Motivating Students: The Full Toolkit

On M 1 Nov 2021, Jim Wright presented the workshop Finding the Spark: Strategies to Support & Motivate Middle & High School Students to staff from the Cleary School for the Deaf. 

• PowerPoint: Finding the Spark: Strategies to Support & Motivate Middle & High School Students
• Workshop Handout

• Numbered Heads Together: Class-wide cooperative learning activity ('nudge' technique).

• Classroom Support Plan Writer. This free web-based app allows educators to create and print customized classroom intervention plans for individuals and groups!

These two online applications were shared to track student motivation:

• ONLINE APP: Behavior Report Card Maker
• ONLINE APP: Self-Check Behavior Checklist Maker

Here are resources from Jim Wright's Motivating Students: A Toolkit workshop::

• PowerPoint: Motivating Students: The Full Toolkit (ES BOCES: 20 March 2019)
• Handout
• Workbook: Activities

• 38 Classroom Ideas to Help Students to Make Better Behavioral Choices

• Supplemental Handout: Six Reasons Why Students Are Unmotivated (and What Teachers Can Do)

• Numbered Heads Together: Cooperative Learning Activity

• Self-Check Behavior Checklist Maker
• Academic Survival Skills Checklist Maker

• How To: Create a Written Record of Classroom Interventions
• Classroom Intervention Planning Sheet (Google Docs

• School Motivation Assessment Form: Can't Do/Won't Do Assessment

• Supplemental Handout: Six Reasons Why Students Are Unmotivated (and What Teachers Can Do)

Motivation Challenge 1: The student is unmotivated because he or she cannot do the assigned work.

• How to Implement Strong Core Instruction (Direct Instruction Checklist) (Interactive Form)

• How To: Create a Written Record of Classroom Interventions
• Classroom Intervention Planning Sheet (Google Docs)

Motivation Challenge 2: The student is unmotivated because the ‘response effort’ needed to complete the assigned work seems too great.

• FREE APP: Accommodations Finder. Create a collection of classroom-friendly 'instructional adjustments' to help the student to successfully complete classwork.

Motivation Challenge 3: The student is unmotivated because of learned helplessness—lack of confidence that he or she can do the assigned work.

• FREE APP: Self-Check Behavior Checklist Maker. Use this application to create and print behavior checklists.
• Managing Academic Anxiety Through an Antecedent Writing Activity

Here are sample intervention ideas in which the student is able to take responsbility for and to manage their own learrning:

• Click or Clunk. The student uses self-signals to monitor understanding at the sentence, paragraph, and page level--and applies 'fix-up' skills.
• Linking Pronouns to Referents. When reading advanced texts, the student circles pronouns, writes their referents above them, and then rereads the text, inserting the referent for each pronoun.
• Read-Ask-Paraphrase. The student locates main idea and supporting details for each paragraph and summarizes them on a graphic organizer. RAP Interactive Form

• Ask-Read-Tell. The student creates a reading plan and sets reading goals, monitors understanding while reading, and reflects on the reading once finished. ART Interactive Form.

• Math Facts (and Spelling) Intervention: Cover-Copy-Compare
• Cover-Copy-Compare Interactive Worksheet: Horizontal Math Facts
• Cover-Copy-Compare Interactive Worksheet: Vertical Math Facts

• HANDOUT: Academic Survival Skills Checklists: 5 Ways to Help
• Academic Survival Skills Checklist Maker

• Math Self-Correction Checklists. The student creates a short checklist containing his or her most frequent types of math errors and uses this checklist to check in-class and homework assignments before turning in.

• Student Self-Regulation: Work-Planning Conference: Description
• Student Independent Work: Planning Tool: Interactive Form

• Learning Contracts 
• Version 1: Interactive Learning Contract|Example of a Completed Learning Contract
• Version 2: Interactive Learning Contract|Example of a Completed Learning Contract

Motivation Challenge 4: The student is unmotivated because classroom instruction does not engage.

• Cooperative Learning Activity: Numbered Heads Together

Motivation Challenge 5: The student is unmotivated because he or she fails to see an adequate pay-off to doing the assigned work.

• VIDEO: How to Manage Behavior in the Classroom: Praise
• Praise (Teacher Handout)
• Jackpot! Reward Finder

• Free or Inexpensive Rewards for Parents. Psychologist Dr. Laura Riffel generated this very useful list of reward ideas for younger and older children.

Motivation Challenge 6: The student is unmotivated because he or she lacks a positive relationship with the teacher.

• 38 Classroom Ideas to Help Students to Make Better Behavioral Choices

• Learning Contracts
• Version 1: Interactive Learning Contract|Example of a Completed Learning Contract
• Version 2: Interactive Learning Contract|Example of a Completed Learning Contract

• How to Conduct a Student-Centered Problem-Solving Meeting: Teacher's Guide
• Student-Centered Problem-Solving Meeting: Recording Form

• Communication Tools to Motivate and Engage the Reluctant Student

Online Tools for Motivation:

• Jackpot Reward Finder
• Academic Survival Skills Checklist Maker
• Behavior Report Card Maker
• Self-Check Behavior Checklist Maker

Resources for Student Self-Monitoring:

• ‘How To: Teach Students to Change Behaviors Through Self-Monitoring: 9 Steps

• Self-Monitoring: Attention
• Self-Monitoring: Academic Productivity
• Self-Monitoring: General Classroom Behaviors
• Self-Monitoring: Check-In/Check-Out: Behavior Report Cards
• Fixed-Interval Audio Tapes (MP3 files)