Motivation Why should they care?

A model for motivation Expectancy ◦ Your expectation about your ability to accomplish the task ◦ Am I capable and prepared to do this? Value ◦ Your perception of the degree to which the task is worthwhile for you ◦ Is this worth my time and effort to achieve? ◦ What will I get out of this?

Increasing Expectancy Balance of challenge and support ◦ Not too easy, not too hard Teach the process ◦ Modeling ◦ Teach the steps Time & Materials ◦ Provide adequate time ◦ Make sure students have access to necessary materials

Increasing Expectancy Support ◦ Express sincere confidence in students’ abilities ◦ Give specific, sincere praise ◦ Truly care – and communicate that you care ◦ Be available to answer questions ◦ Provide timely feedback  Smaller, more frequent assessments are more motivating than a few that are high stakes

Increasing Value Show relevance ◦ How does this connect to your life? Allow for choices Provide opportunities for collaboration ◦ I don’t have to do this alone ◦ My work matters to other people Use extrinsic rewards judiciously ◦ Extrinsic motivation tends to be short-lived ◦ Can motivate in the short-term to create success that can result in intrinsic motivation

If you want students to be motivated... Build relationships with and among your students Provide a balance of challenge and support Provide plentiful opportunities for success ◦ Success breeds success! Teach well Make the content relevant ◦ Find out what matters to your students

Keep in mind... Students are driven by two competing feelings: striving for success vs. fear of failure “Over time, students become either success oriented or failure avoidant. When students become failure avoidant, motivation is difficult. In fact, students may choose to fail with dignity to protect their ego.”Garfield Gini-NewmanGarfield Gini-Newman In other words, your students have already created a school-identity for themselves before they enter your classroom. For most kids, it’s not that they don’t care – it’s that they don’t want to fail.

Emotions, the Amygdala and the Teenage Brain  Information goes first to the amygdala – site of emotional memory  In adolescents, the amygdala is faster developing than the frontal lobes (where more rational thinking occurs)  As a result, teenagers are prone to reacting rather than reflecting Garfield Gini-Newman

Therefore... If there is an assault to their sense of self or another pressing concern of an emotional nature The teenage brain become unavailable! Your job is to capture their interest and their hearts. ENGAGEMENT – helping them care, capturing interest Engagement Attention Learning

What does motivation have to do with curriculum? Curriculum = “what we subject kids to at school” What “stuff” at school is be perceived as ◦ Worthwhile? ◦ Appropriately challenging with a good chance of success? ◦ Capturing students’ minds & hearts?

Curriculum: More Than Textbooks Types of curriculum activity Key Terms (WA State) ◦ EALR – Essential academic learning requirements ◦ GLE – grade level expectation ◦ PLE – performance level expectations

National Curriculum Professional Organizations Common Core ◦ ◦ ◦ xzE - State Supt. of Ed xzE