Comprehensive Plan: Letter to Ms. Wormwood

(Curriculum)

Ms. Wormwood,

It is very difficult to force students to learn when they are not interested in learning themselves. Fortunately, as an expert on the topic of motivation, I can say that there is hope for the most challenging of motivational cases such as Calvin. With a few tips on altering your curriculum, I believe even Calvin can become an accomplished student with a love for learning.

First, it is important to nip this problem in the butt as soon as possible. Every time Calvin gets a poor grade on a paper or test he creates detrimental labels for himself. These labels are called attributions. The more negative attributions Calvin acquires in his scholastic career, the less he will view himself as a life long student. To avoid the acquisition of these attributions, the curriculum must be altered. Calvin must be allowed to see his strengths. Not every activity requires a grade. If Calvin is permitted to do projects that have a stable outcome, then he may be more inclined to do work. Having a controlled outcome of success will promote participation and reduce the acquisition of negative attributes.

Calvin seems to have problem with taking responsibility for his own actions and responsibilities. The curriculum is in dire need of more structure. In doing projects, think about setting up check points and timelines for students to meet. Giving the students project check points will promote planning, monitoring, and the evaluation of the students own work. This is called metacognition. Students must be trained to take accountability for their own learning. The way to do this is not by repeated failure. When an assignment is issued, tell the students specific learning strategies that will aid in their success and allow them to develop self-regulated learning.

How well do the students understand the amount of power that comes with determination? A curriculum with many examples of accomplishments due to determination will open up the students’ eyes. Two basic types of determination are intrinsic and extrinsic. For example, show the students how the United States was born due to extrinsic motivation given to us by the British, or how man landed on the moon due to the intrinsic motivation to expand our frontier. After the students see these examples make sure they understand these accomplishments came from normal people such as themselves.

It is important to keep the students interests in mind when planning the curriculum. Not all students will be interested by the same topics. Create a large gamut of topics to cover through out the year. The more you cover the better the chances are that some students will find situational interest with a topic. If you as a teacher can get students interested in anything, you have done your job well. A good way to foster interest is through group work, puzzles, computers, or anything that allows the students to express their interests while still learning the content.

When creating lesson plans, think about the culture of the individuals you are planning for. What will work best for them? Experiment, allow Calvin and the other students to play with different possible selves so that he can find what he is interested in and become more motivated. If you are stereotyping the students based on their grades, STOP IT. Low grades do not necessarily mean low intelligence; it can mean you as a teacher have failed to capture them. Let the students work in groups that force them out of their comfort zone. Let Calvin socialize with students who are intrinsically motivated. This may allow him to pick up habits from his peers.

Is your curriculum oriented around performance goals, or mastery goals? If the students are only expected to perform well on tests and homework assignments then the students are less likely to develop a love for learning. If you can incorporate more research activities which would cater to individualized interests, the students would be far more likely to master ideas. Doing individualized research can really intrinsically motivate Calvin to pursue other topics and build a love for learning. Make Calvin set personal goals by the week, month, or year. This can bring a little more structure to Calvin’s studies.

Ms. Wormwood, if you can keep some of the ideas in mind I believe you will be able to strike a chord with Calvin. Keeping in mind these learning patterns, alter your curriculum to help Calvin, not hinder him.

(Instruction)

Attribution Theory: According to the Attribution Theory, humans in general credit their success or failure to an internal or external influence. For example, students set extremely low goals so that they are never disappointed if they do not achieve their goals. Also, when students have goals that are attainable, there is something in them that triggers negative thoughts that hinder their performance. With Calvin, getting him to realize that there are goals that are attainable with a little effort is critical. Teachers must get their students to realize that if failure does occur, it is not necessarily a product of themselves, but something that everyone must encounter in order for learning to occur. In order to promote success, teachers could always give a task in a series of steps. This will ensure that each step is “passed” before they move on to the next step. When the entire task is complete, the teacher and student can reflect on the outcome; the student will probably not realize how well they really did until the look at the big picture or the assignment. However, if the information is too large or the task seems to be impossible, there are a lot of internal and external options that they can name to place the responsibility other than themselves. On key to the attribution theory is for students to convince themselves that the task not too much and that they really can achieve greatness. Teachers must be able to recognize if a students is struggling and present the information in a way that is going to be overwhelming.

