Motivating+Students+Who+Don't+Care+page+2

Discussion Questions for Chapters 1 - 5 of Motivating Students That Don't Care Chapter 1 This chapter is about the hard to motivate,and how often they are hard to discipline. They require a great deal of attention and time. The author said that educators must understand how to "use social dynamics to create, inspire, and cultivate motivation within the students." 1. What does this statement mean to you?

2.We all know that some students refuse to work just to gain control of the situation. What do you say to these students to motivate them?

Chapter 2 "Using This Book Most Effectively" No discussion questions

Chapter 3 What Educators Can Do: Five Key Processes That Motivate

Students that become unmotivated to learn often do so after repeatedly failing. 1. As an administator what can you do to decrease the number of kids that fail? What strategies are in place for addressing this issue of student failure? //**(Real strategies**//. Not the usual ones that we are all required to do. )

2. How can we convince teachers that we are motivating students when we provide challenging work ?

3. High motivation to learn comes from being treated with dignity and respect. So, how can we get more teachers to treat ALL STUDENTS with respect and dignity?

Chapter 4 Emphasizing Effort "Putting focus on effort is crucial to increasing achievement, promoting learning, and minimizing behavior problems among students who are hiding their academic inadequacies." (Mendler, p.9) Many, many students don't think they are capable of completing the work. They feel they are unable to do the work. They believe that their "intelligence is a fixed entity." (Mendler, p.9)

Effort is a key factor in success. Madeline Hunter believes that **teachers** should hold discussions with students about their **wrong answers**. In other words we should talk about what part(s) of their answer(s) were partially correct, or what part of their thinking demonstrated understanding. As a result they are given credit for what they did correctly. 1. Is this a policy of any of your teachers? Do their students perform better in these classes? Do they have better attitude?

3. Survey some of your teachers to find out the following: A. How many teachers allow students to retake tests? B. How many teachers allow students to revise projects, papers, and experiments ? C. How do they decide on the credit the students will receive for redoing or revising these assignments? What are the most(points) a child can receive for redoingand/or revising assignments? D. How many of the teachers give separate grades for achievement and effort? E. What percentage of the grade is for effort?

4, Do you believe that students would care more about learning if they had these second learning opportunities? Why or Why not?

5. Why do your teachers give homework? Is everyone required to do the homework assignments? Think back to all of your homework assignments you completed. Did you learn anything from these assignments? How much does homework count? Is this one of the reasons students are failing??????

6. How much time do you think is spent trying to get assignments from students in a normal week? Do we think about how many students hold part- time jobs & full time jobs, how many of them are caregivers for their own children, siblings, parents?

8. Select two or three teachers and ask them to do the following task with their students for 3 weeks. Have students to chose one small thing (academically, emotionally, or socially) each day that wish to do better on or to make the world a better place to live. Write the goals down. Have the student(s) to track their progress. Ask the teacher if he/she sees changes in the student's behavior and academic progress. Share results with the rest of us.

Chapter 5 "Creating Hope" "Our challenge... is to create mountains that students believe they can climb." (page 21) Mendler said that the challenges we present to the students should go hand in hand with their ability.If the tasks are too easy they will not be motivated to learn and when they are too difficult they give up. Students appear to be motivated to learn when we take the time to explain **why** they need to learn a certain concept? Should we require teachers to this when possible?

"Students will learn best when they can make a connection between the curriculum,their interests and life experiences" ( Tomlinson, 2000) It becomes quite hard for adults to motivate children since their time frame of events is viewed differentedly from that of an adult So, if we are going to inspire them to put forth the effort to learn then we need to show them the benefits within their time frames. (Elementary students see the future as 3 days, Middle Sch. 2 weeks, & HS a month.)

Questions for Reflection 1. Remember a former teacher who made you feel special. Picture this person very clearly and see him or her saying and doing those things that made you feel special. Write down what was said and done. 2. Think of one the students at your school that is not living up to his or her potential. What would it take for you to become the equivalent of y our special teacher in this student's life? 3. What kind of support do you appreciate getting from others when you are faced with difficult, challenging tasks? Unmotivated students might appreciate getting this kind of support from you if they do not get it already.

Chapter 6 Respecting Power I didn't feel there was any new information in this chapter to discuss. I found another book online with two good chapters motivating students by giving them power in the classroom. The book is //The Classroom of Choice.//Check it out. Go the link below, click on view. [|Motivating Students Who Don't Care page 2] After reading the two chapters from the above book, discuss which strategies you will be able to share with your teachers.