display vastly different characteristics within the various different geographic áreas, one thing is always a constant, a need for motivation. Motivation is one of the most specific classroom elements we need to nurture if we desire to achieve a high degree of success in our classes.
Below, I have outlined just a few of my tried and true stratagies that have worked for me over the years. Whilst they may not work for everybody, in every situtaion, I have found them to be helpfull for me in most situations.
If we as teachers motivate our students to want to learn English, if we make our classes fun and creative, then there is little doubt that we will awaken the imagination, the desire for fun, the desire to learn within our students, therefore ultimately achieving the goals that we as professionals seek to attain.
KNOW YOUR STUDENTS.
Know who your students are, know their names, and over time, try to learn small details about their lives. As with adults, students desire respect and recognition. Yes, we must maintain our position of authority in the classroom, yes, in many cases they are only children or teens, but, everybody, no matter who they are, will always relate to, and ultimately respect, someone with whom they share a bond with, someone with whom they can talk, someone who takes an interest in their lives.
RESPECT.
My grandmother always told me that respect is a two way street, if you want to be respected, you must first give respect. This is a principle that I have lived my life by, and for me, it works especially well in the classroom, especially with teenagers. If we demand respect from our students just because we are the teacher, then we will always fail. If you plant and nurture the seeds of repect within your classroom, then you will always reap the rewards for your efforts.
PLANNING.
Plan every class. Make sure that you also plan back-up activities in the event that something untowards happens that prevents you from fullfilling your prepared activities. An unprepared teacher is disorganized, and students will sense this and often take full advantage of it.
RELEVANCE:
When planning the class, make sure that the lesson, where posible, has some sort of relevence to them, and their lives. When students can link their learning to their reality, then we are giving them the ability to visualize the connection in their minds.
OBJECTIVE OF THE CLASS.
Explain to your students what you are trying to achieve in the class. When the students know what the activity involves, and what you are trying to achieve, the class generally goes more smoothly.
WORK GROUPS.
Create class groups where students work together in a cooperate manner. If you have problematic students, seperate them by placing each of them in different groups so as they are unable to be a disruptive force within the class.
GROUP CHALLENGES.
Once you have your students established in groups, set activities and challenges where groups compete against each other for some form of reward. Rewards can be anything from points displayed upon a classroom poster, certificates or even something as simple as a Candy. Students always have, and always will enbrase the challenge of competition, and through this, they will be motivated to develop a more constructive and cooperative classroom attirude.
ATTITUDE AND PERSONAL PRESENCE.
The way in which we act and present ourselves to our students often relates to their attitude and how they resiprocate to us. Teachers need to smile, to be positive, happy, to give supportive comments, and generally speaking, to be the positive forcé within the classroom. On the whole, we are the ones who initiate, and then must maintain the positives vibes and enthusiasm in the classroom.
STUDENT INTERACTION.
More often than not, students are reluctant to actively participate in class as they are often self-concious speaking in English and they fear ridicule from their peers. Teachers need to set up an environment where students feel comfortable to speak up, to answer questions and to participate without fear of derisive comments or actions. Invite students to participate and answer questions, and at the same time, establish a respectfull ambiance with zero tollerence to taunts or mockery by their peers. If your students are working in groups, get them to give each other Hi-5’s and other positive responses to their participation as a way to build the confidence, comeradery and enthusiasm of their group. Establish an environment of cooperation, encourage students to give affirmative responses to each other and encourage these actions by personally giving positive comments as a way to applaud your students for their respectfull, and supportive attitude.
ADDRESSING INDIVIDUAL STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES. Each and every student possesses strengths and weaknesses. Identify them by paying close attention to them. Give your students multiple opportunities to speak, to actively participate in class, and when students excel in their strengths, reward them with positive comments, a pat on the back, or a Hi-5. For their weaknesses, give them positive comments such as “ Thats great, your improving all the time”, or, “Thats excellent, I’m very proud of you”. Never highlight a students weaknesses in a negative way, always be positive, use it as a way to build up their confidence and as a foundation characteristic for you, your teaching and for the attitude that you display and support in your classroom.
