Motivating our students

            Motivating students to read and write can be a difficult task. But constructive motivation within a classroom is vital when trying to engage students in a positive experience when reading or writing. Some of the most successful students at reading and writing are those students who are intrinsically motivated. Sadly, some students have lacked the proper encouragement to embrace writing and reading. Best Practices in Writing Instruction, by Steve Graham, Charles, MacArthur and Jill Fitzgerald, talks about three different factors that may affect a student’s motivation to write:

1. Writing can be taught in an inflexible manner, and is perceived by students as a discipline.  

2. Writing tasks can be disconnected from other exercises and classroom activities, thus not allowing students to fully understand the task.

3. Last and not least is a simple concept, writing tasks can be boring! Writing can turn into a routine practice, one in which the student doesn’t feel fully engaged.

Another aspect to a lack of motivation has to do with how a student views themselves, other wise known as self-perception.  A student’s belief about themselves as writers and their ability to manage writing tasks greatly affects their self-perception. If the student does not feel confident in their writing performance this will influence their writing in a negative manner. Thus giving a student loss of motivation to write and complete writing tasks. The book then defines a motivated student by those students “who value and are willing to use writing as a worthwhile activity or means of expression, communication, and elaboration” pg. 205. They are also students who are self-confident and have an overall positive self-perception.

            The book explains how to develop motivated writers,

1. Allowing students to experience writing as a useful activity. What the student has written should have value or relevance to that student.

2. A teacher needs to foster the communicative function of writing, meaning that there needs to be relationships within the classroom and among individuals. Writing should be become a tool for self-expression and communication.

3. Give students novel and challenging tasks. Teachers need not to make it complex but they need to stimulate a student’s will to engage.

            In an article, What Motivates Students to Read? Four Literacy Personalities, by Jill Cole, touches on four different students and their experiences in reading. Through out the case studies she is  able to conclude some important aspects of motivation for reading,

1. Offer rich literate environment and an array of books

2. Have a wide variety of reading experience, such as buddy reading, choral reading, story time, etc.

3. Student voices are important, it is important to create more opportunities for students to express themselves. For example, allowing for response sheets after reading, or having class opinion graphs.

4. Allowing for social interaction

Cole also talks about how we as teachers need to find out the interests of our students. We also need to be aware that every student walks in our classroom with their own beliefs of reading or writing, and these beliefs can either positively or negatively affect a student’s motivation.