Building a Community of Self-Motivated Learners: Strategies to Help Students Thrive in School and Beyond

216 Pages·2015·1.418 MB·English

by  Larry Ferlazzo

Building a
Community of
Self-Motivated
Learners
Award-winning teacher, blogger, and author Larry Ferlazzo is back with more
insightful research and strategies for helping students want to care more
about school and learning. In his previous books on motivation—Helping Stu-
dents Motivate Themselves and Self-Driven Learning—he tackled ways to help
students build intrinsic motivation through how you use class time, manage
your class, encourage students to feel positive about learning, help them not
feel burned out by testing, and more. In this book, he looks at how teachers can
create classroom conditions that are needed for motivation to grow in the first
place. Ferlazzo provides research-based suggestions on what you can do today
to help students want to develop qualities like physical health, grit, flow, and
a desire to transfer what they’re learning to life outside of school.
At the end of each chapter, you’ll find high-interest lesson plans, corre-
lated to the Common Core ELA/Literacy Standards, that set the stage for long-
term positive impacts. Students will read about sports stars, how maintaining
a healthy lifestyle can help them achieve their goals, and other engaging top-
ics. They will integrate information from various texts and make connections
to their own lives, hopes, and dreams—a more powerful way to learn to care
than being told they should. The readings for these lessons and other tools are
available as free eResources on our website so you can easily print them for
your students.
Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) is an award-winning teacher at Luther Bur-
bank High School in Sacramento, California. He writes a popular education
blog and a teacher advice column for Education Week Teacher.
Other Eye On Education Titles
Available from Routledge
(www.routledge.com/eyeoneducation)
Self-Driven Learning: Teaching Strategies for Student Motivation
Larry Ferlazzo
Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers
to Classroom Challenges
Larry Ferlazzo
Create, Compose, Connect! Reading, Writing, and Learning
with Digital Tools
Jeremy Hyler and Troy Hicks
Reinventing Writing: The 9 Tools That Are Changing Writing,
Teaching, and Learning Forever
Vicki Davis
Focus on Text: Tackling the Common Core Reading
Standards, Grades 4–8
Amy Benjamin
Engaged, Connected, Empowered:
Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century
Ben Curran and Neil Wetherbee
Writing Behind Every Door:
Teaching Common Core Writing in the Content Areas
Heather Wolpert-Gawron
Rigor Is NOT a Four-Letter Word
Barbara Blackburn
Rigor in Your Classroom: A Toolkit for Teachers
Barbara Blackburn
What Teachers Can Learn From Sports Coaches:
A Playbook of Instructional Strategies
Nathan Barber
Building a
Community of
Self-Motivated
Learners
Strategies to Help Students
Thrive in School and Beyond
Larry Ferlazzo
First published 2015
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Taylor & Francis
The right of Larry Ferlazzo to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him/her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ferlazzo, Larry.
Building a community of self-motivated learners : strategies to help students
thrive in school and beyond / Larry Ferlazzo.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Motivation in education. 2. Effective teaching. 3. Classroom
management. I. Title.
LB1065.F46 2015
370.15'4—dc23 2014035549
ISBN: 978-0-415-74665-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-74666-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-79747-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Palatino LT Std
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
eResources ..................................................... ix
Meet the Author ................................................ xi
Acknowledgments ..............................................xii
Introduction ..................................................xiii
References .....................................................xv
1 I Still Want To Know: How Do You Motivate Students? . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Intrinsic Motivation: Why It’s Better and How It’s Nurtured ...........1
Immediate Actions ...............................................4
Promoting Autonomy ..............................................5
Supporting Competence ............................................6
“Planning for the Unpredictable” ..................................7
Seeing Progress ................................................12
Encouraging Relatedness ........................................12
Teacher-Student ................................................12
Student-Student ................................................14
Ensuring Relevance .............................................14
Setting the Stage ................................................19
Goals, Grit, and Deliberate Practice ...................................19
Goal-Setting Lesson Plan II .......................................23
Grit Lesson Plan II ..............................................44
Deliberate Practice Mini-Lesson Plan ..............................48
Student Engagement Assessment Mini-Lesson Plan .................51
References .....................................................53
2 I Still Want To Know: How Can You Best Handle
Classroom Management? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62
The Foundations of an Effective Classroom Management
Strategy: Building Relationships and Being Positive ...............63
v
Setting the Stage ................................................65
Boredom .....................................................65
Gratitude Mini-Lesson ............................................65
Fighting Mini-Lesson .............................................66
Poverty and the Adolescent Brain Lesson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Boredom Mini-Lesson Plan ......................................69
Gratitude and Self-Control Mini-Lesson Plan .......................71
Fighting Mini-Lesson Plan .......................................73
Poverty and the Adolescent Brain—What Are Their Impacts
on Self-Control and Grit?: Lesson Plan ...........................75
References .....................................................86
3 I Still Want to Know: How Can You Get Students
