How to motivate low level students

[brianp0803]

Maybe not many math teachers here but I am suprised students struggle with the most basic concepts of trigonometry but I see their Thai math teacher writing complex trigonometric identities.

I try to teach common logs and natural logs and the thai teacher is teaching log base 3 and base 7.

The students can't do basic limits and simple differentiation but the Thai teacher is already teaching integration.

Thai teachers have a cute trick on factoring quadratic equations but 90% of the time I see students use the method the get it wrong.

There is logic to the method but the students don't understand it and apply it wrong.

If they use the thai teacher's method and it's wrong then no points. If they use my method then they can get part credit for minor errors

[Scott]

I taught a young lady--she actually just contacted me after many years. She received one of the highest scores in the national exams in English in all of Thailand. She was 100% Thai and had never been overseas, so she was an outstanding student at English. She was as bad at Mathematics as she was good at English.

She went through a bad spell where she was quite difficult to deal with. I think it's called adolescence! In Mathematics she totally gave up. She would simply write her name on the exam and go to sleep. In English, she was equally difficult to deal with because she was so advanced. I used to catch her reading a book when she should be doing other work. The book she was reading was 'The DaVinci Code.' I told her if she could write a comprehensive book report, I would forgive her not doing her work.

Thereafter, she read a book about every two weeks and wrote a book report. Her book reports were 2 to 4 pages long and were grammatically flawless (one of our newer teachers couldn't believe a student could write that well and spent considerable time trying to do searches for text she may have copied. He never found any).

She's now working for some international company and doing great. She grew out of her adolescent angst. Her math teacher just gave up on her -- or she gave up on math, or some combination. In English it was a matter of letting her self-learn.

It's nice to deal with students who have exceptional abilities.

[IMA_FARANG]

My mother was a good teacher.

When I was in first year of school that 1st year teacher and I did not get along, that teacher called me stupid and publicly belittled me in front of the class.

I determined I would not answer any questions she asked me ..... because I was stubborn and disliked her.

One of the requirements to pass the first year "reading skills" was to pass a reading test to go on to the 2nd year.

But I wasn't going to do that test for the 1st year teacher, I wanted nothing to do with her.

My mother, being a licensed teacher, made a deal with the principal of the school ..... if at the start of the 2nd year Ii could pass the standard 2 year reading test, I would be allowed to go on to the 2nd year.

If not, I had to repeat the 1st year with that same teacher I disliked so much.

In the summer vacation my mother "taught" me to read.

Of course, I already could read, it's just that I wouldn't read for that 1st year teacher, because she insulted me every day.

But my mom taught me that reading and writing could be FUN ......I could make up stories that other people wanted to hear!

It was like a revelation, reading wasn't just a boring chore, IT WAS A FUN THING TO DO!

When I took that 2nd year entrance test before school started, I was reading at fifth grade level.

All because of my mom, who taught me reading, writing, and school was FUN!.

Once I got started, I never looked back.

[brianp0803]

We have parent teachers meeting in about a week.

For grade 10 11 12 students I might get 2 or 3 parents

Now common, if I do get a parent of a low performing student, they will start with saying my son is lazy and plays computer games until very late. What should I do?

Interesting that parents ask teachers how to control their child.

We are a respected profession.

Edited October 26, 2014 by brianp0803

[stubuzz]

Posted Yesterday, 10:06

stubuzz, on 25 Oct 2014 - 09:43, said:

Try making your lessons relevant and interesting to the students.

What techniques do you personally use to motivate and make interesting for every single person in your class.

I teach high school math. I have found when reviewing topic they should have learned in 6th or 7th grade then easier to keep the whole class engaged. Teaching to the lowest level student.

If the lesson is trivial and simple the students can laugh and enjoy (although not learn a lot)

I have watched teachers that talk about keeping the class engaged. I enjoyed watching their class. It was funny and enjoyable. I enjoy good comedians but I don't learn a lot from them.

I watched someone recommended as a good teacher teach about water conservation The 50 minute class was asking every individual students how often and how long they took a shower and joking about wasting water or smelling. The class laughed a lot. He was going to continue the next hour about wasting water brushing teeth.

Funny, engaging but very little content taught.

Is this a good model to follow?

