With TAKS season in full swing, and the consequences of “high stakes testing” looming over our children like a hungry predator for the next two months, it is all coming down to the wire. With any luck, our children will put to use the test taking strategies, the critical reading and thinking skills, and the intuitive reasoning that we as parents and teachers have tirelessly “coached” them in, and we’ll all get through yet another year of standardized testing.
There are many who complain about the TAKS tests. Claims of bias, undue emphasis, and traumatic stress syndrome, abound. However, it is important that we stop and consider the alternative. If nothing else, we have “standards” in place. And we are at least insuring literacy and at best motivating excellence. And therein lies the “rub.”
The dynamics of learning for today’s children is a little more complex than it was for us. While they seem to intuitively be able to master the latest release in videogames, know all the words to hit songs after hearing them only once, and can recite word for word the dialog in the latest Hannah Montana Movie or Disney High School Musical Release,-- basic multiplication, simple sentence structure and common knowledge (even in the small circles of their lives,) like knowing the name of their school principal-- may be a mystery or at best a vague recollection.
At the heart of all of this controversy is an elusive key: motivation.
As parents and teachers we know that we must “motivate” our children to learn. Contrary to popular opinion, not all children come to school in the morning, thinking “Oh Boy! I can’t wait to learn more about colonialism, prime numbers and plot structure today!” Granted, there are a few who might, but the large majority of our children come to school with videogames, IPod music, and television shows on their brains. What’s “on their mind” as they enter the classroom, normally has nothing to do with what they are supposed to be learning at school. Quite honestly, unless we can put the day’s lessons into a videogame, hit pop song, or a Cartoon Network Serial-- we’re starting off the day “behind the curve.”
So, how do we “round them up, and bring them in?” The answer is in how the children are “hardwiring.”
When it comes to motivation, there are basically two types of children, and two types of goals to motivate towards.
“Internally motivated” children take off like a rocket! All you have to do is put it out there for them—and they soak it up and look for more! These children are “self starters,” they normally read at an early age, and begin to excel in certain areas of their own interest very quickly. They find their own resources, and ask all the questions in their “quest for knowledge.” Unfortunately, these children are the minority.
“Externally motivated” children make up the majority, and for teachers and parents they are a little more challenging … and every one of them is different. Finding what “moves them to action” takes a little knowledge of the age group, and a lot of love and attention to detail.
Additionally, there is short term motivation, and long term motivation.
It is our duty as parents and teachers to work together to keep children motivated. In order to motivate our kids, as parents and teachers we must find what makes the children focus, and what makes them work. What are their major distractions? What will they work for? What will they work towards? Who will they work for?
When we look for motivators, we must look at our goals for our children. Short term goals are motivated differently than long term goals, but both are necessary.
Short term motivators may be the promise of more computer game time in exchange for “real” study time. Short term may be the removal of privileges (like phone or internet time) until lessons are done and learned, grades go up, or attitudes are adjusted. Short term might be a special “lunch with the teacher,” or time with the class pet. Short term might be a homework reprieve if the student excels on a pretest.
When I first began my career as a High School English teacher, I thought that the more I knew about my teaching field, and the better I was able to “answer all of the students’ questions,” the more I would be respected and the more I would be able to “teach” the children. One day I came in from an especially challenging day with some surly (but bright) children who decided that they weren’t interested in studying Shakespeare (which was part of the required curriculum.) I was highly frustrated, I couldn’t understand why they didn’t see the beauty in the language of Julius Caesar. My mother (a veteran “master teacher” of 50+ years) told me, “There is an old adage that says, ‘Children don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.’” She looked me in the eye, put her arm around me and said, “Norma, you have to REACH them before you can TEACH them.”
Bottom Line: Motivating children is eventually all you can really do for them. You can’t think for them. You can’t learn the material for them. You can’t take their exams.
We can however, teach them “how” to think. With “mastery learning” as the basis of our teaching, we can present the materials to be covered on the exams, so that there is no “mystery testing” or reason for anxiety.
So, SHORT TERM-- We can teach them strategies for taking the exams, so that they do not have to fear them. We can give them the reasoning skills and the confidence to meet the challenges of exams. We can fuel their desire to excel, by giving them the ability to do so.
And LONG TERM? -- There is no motivation like SUCCESS.
Give our “externally motivated” kids a taste of that--- and they’ll become “internally motivated.” We’ll have done our job, and they will have secured their future.
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