Chapter 5: Masters of Motivation

Citation: Saphier, Jonathan. (2005). Masters of Motivation. In R. DuFour, R. Eaker, & R. DuFour (Eds.). On common ground. (pp. 85-113) Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree

Abstract: This chapter was all about getting students motivated to learn. The idea of motivating students is based on an idea called "effort-based ability." This is a belief that all students can achieve high academic standards regardless of if they are far behind academically or need time to catch up. Basically, teachers should believe at all students are capable of getting A's and B's. Students need messages sent to them that they can do the work, and the teacher can relay these messages in a number of different ways, such as interactive teaching behaviors, classroom climate and the building of personal relationships, focusing on the future, etc. The crucial messages are : 1) What we're doing here is important. 2) You can do it! 3) I'm not going to give up on you, even if you give up on yourself. There are 7 things teachers can do to make these messages come across to students. They can call on students and not "Dumb down" questions. Responses to student answers are also important because they set a tone in the classroom. Teachers need to be alert if students are having difficulty. Ongoing feedback is also very important. This chapter also gave ideas of how to get the school climate to be a motivating one. Some ideas' were to have the students to go to "motivational bootcamp". This chapter contained a lot of good ideas, especially for teachers who will be teaching students who are behind. In a lot of poor communities, students are almost 4 grade levels behind. A climate that promotes learning, aspiration and motivation, can get these students to do good, solid work.

Reflection:
I thought this chapter had a lot of good information for teachers. I think it is important that teachers go into their classes with the attitude that all students can get a's and b's. While it may not happen, teachers still need to try to get them working at the highest possible level. I think its a good idea that students know that teachers won't give up on them. Probably a lot of kids who do poorly in school have given up on themselves. This could be because they had previous teachers who just simply gave up on them, or maybe because they don't have any support at home. Teachers shouldn't give up on their students either, they should try to find different ways to help make the learning relative to the student to help make them successful. I think that its a tough task to ask teachers to get all students at the highest level of achievement. I think one of the points this article makes is that it can be a school wide change, not just a teacher wide change. PLC's can help form a school climate where motivation is present all the time. I think teachers should do everything they can to reach all students, and if you can't reach certain ones, at least you tried and didn't just give up on them. I also thought a good point this chapter made was about putting the best teachers with the students that needed the most help. I think in a lot of schools, the best teachers get the honors kids and the not so great teachers get the lower level kids. Obviously, this isn't helping the lower level students. We need to do our best to get students who are far behind caught up!