Denise Sumner

ECI 541
Position Paper - Motivation
5/4/20

As teachers, we have all sat through several motivational speeches. We all know the
effects of a motivational speech and we all have and will seek them out from time to
time. The need for motivation is universal, and we all have different motivational needs.
And occasionally we get to hear the motivational speeches from teachers that have
gone to the extremes of changing their classroom to become a whole new setting such
as an operating room, a pirate ship, etc. Some of us get jazzed by that and go to it, but
quickly you find how exhausting that is! I am here to tell you it DOES NOT take that kind
of energy to motivate students. I am here to share you with the importance of motivation
and ways to motivate students to read and write and not just during literacy time or in
literacy class!

Motivation by definition is the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a
particular way. In the second edition of Early Intervention for Reading Difficulties we read
“Motivation is what gets one going, keeps one engaged, and moves one forward in any task that
requires effort.” (Scanlon, Anderson, & Sweeney, 2017) We need students to get going,
keep engaged, and constantly work on moving forward so that the lesson will have a lasting
impact as much as possible. Once students fail to see the forward movement, they lose
momentum. It is our duty as teachers to get students engaged and the way we do that is to
motivate them. This is an important duty and a tough one to accomplish across the board
for every student, but do it, we must. To engage the students, we have to motivate them.
How do we do that, is certainly a question we all ask.

Motivation is affected by expectancy and incentives. Expectancy about the nature of the
task can pique curiosity of students or cause you to have to compete with something else
more interesting. The aspects of expectancy are certainty, time, and desirability. When
students are uncertain of what to expect their arousal/alertness is heightened, whereas the
students will have very little curiosity if they know what to expect at all times. Time relates
as in immediate expectancies. Students expect something from their efforts and they
respond better to immediate expectancies (outcomes that happen soon). Greater
motivational power is produced by this than expectancies that aren’t immediate. Desirability,
also known as valence, is a part of expectancy. Everyone has more motivation when the
task is a desired one. We definitely would prefer our tasks to be ones we desire to
accomplish; the work seems way less daunting than provided there was no desire to do it.
Incentives, as related to motivation, are no surprise to teachers when it comes to
motivation, but we need to make certain that the incentives have variety, are individualized,
and provided as soon as possible. It is also important to not use them when they’re not
needed, as this devalues them. (McKenna & Robinson, 2014)

It is important to understand what interests our students. Using this knowledge, you can
also relate to the importance of reading and provide choice. A great way to gain this
knowledge is through an interest inventory. This allows you to have materials available
that will motivate your students. Content area teachers can benefit from this when they
make the inventory content specific, but McKenna and Robinson explain to us that “you
must attempt to outguess your students” in what might have valence. (p. 227) Once you
know their interest, you must provide the material to support your knowledge of the
students. And finally, allow students to share ideas and thoughts that your interest
inventory does not allow by adding a blank for write-in ideas. The write-in thoughts just
might enlighten you of ideas that you may have never thought of.

Some content area teachers are reluctant to include reading and writing in their lessons
because they feel they need their time to teach content. Some ideas about motivation
can help teachers in all areas incorporate reading and writing, while motivating students
to be engaged and making learning powerful. I am going to share some ideas that have
piqued my interest and I feel have motivated me as a teacher. Some are ones we
already incorporate; we just need to tweak them and make them more centered toward
the students and allowing them to prove the lessons relevant to students’ and their life.
Here are some examples from McKenna & Robinson’s text:

·       Sustained Silent Reading (SSR): This allows students to read text of their choice. If
this is in a content area classroom, text choices should be provided at varying levels for
the students to read during this time. This allows students to obtain information and not
feel frustrated by being made to read something they do not want to read or that they
cannot read. You must set clear guidelines to make SSR effective.

·       Read aloud to your students:  “When selections are relatively brief and when they
are carefully chosen to emphasize current topics, they can add variety, stimulate
enthusiasm, and model the importance of literacy without diverting excessive time away
from direct instruction.” (McKenna & Robinson, 2014)

·       Vary Teaching Methods: This will pique their attention because they will be
wondering what is coming next. This doesn’t mean turning your room into something
new every day. That can be intriguing but it is not necessary. “Constantly varied in small
ways, however, students are apt to become more attentive because of the uncertainty
of their expectancies.” (Mathison, 1989)

·       Look for links within the lives of students: This can be tough, but it is very powerful.
Allow students to explain how the topic is relevant and/or important to them. Maybe
giving an example of how it is relevant or important to you will help if students aren’t
willing to share or only seem to have negative responses.

·       Provide choices: In my opinion this is something we understand but I don’t think we

truly know the power it has. It adds personal reasons to the lesson, therefore it adds
valence. It transfers the power from the teacher and it allows the students to have some
say so and power in what vehicle they use to attain the knowledge. It also forces
students to make choices which help them become actively engaged as they think
about the choices presented to them.
·       Interdisciplinary Connections: We all know how excited we get when we unveil
connections. How powerful is it when a student can relate topics across the content
areas? It also strengthens student understanding and makes it relevant in other areas of
their life. We must make learning relevant, or they instantly want to ask (usually in a
negative connotation), “How will I ever use this again in my life?”

·       Idea Circles: I really got excited with this. I have never been a circle discussion
teacher but in my 2 semesters of my Master’s Degree program I keep finding reasons to
make this happen, and often. This allows students to have a choice, learn within their
personal abilities and boundaries, and most importantly, everyone can learn something
new and share that knowledge with others. Who doesn’t love to have that aha moment
and better yet, we LOVE to share it!

Why should we care about motivation? Because we should all have a goal of engaging
every student every day! Learning without engagement is blindly throwing a dart at the
bull’s eye! In Teaching Through Text by McKenna and Robins we read that according to
Guthrie and Davis (2003) We must take a look at our lessons and decide if they:
1.     Stress knowledge goals rather than performance
2.     Include real-world interactions
3.     Include many interesting texts
4.     Provide choices and student control
5.     Incorporate instruction in effective comprehension strategies
6.     Include collaboration

Motivating students can be stressful and take time, but students are worth it! The more
these things are put into practice the easier it becomes and tends to be second nature.
Start small and continue to grow from there. That’s certainly my plan! As Courtney
Samuelson said in a lectures about motivation and engagement, just ask yourself 3
simple questions about your lessons:

1.     What do you find interesting about the subject matter?

2.     How can you convince students that it is interesting?

3.     Why do students need this lesson?

 
 

References

Guthrie, J.T., & Davis, M. H. (2003). Motivating struggling readers in middle school through
an engagement model of classroom practice. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 19, 59-85. 

Mathison, C. (1989). Activating student interest in content area reading. Journal of Reading,
33, 170-176).

McKenna, M. C., & Robinson, R. D. (2014). Teaching through text: reading and writing in
the content areas. Boston: Pearson.

Samuelson, C. (2020). Motivation and Engagement. Retrieved from Moodle.

Scanlon, D.M., Anderson, K. L., & Sweeney, J. M. (2017). Early Intervention for reading
difficulties: the interactive strategies approach. New York: The Guilford Press.