1. Motivating the “Unmotivated”
Erin Fox, 2018 SCTOY

2. Unmotivated Does Not Equal Lazy!
ənˈmōdəˌvādəd/
adjective
not having interest in or enthusiasm for something, especially work or study.
2. without a reason or motive. "an unmotivated attack"

3. Unmotivated students are so jaded by the world and its effects on their lives that they no longer see a REASON for TRYING to get an education in order to better themselves.

4. Turn to a partner or two and discuss…
Turn to a partner or two and discuss… *What were the moments or the words that struck you the most in his performance? *Why were these so impressionable to you? *How did they make you feel? *What was your initial, gut reaction?

5. The first way to motivate the unmotivated is to bring in THE POSITIVE ENERGY!!! Take your unmotivated students away from their current situations and teach in such a way that it takes them back to this…

7. Rule #3: Fuel Your Ride with Positive Energy
Negativity is sludge that slows everything down.
To get rid of negative energy you must practice GRATITUDE!!!
Two forces are always at work inside: a positive side and a negative side. Feed the side you want to win.
You cannot SHARE your positive energy with others unless you have it in abundance, so learn to produce it for yourselves now.
“We must keep fueling up on positive energy so the negative energy doesn’t have room to expand” (Gordon 48).

8. #7: Enthusiasm Attracts More Passengers and Energizes Them During the Ride
Look at challenges as an opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed.
“Enthusiasm comes from the Greek word entheos, which means ‘inspired’ or ‘filled with the divine” (Gordon 108).
“When you are enthusiastic you project an energy that convinces people to get on and stay on your bus” (Gordon 108).
“The simple truth is that when you are excited people get excited about where your bus is going and this makes them want to stay on your bus (Gordon 109).

9. Rule #8: Love Your Passengers!
“’Enthusiasm is important. But love is the answer. To really, really, and I mean really, tap the power of your heart and lead with positive, contagious energy you must love your passengers’” (Gordon 114).
“’You can give all the trophies and awards you want, and sure a raise would be a good idea…but eventually, the gift is forgotten and the excitement of the raise wears off and what remains is an emotional feeling, a feeling of whether you love them. That’s what it’s all about…your team want[s] to know that your care about them. They want to know that you are concerned about their future and welfare. They need to know that you love them. It can’t be about you and your job. It also has to be about them. And when you love them, they’ll love you back. If you treat them like a number or your next promotion or your next bonus, they’ll treat you like a number. But if you really love and care about them they will love you back by working for you…by surprising you with amazing initiative and success stories, and by teaching you as much as you will teach them’” (Gordon ).

10. Rule #8 Continued…
“’…Love takes time…It’s a process not a goal. Love is something that needs to be nurtured. But if there is one thing I urge you to start immediately it’s focus on bringing out the best in each person on your team. When you love someone you want the best for them. You want them to shine. And the best way to do this is to help them discover the value inside’” (Gordon 117).
Find something valuable in each of your students, but most especially in your unmotivated students. Find a way to make that value shine for the class to see, for the school to see, and for the community to see. Make them see that they are worth your time and effort because of the talent and ability they have to offer to the world.
Don’t give up on them and make them believe in themselves.

11. Shifting Gears (Just a Little…Stay on the Energy Bus, though!)
Use your resources! And this is an incredible one!
Bloomboard is a learning and resource site for earning microcredentials. If you use the search engine, you can find a plethora of resources for every possible classroom scenario.

12. From Ken Shore’s education world Article “The Unmotivated Student”
“The unmotivated student actually is highly motivated when it comes to school work—he’s motivated to avoid it.”
Give the student an opportunity to succeed.
Provide the learner with “ownership over the learning process.”
Tap into the student’s personal interest and bring them into the lessons.
Keep it real. Show them how they can actually use the information and skill you are teaching in real life.
Chunk up the work!
Vary your strategies and methodology. Bring in the ENERGY. Make it kinesthetic and tactile.
Focus on the unmotivated student’s personal progress—not on their work relative to the class as a whole.

13. Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic Motivation—an inner drive to engage in an activity for its own sake because it is interesting and satisfying in itself.
Extrinsic Motivation—a drive to engage in an activity because of a reward to engage in the activity or a punishment for not engaging.
Which of these is better?
Why?
Which do we use most?
How can we move from one to the other?