More Interested in Reading and Writing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90
Writing ........................................................93
Technology and Writing Motivation ....................................93
Using Student-Created Prompts as a Differentiation Strategy .........94
Setting the Stage for Writing ......................................95
“Why Do We Write?” Lesson Plan .................................96
Reading ......................................................100
Reading Socially ...............................................100
Student Self-Accountability .....................................101
Measuring Reading Progress ....................................103
Setting the Stage for Reading ....................................107
Reading and the Brain Mini-Lesson ..............................107
LeBron James Mini-Lesson ......................................107
Summer Slide Lesson ..........................................108
Reading and the Brain Mini-Lesson Plan ..........................109
LeBron James Mini-Lesson Plan ................................. 112
Summer Slide Lesson Plan ...................................... 114
References .................................................... 117
4 How Can You Get Students to Transfer Their Knowledge
and Skills From One Class to Other Classes and
Outside-of-School Situations? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Immediate Actions .............................................124
Maximizing the Initial Learning Experience for Transfer .....................124
Activate Prior Knowledge .........................................124
Create Time for Learning .........................................125
Deliberate Practice .............................................125
Explain in Their Own Words ........................................125
vi Building a Community of Self-Motivated Learners
Other Ways to Promote Understanding ...........................126
Explicit Teaching of Transfer Situations ................................126
Simulations ..................................................127
Group Learning ................................................127
Metacognition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Analogies and Metaphors .........................................129
Generalizing ..................................................130
Setting the Stage ...............................................130
Learning Transfer Lesson .........................................130
Learning Transfer Lesson Plan ...................................131
References ....................................................141
5 How Can You Help Students Want To Live
A Physically Healthy Lifestyle? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144
The Importance of Sleep ........................................145
Immediate Actions to Support Student Sleep ......................146
Exposing Students to Natural Sunlight .................................146
Helping Students Reduce Their Stress .................................146
Teaching Students About Sleep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Setting the Stage: Students & Sleep Lesson .............................147
Importance of Sleep Inductive Lesson Plan ........................148
Good Nutrition ................................................157
Immediate Actions to Support Student Nutrition ..........................157
Setting the Stage: Nutrition and Exercise Lesson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Breakfast Mini-Lesson ...........................................159
Nutrition and Exercise Lesson Plan ..............................160
Breakfast Mini-Lesson Plan .....................................170
References ....................................................171
6 How Can You Help Students Get Into a State of “Flow” . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Flow .........................................................177
What People Feel While in a State of Flow ...............................177
Necessary Conditions to Achieve a State of Flow ..........................177
Immediate Actions .............................................179
Demonstrate Enthusiasm and Humor .................................179
Turn Learning Tasks into Puzzles ....................................179
Reduce Interruptions ............................................179
Create Opportunities for Regular Feedback .............................180
Promote Higher-Leveling Thinking and Use Appropriately Challenging Activities .....180
Encourage Use of Mental Imagery ...................................181
Use Cooperative Learning and Other Interactive Strategies ...................182
Contents vii
Build Positive Teacher-Student Relationships & Ensure
Lesson Relevance ............................................183
Setting the Stage ...............................................183
Flow Lesson ..................................................183
Flow Lesson Plan ..............................................184
References ....................................................197
viii Building a Community of Self-Motivated Learners
eResources
The figures in this book can be downloaded and printed for classroom
use. You can access these downloads by visiting the book product page on
our website: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415746663.
Then click on the tab that says “eResources,” and select the files. They will
begin downloading to your computer.
Figures
1.1 One-Sentence Project 33
1.2 Weekly Evaluation for Athletes 34
1.3 The Motivational Benefits of Goal-Setting 35
1.4 The Difference between Learning Goals and Performance
Goals 36
1.5 Goal-Planning Sheet 37
1.6 Four-Week Goal-Tracking Sheet 38
1.7 Pursuing Goals Effectively 38
1.8 Bar Graph Goal-Tracking Sheet 39
1.9 Goal Report 40
1.10 Goal Reflection 41
1.11 What Have We Studied This School Year? 42
1.12 What Are Your Goals? 42
1.13 How What We Have Studied and How We Have Studied
Can Help You Achieve Your Goals 43
1.14 Ray Allen Deliberate Practice Read Aloud 49
1.15 Learning Quotient Assessment 50
1.16 Beginning of School Year Student Engagement Assessment 52
1.17 Semester and Year-End Student Engagement Assessment 53
2.1 “This is Boring!” 70
2.2 Gratitude and Self-Control Read Aloud 72
2.3 Teen Fighting 74
2.4 Benefits of Self-Control 83
2.5 Teen Brains and Self-Control 84
2.6 Money and Self-Control 85
ix