Self Determination Theory: Self Determination Theory deals completely with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Calvin thrives on rewards, he only wants to do things that are motivated by a separable outcome. However, when the topic is something that he really enjoys, learning about that topic is a reward in itself. If Mrs. Wormwood and Calvin’s parents could only realize that the only real way to promote Calvin’s learning is to foster a learning environment that encompasses his passions such as dinosaurs and the outdoors. Rather than giving Calvin information that is uninteresting to him, they really need to set up learning activities that promote imagination and hands-on learning. Extrinsic rewards can have their place, but real learning takes place when a student is motivated by the material itself and motivated from within. Relating the information directly to real-world experiences is important for Calvin’s success. By doing non-traditional types of work such as field trips and possibly presentations on pertinent information to Calvin, you would find a lot less resistance in the classroom.

Goal Theory: Calvin sets goals that are so lofty that they will be impossible for him to achieve. Calvin is also one that has an incredible intelligence has an endless imagination, however, no one that is associated with Calvin fosters this in his learning. Rather, Calvin uses his imagination and intelligence to become the class clown and be completely counter productive in his learning. By changing his classroom environment and giving Calvin freedom in his learning, you could possibly reach Calvin. Also, by setting mastery goals rather than performance goals and giving him tests on “useless” knowledge in his opinion, you could give him assessments that allow him to make correlations and connections between the context and his own learning. By helping set goals to Calvin that allow him to make his own connections to the real world, you would also be able to lead Calvin into other topics that will also be interesting. Setting goals for Calvin such as getting a “C” in the class is not the right way to go, however, giving Calvin a goal to find four possible places that a dinosaur could hide while hiking on a field trip would be a lot more productive.

Interest Theory: The Interest Theory tries to explain exactly its name, interest in a topic. When a topic is encountered, if the person is interested, they are immediately going to be more engaged and have the desire to learn the information. If not, they are going to tune out the information completely. This is completely true for Calvin. When Calvin finds the information uninteresting, he tunes you out and starts to daydream about the topics that he finds interesting. Unfortunately, it would be good if Calvin only daydreamed. Sometimes he puts forth so much resistance in the subject matter that he becomes down right bull headed and disruptive. When Calvin is uninterested, he still uses his imagination in a way that somewhat turns the current information into material that is interesting to him. For instance, when dealing with math, Calvin imagined the shape of different dinosaurs as the numbers. With Calvin being interested in only a select few topics, it is hard to spark his interest. Therefore, relating the information directly to him in a way the interests him will allow Calvin to be way more productive in the classroom.

Self-Regulate Learning: Self-regulated learning is the monitoring, goal setting and planning that comes from the learner. In self regulated learning, the student or learner takes full responsibility for the learning the material, setting the goals of what they want to achieve from the material, and planning the steps in which they will learn the material. Since Calvin has very little if any self regulation, he needs all the help he can get in the learning process. You could always improve on the way you teach Calvin. Rather than just giving him homework and then assessments on the material, you should be able to make a plan for action with Calvin, allowing him to choose the material, what he wants to get out of the topic and the steps that he is going to take in order to learn the material.

Social and Cultural Influences: Social and cultural influences are very prominent in the learning environment of students. There are also many different stereotypes that are associated with students. Some students, such as females are labeled as not being good at math. Females that carry this label are less likely to take math classes and if they do, they are less likely to be expected to succeed. Another example is that students from underprivileged backgrounds are not expected to excel in the classroom. You place no confidence in Calvin, expecting that no matter what the topic or assessment, she is going to get resistance. If Calvin was able to receive confidence from all angles, society and scholastically, he would be more likely to succeed.

(Assessment)

Ms. Wormwood, in terms of the assessments you may be using in your classroom, let me give you some advice to try to reach those students who may struggle now. Try to make the assessments you give to your students authentic. Examples of this could be projects, portfolios, journals. Then include elements of assessing students’ ability to check and assess their own progress. Allow for your students to be individuals, so that they can add their own interests into the overall topics being assessed. Students should demonstrate that they have developed a personal value related to the content. This means try to peak their interest in the subject, once a student interest has been triggered they are much more likely to be involved with the learning of the material. Let your students choose the topics for a paper, which may allow them to use his / her individual interests. An example of this could be Calvin and letting him write a paper over dinosaurs, once you give him the ability to tap into his interests he may run with it and foster new leaning in your classroom.

Another aspect to assessments in your classroom is structure. Your students needs structure and also need to know how the grading is structured. To take objectivity out of grading use a teaching rubric. Rubric give the students a guideline to follow and most times the students will know what they probably will get before they even get the paper back. Along with this, use benchmarks for larger projects. Give the students a deadline to meet on one portion of a portfolio, this allows you to check their work as they go along. It also keeps the students on track so they don’t feel like they have to finish it all in one night. With these simple tools your classroom can be transformed into a fantastic learning environment where students love to come into each day.

