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Tips

Motivating Students



Motivating Students to Learn: Some Tips to Try
  • Find out about your students' interests, experiences, hobbies, career goals... As often as you can, relate the content to students' interests.

  • Use lots of examples, illustrations, anecdotes, stories.

  • Use humor.

  • Use appropriate self-disclosure. Be a "real" person. Let students know some things about you.

  • Admit mistakes, lack of knowledge. Don't try to be THE authority. Instead, model where students can find the information. Knowing where to find the answers is just as important as knowing the answers.

  • Talk less than your students do.

  • Encourage interaction among students. Use group work, encourage discussion, try brainstorming, role playing, whatever you feel comfortable with. Try something NEW.

  • LISTEN.

  • Give positive feedback, verbally (praise) and non-verbally (make eye-contact, smile, nod).

  • Make sure that the level of teaching matches students' background, ability, and experience.

  • Check that the relevance of what you're doing is clear to the students.

  • Use as much VARIETY in your methods and materials as possible.

  • Be clear about what's going to happen. Use an agenda.

  • Encourage students to make decisions about their own Learning -- give them CHOICES, act on their suggestions.

  • If possible, encourage students to have input into how they will be evaluated.

  • Ask students how the sessions could be made more interesting!

  • Engage students in their learning. Activity is much more motivating than passive listening or passive responses. The more students DO, the more they will LEARN.

Read our article entitled "Lighting The Learning Fire".


Motivating Students Workshop If you are interested in more information about our Motivating Students Workshop, please visit our Professional Development page in the catalog.

Survival Kit for New Teachers Survival Kit for New TeachersLooking for practical tips and ideas for the start of school?
Check out Survival Kit for New Teachers.

Classrooms That SPARK! Classrooms That SPARK!Veteran teachers, check out our newest title just for you, Classroom that SPARK!, with the same great information geared specifically for veteran teachers!
Winner of the 2006 Teacher's Choice Award!


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