CIRCULATE AND MOVE.
Never sit at your desk and just watch your students. Stand up, walk around and pay attention to your students and everything that they are doing. Pay your students positive comments, give them encouragement, and generally speaking, create a situation where you provide a positive, supportive presence in the classroom.
GIVING EXAMPLES THROUGH LIFE EXPERIENCES.
Share your life, your experiences, your opinions with your students. Using our lives as the basis for examples in the classroom is a way to share ourselves with our students, to show them that we are more than just a teacher. Also, encourage your students to share their ideas, their experiences, their opinions as a way to personalize their classroom experience and as a way to evaluate their understanding of the question at hand.
BUDGETING TIME.
Generally speaking, unless a specific activity possesses a level of excitement or creativity that is sufficient enough to mesmorize your students, then classroom activities should, where posible, be limited to around 15 or 20 minutes each. Students, especially children, have a very short-lived attention span. The shine soon wears off even the most exciting activity after a brief period of time. So, where posible, always try to limit the time for a classroom activity to approximately 15 to 20 minutes. When you couple this practice with a creative methodology, then you will have a far higher degree of active student participation.
GENERAL MANAGEMENT DUTIES.
How can you ask your students to return homework on time if you yourself are often late? Efficient teachers always use themselves, and their own actions as a way to set a good example for their students. They always check and return tests within a few days. They check and mark homework as soon as it comes in and they maintain consistency with everything that they do. They are also consistent in the way in which they treat their students, never allowing outside problems, or influences to negativel affect their in-class attitude.
CLASSROOM MEETING.
Have regular meetings with your students where they are able to express their opinions, or share their ideas about the class. When you give your students an opportunity to speak freely, and you ask them for suggestions for activities to make the class more interesting, then this simple act of showing respect empowers them, and will increase their level of motivation. For children and teens, they rarely experience occassions where their opinions and ideas are sought after, rather, they just drift through life with everybody making their decisions for them. My experience has always been that when you give a child or a teen some form of respect, then they will give respect in turn
EXPLAIN TO YOUR STUDENTS WHY THEY LEARN ENGLISH. Something that students virtually never know is that today, English is the most important subject in the world. It is the one language that will open the door to 90% of the educational, profesional, or immigration opportunities in the world. Each year, there are literally hundreds of thousands of opportunities for students to study in other countres as a way to improve their profesional development and skills. In addition, countries such as Australia and Canada have robust immigration drives searching the world for highly educated professionals who would like to emigrate to their countries. Motivate your students to the reality of attaining a proficient level of English, and to the many opportunities that lay before them if they take up the challenge and succeed.
As I stated earlier, these are just a few of the ideas that I have developed during my 16+ years in the classroom for not only motivating my students, but for creating a successful learning environment. There is no doubt that there are most likely hundreds of other ideas utilized every day, in hundreds of countries, by thousands of teachers as each and every one of us strives to be the best that we can be through the ultimate success of our students. The most important thing is that at the end of the day, when everything is said and done, we, as teachers, have achieved our goal, and that our students have benefited from our knowledge, direction and friendship. Good luck and good teaching.
David White
Managing Director English For You Language Institute Trujillo Peru.
Headmaster American School (Bilingual ib school) Trujillo Peru
International conference presenter
International academic consultant.
dwenglishforyou@outlook.com
Have you ever walked into a classroom full of screaming, laughing kids, hell bent on tomfoolery rather that taking notice of your meticulously prepared English class? I think that we teachers have all experienced this at one stage or another. Be it school kids, classes in an institute, or even university students, we have all experienced that sinking, helpless feeling in our gut attributed to standing before a classroom full of disinterested students.
We all know through experience that students who are motivated are easier to teach, and more willing to learn, but, the age old question is, “How do we as teachers motivate our students to want to learn English?”