14. Benefits and Drawbacks
According to the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University, the benefits of Intrinsic motivation are that it can be “long lasting” and “self-sustaining.” These motivators focus on the learning and the subject more so than “rewards or punishments.” The drawbacks, however, start with the fact that it is a SLOOOOOOOWWWW process. It is also dependent on differentiation between different students, their learning styles, and their interests (“Motivating Students” 2).
With extrinsic motivation you have the benefit of speed!!! Behavioral changes are much more rapidly produced, and it doesn’t involve a lot of “effort or preparation.” They also don’t force students to delve deeply into who their students are. Other drawbacks include that it distracts the student from actually learning the material presented. Rewards and punishments are forced to “escalate” in order to continue enticing students to perform. AND they don’t work forever. Once the extrinsic motivator is taken away, students return to their original, unmotivated state (“Motivating Students 2).

15. Competence—A Note about Praise and Constructive Criticism
Feedback is critical!
BUT “praising intelligence makes people less willing to risk ‘their newly- minted genius status,’ while praising effort encourages the idea that we primarily learn through our hard work” (Ferlazzo 2).
There must be a higher positive to negative feedback ratio.
Constructive Criticism can be best accomplished through a method called “plussing:”
According to Peter Sims in a New York Times interview, “The point…is to ‘build and improve on ideas without using judgmental language.’’…instead of saying ‘no’…build on the starting point…’Using words like ‘and’ or ‘what if’ rather than ‘but’ is a way to offer suggestions and allow creative juices to flow without fear” (Ferlazzo 2).

16. A Final Note on the Subject of Praise…
Michael Linsin notes in his article “How to Motivate Unmotivated Students” that we commonly try to “convince them to work harder” (Linsin 1).
He states that “this approach rarely works with hard-to-reach students” and that it should not be based on praise; he says that it is a matter of inspiration (Linsin 2).
He lays guidelines out in this advice:
“Stop the flow of excessive and over-the-top praise, Stop pulling inert students aside for pep-talks and lectures. Stop talking them through what they’re capable of doing for themselves. Stop trying to use your creative use of words to get them going. Counterintuitive as it may seem, this alone will get a great many unmotivated students moving. They idea of relying on themselves feels good, and they’ll give more, sometimes much more, than when you were pushing and prodding them along’ (Linsin 2).
See this progress, but don’t mention it.
“Keep a lookout for evidence of quality work, no matter how small. You’re going to keep a lookout for that which impresses you based on their ability. But instead of praising them for it, instead of saying how proud you are of them or how impressed you are with their effort, you’re going to make an observation about their work” (Linsin 2).
Then move on. They will take pride in it and learn that they can take “pride in something bigger and more important than themselves” (Linsin 3).

17. 27 Strategies to Motivate Students in Class—Intrinsic Motivators
Share your story with you students.
Incorporate the student in the learning experience.
Spark curiosity in the subject matter.
Eliminate extrinsic rewards.
Create a lesson that is free of grades.
Ask students what motivates them to play games or sports. Tap into those motivators.
Challenge the students to find a new solution to an old problem.
Encourage creative ways to accomplish the same task.
Use teams or groups.
Praise students for meaningful accomplishments.

18. 27 Strategies Continued…
Practice what you teach.
Play a game that teaches the same principles.
Discover your passion.
Discover you students’ passions.
Allow time for the process.
Demonstrate, show, describe, and engage with a purpose.
Add energy to what you are doing.
Create a new atmosphere for creativity and intrinsic behavior.
Collectively set milestones to reach. Display them.
Create multiple skills assessments that students choose to take.
Allow student to measure progress throughout.

19. 27 Strategies Continued…
Create a trusting atmosphere.
Create a class vision.
Engage in community service.
Let students have choices-in what they do, how they do it, and who assesses it.
Share with others what is happening in the classroom.
Incorporate the student’s life and story into the classroom.
*Each of these strategies was taken verbatim from an infographic from Educational Technology and Mobile Learning website.

20. Works Cited
“27 Strategies to Motivate Students in Class.” Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. July 30, Web. students-in.html.
Ferlazzo, Larry. “Strategies for Helping Students Motivate Themselves.” Edutopia. September 14, Web. themselves-larry-ferlazzo.
Gordon, Jon. The Energy Bus. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, , , Print.
Linsin, Michael. “How to Motivated Unmotivated Students.” Smart Classroom Management. March 21, Web. motivate-unmotivated-students/.
Shore, Ken. “The Unmotivated Student.” education world. February 6, Web.
“Motivating Students.” Center for Teaching. Vanderbilt University, Web.