Movtivating Students

Tom, This is a problem all teacher new and experienced share. Students are so different and what movtivates one doesn't motivate another. I have found that teachers are willing to share their strategies. I have attended more workshops on this subject in my career than any other. I will share some things I do in my classroom to involve all students. I poll the students to see what they like to read and most say nothing. I read books aloud to my students and I let them chose after I read the summary. I model fluency and humor as I read. The students love this. I then teach the students to read with the same fluency. Many students however don't want or like to read so I give them a small section to read so they aren't overwhelmed. I am going to have students sign up to read a section of the story with a purpose for reading after Christmas. I also let the students know as they read how well they are doing. This encouragment helps tremendously. After a few weeks most of my students don't mind reading. I also encourage the students to share what they are reading for pleasure to get other students interested inreading as well. I have books on different reading levels and interests in my classroom. I also use the Seven Habits of Effective Readers with my students. I can get you a copy if you would like. I keep it on my overhead cart so I can see it often. I also went to Best Practices this past summer and attended a workshop and was given Fit it Strategies for students. aI copied this for my students to keep in their notebook and I refer to the list often. I try to show the students practical ways to figure out what they are reading. This keeps students from becoming frustrated. I have also used small group and partner reading to allow the students to read to an even smaller audience. My students this year haven't likes this as much as my older students. The key to keeping kids movtivated is keeping them interested. I haev found the World Wide Web very helpful too. Let me know what you think you can try or want me to help you try. Just remember you aren't alone in making student learning fun and motivational.

Motivating Reluctant Readers

Hey Yvonne,

We've all had difficutly motivating students in general. Our school has a committe designated for motivating students in reading, language, math, and conduct. It is a difficult task to motivate every student in your class to read. I have several strategies that I use in my classroom, but I am still in the process of trying and learning new strategies. I don't use the same ones every year because my students change. What worked before may not work with my new students. The most important and first thing you should do is get to know your students and their interests. I have my students fill out a questionare of their favorite book types and general getting to know you activities. I learn so much about them from day one. Expose your students to different types of literature at every opportunity. Examples are comics, newspapers, and magazines. Majority of students enjoy humorous literature. I love to use interactive strategies to ensure my students are motivated. These include Readers Theater, DRAW, and Story Telling. Readers Theater's focus is on repeated readings that improve fluency, comprehension, and motivation. Students socially interact which gives them an opportunity to share with their peers. Reluctant readers are given a part that they must read over and over again to get their parts right. In Story Telling, students identify with a character which in turn brings them into the plot of the story. Students can create a summary of a part of the stroy to share with their classmates. They give their peers a sequence of events, a climax, and a resolution to the story. The DRAW (Draw, Read, Attend, and Write) strategy gives reluctant readers to work in small groups when given a short article, story or content area chapters to read. Before students split into small groups, I prepare questions that are either literal or inferential. The groups then draw one question and read the article or chapter they have been assigned. The students are responsible for answering the question they have chosen and then reporting the answer back tot he whole group. The class must discuss and all students are expected to participate and listen. The final part of this strategy is for students to write the answers to all of the questions. I use this for a classwork grade. Anytime you would like to see one of these strategies used in my classroom, let me know. I hope this helped answer your question. Let me know if you need anything else.
Karen Richards

Time Management

Dear Gayla,
We are so excited to have you as a part of our faculty. You said that you are having some difficulties with time management during your first year teaching. We all struggle with time management, even the most veteran teachers. There is so much to do in the time you have with the students. As far as being able to get everything done in a day, one thing that will help is that you have discussed expectations with your students. Less time will be wasted when they know exactly how things are to go in the classroom. Also, integration is a great way to help out. Try to integrate different subjects into a lesson. Often, you can use Science and Social Studies as your reading lessons. This allows you to teach the concepts of those subjects along with reading concepts. The students can build reading fluency while reading the text that goes along with these two subjects. There are many ways to integrate Math into these other subjects areas, too. Another way to deal with the question of time is to waste as little time as possible on transitions. In the book, Why Didn't I Learn This in College?, you will find some helpful information on Transition Tidbits on pages 230-231. You may also find the Time Templates on pages 228-229 helpful, as well. If you find additional great ways to manage time, please feel free to share them with us. We are always looking for new ideas in this area ourselves.

Good luck,
Teresa