Almost every teacher in the world has stratagies that have worked for them, and from my own personal experiences, many of these are determined by the demographics related to who we are teaching, and where we are teaching them. I have taught students in schools, institutes and universities from the coast, to the mountains and even in the jungle, and even though the students display vastly different characteristics within the various different geographic áreas, one thing is always a constant, a need for motivation. Motivation is one of the most specific classroom elements we need to nurture if we desire to achieve a high degree of success in our classes.
Below, I have outlined just a few of my tried and true stratagies that have worked for me over the years. Whilst they may not work for everybody, in every situtaion, I have found them to be helpfull for me in most situations.
If we as teachers motivate our students to want to learn English, if we make our classes fun and creative, then there is little doubt that we will awaken the imagination, the desire for fun, the desire to learn within our students, therefore ultimately achieving the goals that we as professionals seek to attain.
KNOW YOUR STUDENTS.
Know who your students are, know their names, and over time, try to learn small details about their lives. As with adults, students desire respect and recognition. Yes, we must maintain our position of authority in the classroom, yes, in many cases they are only children or teens, but, everybody, no matter who they are, will always relate to, and ultimately respect, someone with whom they share a bond with, someone with whom they can talk, someone who takes an interest in their lives.
RESPECT.
My grandmother always told me that respect is a two way street, if you want to be respected, you must first give respect. This is a principle that I have lived my life by, and for me, it works especially well in the classroom, especially with teenagers. If we demand respect from our students just because we are the teacher, then we will always fail. If you plant and nurture the seeds of repect within your classroom, then you will always reap the rewards for your efforts.
PLANNING.
Plan every class. Make sure that you also plan back-up activities in the event that something untowards happens that prevents you from fullfilling your prepared activities. An unprepared teacher is disorganized, and students will sense this and often take full advantage of it.
RELEVANCE:
When planning the class, make sure that the lesson, where posible, has some sort of relevence to them, and their lives. When students can link their learning to their reality, then we are giving them the ability to visualize the connection in their minds.
OBJECTIVE OF THE CLASS.
Explain to your students what you are trying to achieve in the class. When the students know what the activity involves, and what you are trying to achieve, the class generally goes more smoothly.
WORK GROUPS.
Create class groups where students work together in a cooperate manner. If you have problematic students, seperate them by placing each of them in different groups so as they are unable to be a disruptive force within the class.
GROUP CHALLENGES.
Once you have your students established in groups, set activities and challenges where groups compete against each other for some form of reward. Rewards can be anything from points displayed upon a classroom poster, certificates or even something as simple as a Candy. Students always have, and always will enbrase the challenge of competition, and through this, they will be motivated to develop a more constructive and cooperative classroom attirude.
ATTITUDE AND PERSONAL PRESENCE.
The way in which we act and present ourselves to our students often relates to their attitude and how they resiprocate to us. Teachers need to smile, to be positive, happy, to give supportive comments, and generally speaking, to be the positive forcé within the classroom. On the whole, we are the ones who initiate, and then must maintain the positives vibes and enthusiasm in the classroom.
STUDENT INTERACTION.
More often than not, students are reluctant to actively participate in class as they are often self-concious speaking in English and they fear ridicule from their peers. Teachers need to set up an environment where students feel comfortable to speak up, to answer questions and to participate without fear of derisive comments or actions. Invite students to participate and answer questions, and at the same time, establish a respectfull ambiance with zero tollerence to taunts or mockery by their peers. If your students are working in groups, get them to give each other Hi-5’s and other positive responses to their participation as a way to build the confidence, comeradery and enthusiasm of their group. Establish an environment of cooperation, encourage students to give affirmative responses to each other and encourage these actions by personally giving positive comments as a way to applaud your students for their respectfull, and supportive attitude.
