Re: Motivating Students

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Motivating Students

by Sarah Sanford

Jul 8, 2009

After studying our state mastery test results as well as our own district testing results it seems to be a common pattern in our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students that they don't do well in comprehensoin questions on the Language Arts portions of testing. How do we improve this? I have a strong feeling that a lot of it is due to students not taking the time to go back to the story and look for the facts/ideas to answer the questions. Does anyone have any ideas on how to motivate students in this area?

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Diana One thing that I do is to have my students practice this skill on a daily basis, in many subject areas. It just becomes second nature to them.

For example, during guided reading group, after reading a passage, I ask comprehension questions (at varying levels of Bloom's Taxonomy). Everyone in the group is responsible for finding the answer...See More

Jul 8, 2009

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Jamie in MO I also have found that small group discussions can be really helpful for students to focus and articulate ideas about the material. The key is to having complex, structured questions for them to discuss, and it takes time to teach them appropriate conversation skills, but once they get rolling, it's more than worth it.

On 7/08/09, Diana wr...See More

Jul 8, 2009

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Jamie in MO I just realized I wasn't very clear! So the discussion piece happens peer-to-peer with teacher facilitated questions and direct instruction about appropriate exchange of ideas, and this is followed by writing time, and/or a written reading comprehension check.

On 7/08/09, Jamie in MO wrote: > I also have found that small group discussio...See MoreI just realized I wasn't very clear! So the discussion piece happens peer-to-peer with teacher facilitated questions and direct instruction about appropriate exchange of ideas, and this is followed by writing time, and/or a written reading comprehension check.

On 7/08/09, Jamie in MO wrote: > I also have found that small group discussions can be really > helpful for students to focus and articulate ideas about the > material. The key is to having complex, structured questions for > them to discuss, and it takes time to teach them appropriate > conversation skills, but once they get rolling, it's more than > worth it. > > > > On 7/08/09, Diana wrote: >> One thing that I do is to have my students practice this >> skill on a daily basis, in many subject areas. It just >> becomes second nature to them. >> >> For example, during guided reading group, after reading a >> passage, I ask comprehension questions (at varying levels of >> Bloom's Taxonomy). Everyone in the group is responsible for >> finding the answer. They indicate that they've done this, >> not by answering aloud or raising a hand, but by touching the >> answer. A quick visual scan tells me who has it and who may >> be casting a look about to see what others have picked. I >> call on a student to read the sentence which answered the >> question for him/her, and if it needed inferrence, to explain >> his/her thinking. I do similar things when using Weekly >> Readers or textbooks with the whole class. >> >> I give tns of reinforcement for being "good detectives" and >> finding the right answers. The message is always that no one >> is trying to trick them, the answer is always there >> someplace. It might just be buried in other information. >> >> >> >> On 7/08/09, Sarah Sanford wrote: >>> After studying our state mastery test results as well as >>> our own district testing results it seems to be a common >>> pattern in our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students that they >>> don't do well in comprehensoin questions on the Language >>> Arts portions of testing. How do we improve this? I have a >>> strong feeling that a lot of it is due to students not >>> taking the time to go back to the story and look for the >>> facts/ideas to answer the questions. Does anyone have any >>> ideas on how to motivate students in this area?

Jul 10, 2009

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