Seven Ways to Motivate Your Students to do the Assignment by Marilyn Buehrer, Teacher

Seven ways to motivate your students to do their assignments:

• Give them a reason why they should.
  • A poll of the students in my 6^th grade Language Arts class:
    • “I want to get good grades”
    • “I know I will need this education later in life”
    • “My mom and dad expect me to do well.”
    • “I want to go on to seventh grade.”
    • “I want to be in student council and be a tutor.”
    • “I want to get a good job when I grow up.”
    • “I want to do well so I can be a better person.”
• Give a lot of individual genuine praise.
  • Ways to say “Good Job”
    • “You’ve got your brain in gear today!”
    • “That was first class work.”
    • “Congratulations, you got it right!”
    • “You’ve got the hang of it.
    • “That’s an interesting way of looking at it.”
    • “That’s “A” work.
    • “Keep working on it; you’re improving.”
    • “You are learning fast.”
    • “Keep up the good work!”
    • “It looks like it is going to be a super paper.”
• Choose subjects that interest them and are “cool” to work on.
• Provide extra time and extra chances for them to complete their work.
• Take a lot of time to explain concepts and directions well.
• Make subjects easy to understand.
  • Speak in language of their grade level, not in teacher-ese.
• Make things seem easier than they really are.
  • Math doesn’t have to have “problems.” It can have “situations.” And harder problems can become “fancier situations.”

Marilyn Buehrer is a teacher, and creator of the comprehensive educational supplemental workbooks published by Lyric Power Publishing.