Motivation

My office has a revolving door.  Through it the same types of students enter.  They are nuisances, misfits, and rule-breakers who have been failing since 3rd grade.  We place them in intensive reading and intensive math classes and they fail again.  We retest them and they fail again.  Then they act out in class and make life hard on everyone.  Once they reach high school, they have been failing for a decade, and any little anecdotal, motivational speech about better grades and a better life, falls on deaf ears.

When I first became an assistant principal I tried motivating these kids by selling them on our system of education.  I used to explain better test scores and better grades equate to choices in life.  It became a hard sell for many reasons, but primarily because after a while, neither the students nor I believed a word of it.

Alfie Kohn, who is one of the most outspoken critics of accountability as motivation, says grades tend to diminish students’ interest in whatever they’re learning. He also says to motivate students, educators must create a culture, climate and system that will nourish and sustain certain fundamental inclinations students have: to make sense of themselves and the world, and to connect with other people and express themselves.

Since our educational system does little to motivate the type of student I see everyday, we have to get creative.  I have found two tactics consistently work when trying to create the kind of a climate where students make sense of their world and connect with other people.

1. I set appointments with students. For example, I have a student; we will call her Jennifer.  She has a terrible attitude and is angry at everything.  Teachers really have a hard time with her and honestly, so do I.  Recently as I processed her referral for classroom disruption, I pulled her grades.  She sat there with her arms folded and her disdain for me was written all over her face.  I told her I would like to meet with her again.  I told her I wanted her to improve just one letter grade in math and one letter grade in reading.  She watched me pull up my Outlook calendar and put her name in my computer.  After I saved it, I turned my screen towards her and pointed to the date two weeks in the future with her name below. She and I were having a standoff and I said, “I will see you in two weeks.  I believe in you and you’re dismissed.”  Two weeks later I called her down to my office.  I wouldn’t say she was delightful, but she was definitely pleased with herself.  Probably because she exceeded my expectations and her own.  I know it had nothing to do with the grades and everything to do with the authentic conversation we had together.  We were connecting.  She actually smiled when she left my office. 2. I elicit the help of the student I am trying to motivate. For example, I have another student; we will call him Alex. He has a hard time in reading class.  Probably because he has been failing to meet state mandated expectations in reading his entire academic life.  He uses reading class to either catch up on sleep or to challenge the teacher on a multitude of levels.  Rather than focusing on his reading grades, I reframe my criticism into questions and say, “I need your help with getting the class to settle down and be more respectful.  You have a lot of influence.  You should use that power for good and not evil.   Can you help me and be a leader in class and get the other kids to follow you?”  This tactic has worked too many times to count.  Help has meaning to kids and when you can tap into that meaning, even the more challenging students begin to make connections with themselves and the world.

Do these tactics work every time for every kid?  Absolutely, not.  Do these kids still get in trouble and make things hard on teachers and me? Undoubtedly, yes.  But when I am beating my head against the wall trying to motivate these students in a system that impedes inspiration, the above two approaches work.  They are much more effective than the ISS room and the threat of bad grades.