1. It is almost impossible to motivate every student in the class unless you incorpoate TBL.

2. Are your lesson objectives set too high?

3. Do you use multimedia to liven your lessons?

4. Have you ever had any formal teacher training?

5. Ever thought of giving the " low performing students" extra lessons at school?

6. Try doing a flip class.

7. Have you self critiqued your lessons?

[brianp0803]

I was hoping for experiences of active teachers as opposed to text book answers from academic philosophers.

When was the last time you taught a class?

Think I have observed many people follow your 2nd point

not set objectivs too high.

The English objectives in an intermediate level language school were higher than grade 10 in a bilingual school or English immersion program.

If we set our objective low enough then possible to get all students involved.

Teachers presenting trivial material can make the class fun and enjoyable and everyone can participate.

I was hoping to hear example of actual classroom experiences and successful methods actually used to solve the problem.

[SlyAnimal]

Every student is different, and if you want to try and motivate them, you need to understand the student.

Some like to be the centre of attention, and will play up in class so that they can be the centre of attention. So use that to your advantage, select them for examples infront of the class etc, so that they can show everyone how smart they are. They'll try harder if they think it'll make them look cool.

Others want to be given praise by the teacher, so ensure you give it to them. These are usually the top students though, so they deserve the praise anyway.

Some want to just survive English so that they can go and play football/computer games after school, so I try to find out what they're interested in and incorporate it into my lesson. This is difficult though as you can't teach about football every day, and there are multiple kids with multiple interests. Everyone loves som run though lol, last year for my English classes (doesn't work as we'll for maths lol) I based the term around making som tum. So I taught them the vocab for the recipes, in groups they then made the recipes and then finally brought mortar, pestle and ingredients to school so they could make som tum as part of a graded presentation. The following term I got them to make up comics/children's books, unfortunately most of the less motivated students just copied stories off the internet, so the learning outcomes weren't what I was planning, but I had significantly less time to teach them that term than I'd anticipated, so figure it was bad management rather than a bad idea (as I had to go back to NZ for a month, and the school had lots and lots of activities in the 2 months prior, resulting in some classes only getting 1 class before I went back to NZ).

Others want to literally do nothing. They will probably do nothing after school too. They can sometimes be bargained or rationalized with, telling them that doing work now means less work later (I also give huge amounts of lines to students whom I fail for lack of attendance. I explain to them the logic of it at the start of the term, 1 class missed (if below 80% & thus fail) means 250x or 500x lines per period absent if I then fail them, so it's easier and more enjoyable to come to class instead of going for a smile in the toilets etc).

Most also want a good grade, or at least just to pass, so ensure your grading system is well understood by the students, that they know that the subjects from during the year will be in the exam. Also include portions of their grade everyday in class, a small portion for simply attending class, as well as marks for doing something during class (e.g. Before they leave they need to answer a question/s or give San example of the vocab/phrases used that day's topic for a bonus mark towards their final grade).

Grading is how I motivate most of my students, and even the less motivated students will sit there practicing with their friends and essentially learning the content just because they not only want the mark but I also block the door, so they feel they need to either do it or lose face by saying they can't. Sometimes they might sneak out the side door, but most get the mark, sometimes it's the 2nd/3rd attempt though (if they get it wrong I often let them/make them, queue up again to have another go at it).

[brianp0803]

I realize my position of upper high school math teacher has limited number of teachers but I thought this was an interesting question and many techniques work across all disciplines.

Motivating a grade 6 student and grade 11 student may have different techniques.

The class clown may not be good academically but the majority of the class is focused on him when he is in the front of the class - trying to coach him to get the answer.

I let students pick teams for a competition in 2 days based on homework.

In the competition I call a pair of equally matched students to race to solve a problem based on their level.

I have seen advanced students tutoring lower level students on their team. Students are competitive.

When a pair of lower level students are racing the class is supportive.

When the top level students are paired there is an "ahh" and the students watch intently. (although a very difficult problem).

I once found a template for the Jerpody game show(including music).

It takes some time to setup the questions and answers but it achieved good focus (but not good interface for math equations). The students always tried for the difficult high point questions. Need to teach strategy.

If students finish their work early I will let them do other activities that do not distract other students from their work.

I try to help the grade 11 student at grade 6 math level but get discouraged and it seems less productive use of my time. But these are the students often ignored by teachers and need help and encouragement and told they have ability but are just behind.

More fun to teach those at grade level math.

I will give points to a student helping a lower level student and to the student being helped. Students teaching students are also increasing their ability.