(Classroom Management)

From what we have seen, Calvin is very unmotivated to learn in school. One reason why is because of the lack of good classroom management. Part of good classroom management is not just stopping out bursts, but it is also making sure everyone is participating and staying focused during class. To help Calvin become motivated, Ms. Wormwood, here are some tips to acquire good classroom management.

First, you should craft your classroom into a community of learners. This will help Calvin feel comfortable and a part of the class. Right now he is in his own imaginary world and doesn’t care how his lack of motivation disrupts the class. When a community of learners is set up in your class, then Calvin can work in groups with his peers. Instead of competing with other people, he will be able to build off of their understanding of the topic. Also, since Calvin gets carried away in his imaginary world easily, it would be good for him to work with someone who is already self-regulated. Instead of comparing Calvin with other students, compare him to himself. Show him how much he has improved in academics and behavior. Calvin needs to learn mastery goals instead of performance goals. Since Calvin already has low expectations of himself performance goals will not benefit him.

Second, Ms. Wormwood, try to help Calvin take control of his learning. As of now, Calvin blames everyone else for his failure. Start by modeling for Calvin how to be self regulated. When Calvin has to work on a big project, set up check points to make sure he is staying on track. Make sure he is creating an outline for the project and a timeline to get everything finished. Then check with him periodically to make sure he is staying on track with his outline. If Calvin sees the material as relevant to the real-world, he will be more motivated to pay attention in class. Calvin should be doing projects that are relevant to his interests so that he doesn’t just daydream the whole time in class. Ms. Wormwood, you should also teach Calvin good coping methods. He needs to learn how to cope when he gets distracted or he does badly on a test. Also, check for his understanding throughout the lesson. If he does not understand the material being taught, then he is more likely to act out or get lost in his day dream. To check for understanding, ask him questions related to the topic. If he answers the question by relating it to something in his imaginary world, chances are he understands it. Don’t get mad at him for relating the topic to something that interests him.

Third, do not motivate Calvin to be the class clown. When Calvin shouts out that the class is boring, don’t send him to the principal’s office. By doing so, you are just rewarding him by letting him get out of a boring class. Instead, ask him why it is boring and if he has any suggestions to make the lesson more interesting for him. Take a look at your own lessons and maybe change them so that they will be interesting for Calvin. Calvin knows that the teachers like reading his creative yet wrong answers on his tests. This just causes Calvin to repeat the same behavior. He would rather get the satisfaction of knowing that the teachers think he is funny than to actually study and learn the material. Show Calvin how to write correct and correct answers. This will allow Calvin to give correct answers while still being creative and witty. Calvin will be less likely to act out if he is interested in the material being taught. Don’t play into the stereotypes that “boys will be boys”. This allows Calvin to act anyway he wants because he is a boy. Set goals for Calvin’s behavior. Make sure the reward is something that will help with his motivation to behave properly. When Calvin blurts out questions that may not be related to the topic being taught, don’t punish him because at least he is participating. Instead try to relate the question back to the topic so that he can see the relevance. Try not to discipline Calvin in front of the class because it will either give him the satisfaction of getting attention or it will lower his self esteem and make him less likely to participate during class in the future. If he truly needs to be disciplined, wait till after class so that he will not be humiliated in front of the class.

If you implement these strategies into your own classroom management, Calvin will be more of a learner and less of a class clown. He will disrupt the class less, but he will also pay attention more. Calvin has great potential to be a life-long learner, but it needs to start now in your class.

(One-on-one Interaction)

As we have seen Calvin seems to show little to no motivation in your classroom and it is time we help you out. As long as Calvin keeps coming to school there are many opportunities for you, Ms. Wormwood, to have some one-on-one interaction with him and try to motivate him. One-on-one interaction with students can foster the growth of relationships that may help in the motivation of your students. When teachers take time to build those personal relationships, it demonstrates to the students that you genuinely care about them and it can be used as a gateway to get them interested and motivated in your classroom. There are many opportunities for you to interact with Calvin, such as, at the beginning of class, after class, during lunch, when you hand back assignments, when you hand out materials, or when you are reviewing homework. The following are some suggestions that our expert team has created using all the motivational theories that may help you motivate and interest Calvin in his studies.

Building interest in any subject takes time and effort, especially for students like Calvin who can’t seem to find the relevance your subject will have on their future. Before Calvin can become interested he must first be motivated and we have identified two types that may help you very much, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is a type that emerges from an individuals own interest in something, because they want to know more. Extrinsic motivation emerges from external factors that help motivate students (rewards, good grades). According to the self-determination theory, Calvin is extrinsically motivated by awards and attention (good or bad).