ADDRESSING INDIVIDUAL STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES. Each and every student possesses strengths and weaknesses. Identify them by paying close attention to them. Give your students multiple opportunities to speak, to actively participate in class, and when students excel in their strengths, reward them with positive comments, a pat on the back, or a Hi-5. For their weaknesses, give them positive comments such as “ Thats great, your improving all the time”, or, “Thats excellent, I’m very proud of you”. Never highlight a students weaknesses in a negative way, always be positive, use it as a way to build up their confidence and as a foundation characteristic for you, your teaching and for the attitude that you display and support in your classroom.
CIRCULATE AND MOVE.
Never sit at your desk and just watch your students. Stand up, walk around and pay attention to your students and everything that they are doing. Pay your students positive comments, give them encouragement, and generally speaking, create a situation where you provide a positive, supportive presence in the classroom.
GIVING EXAMPLES THROUGH LIFE EXPERIENCES.
Share your life, your experiences, your opinions with your students. Using our lives as the basis for examples in the classroom is a way to share ourselves with our students, to show them that we are more than just a teacher. Also, encourage your students to share their ideas, their experiences, their opinions as a way to personalize their classroom experience and as a way to evaluate their understanding of the question at hand.
BUDGETING TIME.
Generally speaking, unless a specific activity possesses a level of excitement or creativity that is sufficient enough to mesmorize your students, then classroom activities should, where posible, be limited to around 15 or 20 minutes each. Students, especially children, have a very short-lived attention span. The shine soon wears off even the most exciting activity after a brief period of time. So, where posible, always try to limit the time for a classroom activity to approximately 15 to 20 minutes. When you couple this practice with a creative methodology, then you will have a far higher degree of active student participation.
GENERAL MANAGEMENT DUTIES.
How can you ask your students to return homework on time if you yourself are often late? Efficient teachers always use themselves, and their own actions as a way to set a good example for their students. They always check and return tests within a few days. They check and mark homework as soon as it comes in and they maintain consistency with everything that they do. They are also consistent in the way in which they treat their students, never allowing outside problems, or influences to negativel affect their in-class attitude.
CLASSROOM MEETING.
Have regular meetings with your students where they are able to express their opinions, or share their ideas about the class. When you give your students an opportunity to speak freely, and you ask them for suggestions for activities to make the class more interesting, then this simple act of showing respect empowers them, and will increase their level of motivation. For children and teens, they rarely experience occassions where their opinions and ideas are sought after, rather, they just drift through life with everybody making their decisions for them. My experience has always been that when you give a child or a teen some form of respect, then they will give respect in turn
EXPLAIN TO YOUR STUDENTS WHY THEY LEARN ENGLISH. Something that students virtually never know is that today, English is the most important subject in the world. It is the one language that will open the door to 90% of the educational, profesional, or immigration opportunities in the world. Each year, there are literally hundreds of thousands of opportunities for students to study in other countres as a way to improve their profesional development and skills. In addition, countries such as Australia and Canada have robust immigration drives searching the world for highly educated professionals who would like to emigrate to their countries. Motivate your students to the reality of attaining a proficient level of English, and to the many opportunities that lay before them if they take up the challenge and succeed.
As I stated earlier, these are just a few of the ideas that I have developed during my 16+ years in the classroom for not only motivating my students, but for creating a successful learning environment. There is no doubt that there are most likely hundreds of other ideas utilized every day, in hundreds of countries, by thousands of teachers as each and every one of us strives to be the best that we can be through the ultimate success of our students. The most important thing is that at the end of the day, when everything is said and done, we, as teachers, have achieved our goal, and that our students have benefited from our knowledge, direction and friendship. Good luck and good teaching.
David White
Managing Director English For You Language Institute Trujillo Peru.
Headmaster American School (Bilingual ib school) Trujillo Peru
International conference presenter
International academic consultant.
dwenglishforyou@outlook.com
So interesting blog! I am going to keep these wonderful ideas into my classroom! Thank you so much for sharing this amazing info David White!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Ruth, sharing for the good of our profession, and our students is something that we should all do. I hope that you enjoy these activities, and maybe some of the others that are in my other blog posts. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I appreciate your recommendations! !
ReplyDelete