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Getting there

 

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

 
Creating the Basic Motivational Conditions
1Demonstrate and talk about your own enthusiasm for the course material and how it affects you personally.
2Take the students learning very seriously.
x Showing I care about progress, being available for all things academic, yes, today I was talking to the absent students about going to the yahoo group and finding out what was happening. I have also been emailing with students...
3Develop a personal relationship with your students.
x Paying attention and listening, at the end of class, walking away talking together, reassuring the grades won't suffer, aware i need a wee anonymous survey to access voices that prefer not to verbalize...One student tells me it is illegal to print out more than one copy of a webpage or document, and they get penalized, so that my research idea and making group copies cost them two week's access...oh dear, too late, one reason to use the yahoo group, i apologized and summarized at the end of class
4 Develop a collaborative relationship with the students'parents.
5 Create a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the classroom.
x Now here I wonder...I was thinking having a fluent group leader would encourage risk taking but it seems to have intimidated people ( is that what was happening?) although rubric comments are very supportive and friendly overall, and most people haven't marked in by name when they didn't get criteria supplied to them by their team, so unwilling to denounce friends as it were, even if it means they themselves suffer...
6 Promote the development of group cohesiveness.
7 Formulate the norms explicitly, and have them discussed and accepted by the learners.
8 Have the group norms consistently observed.
Although I would prompt, point out the useful parts on the scaffolding worksheet, sometimes join in, or jokingly glower " Do I hear Japanese?", there seems to be a gap in the idea of marking critically and seriously making efforts to maintain English for groupwork...
Total Strategies Used in Quadrant 1
3
Percentage of total strategies used in Quadrant 1
37.50%

Generating Initial Motivation
9 Promote the learners' language related valuse by presenting peer role models.
x This is the general idea of being in mixed ability teams, to fire each other up, but come to think of it today was intimidating the less motivated students but frustrating for dedicated people...
10 Raise the learners' intrinsic interest in the L2 learning process
11 Promote 'integrative values by encouraging a positive and open-minded disposition towards the L2 and its speakers
12Promote the students' awareness of the instrumental values associated with the knowledge of an L2
13Increase the students' expectancy of success in particular tasks and learning in general.
x there was definitely sufficient preparation and assistance on this one, in terms of working on vocabulary and thinking about investment criteria generally before approaching a more specific project, and researching together, also the handouts and scaffolding sheet....But a high level of absence today, too much preparation involved?
14 Increase the students' goal-orientedness by formulating explicit class goals accepted by them.
15 Make the curriculum and the teaching materials relevant to the students.
x I talked a wee bit about this being a real life need, to work in teams and with others, and use pooled research, manipulate information...
16 Help to create realistic learner beliefs.?
Total Strategies Used in Quadrant 2
3Percentage of total strategies used in Quadrant2
37.5%

Maintaining and Protecting Motivation
17 Make learning more stimulating and enjoyable by breaking the monotony of classroom events.
x Group discussion, last week research, next week pairwork and focusing on written stuff...
18 Make learning stimulating and enjoyable for the learners by increasing the attractiveness of the task.
x Compared with last year the task is more attractive because it involves making a recommendation. I also added a couple of real web-researched banks as partners into the scenario.
19 Make learning stimulating and enjoyable for the learners by enlisting them as active task participants.
x The whole things hangs on how the students perform and process, kinda frustrating if expectations and needs for discussion aren't met, and the feeling might arise it's more me who should be up there talking...or should I increase discussion time next week, have a discussion group and a worksheet group on offer, for people who want to talk or who want to work with paper, writing and diccies and stuff?
20 Present and administer tasks in a motivating way.
I'm better at this on Thursdays cos I see what has gone wrong....
21 Use goal-setting methods in your classroom.
22 Use contracting methods with your students to formalise their goal commitment.
23 Provide learners with regular experience of success.
x Today's rubrics marking focuses on what learners can do, rather than what they can't, with improvement options the second time round which get credited. My only prob is students who are hard on themselves, or students who are too generous, so that overall there is an imbalance, even though it should be clear if the rubrics are followed.
24 Build your learners confidence by providing regular encouragement.
I'm not sure I indicated strongly enough to some students that I expect them to try, or perhaps my coming in to help was more disheartening or too much for some, I know some more silent people i tried to encourage felt overwhelmed...
25 Help dimish language anxiety by removing or reducing the anxiety-provoking elements in the learning environment.
I was thinking I would be checking this one today, by my group thing, and instead I have achieved the opposite (although I am not sure, like I said, I need a wee survey next week), that people were intimidated by the group leader...although I see many other students had good research papers too, so maybe it was just intimidating for me to come round and listen in...???
26 Build your learners confidence in their learning abilities by teaching them various learner strategies.
x This one includes communication strategies to cope with difficulties, and learning strategies to cope with intake of new material, the whole course right now is coming together, is kinda modelling recycling phrases, repeating, using visuals and preparation, how to show information and quote sources to scaffold speaking...
27 Allow learners to maintain a positive social image while engaged in the learning tasks.
x All participants had a chance to shine with their ideas and research, and I'm hoping they did, judging by the comments on rubrics. I worry a bit about my accepting openly that less fluent students failed to put in more effort to reach the same level of fluency, as though they haven't done enough, but there is no denying that in terms of preparing to speak more has to be done...
28 Increase student motivation by promoting cooperation among the learners.
x Teams of learners working towards the same goal, choosing an investment...First time round 5 for Canada, one for malaysia and senegal each, second time round 4 for Senegal, 2 for Canada and 1 for South Korea
29 Increase student motivation by actively promoting learner autonomy.
x
30 Increase the student' self-motivating capacity.
Total Strategies Used in Quadrant3
8
Percentage of total strategies used in Quadrant 3
57%


Encouraging Positive Self-Evaluation
31 Promote effort attributions in your students.
x
32 Provide students with positive information feedback.
x
33 Increase learner satisfaction.(celebrate achievements, display work)
x
34 Offer rewards in a motivational manner.
35Use grades in a motivating manner, reducing as much as possible their demotivating impact.
x
Total Strategies Used in Quadrant 4
4
Percentage of total strategies used in Quadrant 4
80%

Taken from Doernyei, Z. Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press 2001

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