Here is where the one-on-one interaction can really benefit both you and Calvin. We’ve used four other theories (social/cultural influences theory, self-regulation theory, goal theory, and interest theory) to help develop ideas that can help you with your one-on-one interaction with Calvin that can help motivate him intrinsically and extrinsically. To start off, we’ve observed that Calvin is always having disruptive behavior and is always being punished. We want to suggest that instead of always punishing him, also praise him for all of the good things he does. By showing him that you are acknowledging his work he might be more inclined to perform better and not act out as much. Second, we have a suggestion that you sit down with Calvin and talk to him about his future goals, what he wants to be when he’s older, what he’s interested in and why. While talking to him can help build a good relationship with him, it can also help you incorporate his interests into your lessons. You can also relate what you’re discussing to his real life and help him realize how he can use it in the future. While talking to him, you can also help him set educational goals that will help him reach his future goals. Third, just show that you care about him, stop by his desk and say good job, answer his questions, and never play into the stereotypes that “boys will be boys.” Finally, according to the Attribution theory, Calvin is always making excuses for why he is not performing at the level he should be. No matter what his excuse is you need to expect him to perform high academically and not give into his excuses by giving him better grades if he doesn’t truly deserve them.

Overall, all of these issues and suggestions can be implemented during your one-on-one interaction with Calvin. Take time to sit and talk to him, praise his good work, answer his questions, relate his comments to what you are teaching, relate things you tell him to real-life and his interests, and help him set goals. All of these things can help build his intrinsic and extrinsic motivation but it is going to require that you have one-on-one interaction with Calvin.

(Communication with Calvin’s Parents)

Ms. Wormwood, there is one last area in which I would like to advise you: please get Calvin’s parents involved! In order for all these changes in the classroom to be successful, Calvin also needs to be getting support at home. You should start by asking Calvin’s parents to come in and have a conference with you – there is so much that you need to discuss with them. In the conference, you need to explain that students need to have a stable environment in which school and home life compliment each other. Stress that the most important thing Calvin’s parents can do is pay attention to him. They can help spark his interest in school subjects only after they have paid attention to his personal interests, therefore being able to relate them to one another. This may help them trigger his interests and can help him relate these interests to school achievement. For example, Calvin has a great love for dinosaurs. Calvin’s parents can cultivate his interest by introducing the idea of becoming an archeologist. If Calvin became invested in this future, or possible self, he may be more likely to study hard in school in order to get into college and become an archeologist. The ability to trigger interest and communicate possible selves is supported by interest theory and social-cultural theory. Social-cultural theory also strongly suggests that stereotypes be avoided. Ask Calvin’s parent’s to avoid stereotyping him as lazy or unmotivated. Tell them that it is important to understand that Calvin’s attitude and behavior can change – if they support positive behaviors and do not make him feel like he cannot change. You can also help Calvin’s parents trigger interest in school by sending home newsletters and other updates that will keep his parents up-to-date on the topics discussed in class in order to help them bring the subjects up and show Calvin their importance in his daily life.

It is important that you, Ms. Wormwood, communicate your goals for Calvin to his parents. You also need to ask about and understand the goals that Calvin’s parents have set for him. Then you need to work with the parents to create common goals and a plan to help Calvin accomplish these goals. It would also be wise to call Calvin into this part of the meeting in order to understand his own plans. With this information, you can target important challenges for Calvin. You will also be making sure that the parents, Calvin, and yourself are working toward a common goal.

Goal setting, like that just mentioned, is an important part of goal theory. Goal setting is also important to self-regulated learning. In order to make Calvin a self-regulated learner, you should ask his parents to help model self-regulated behavior at home, including time management skills, goals setting, self-monitoring, and self-reflection. Calvin’s parents can help him do this by making a plan with him at the beginning of each project, outlining a time scheduling. Then they could look in on him periodically and ask him about his project, which would help him to think about and monitor his progress. Finally, they should ask him about the results of his project, what worked well, and what didn’t work well, after it is completed. You can aid in this process by sending home weekly or monthly class schedules, outlining the homework, projects, and due dates for the month.

The self-determination theory of education defines motivation as coming from either intrinsic or extrinsic sources. Since a student cannot be forced to have intrinsic motivation, there must be some form of extrinsic motivation to motivate Calvin, at least initially. Calvin’s parents can create a motivational atmosphere at home by praising his accomplishments and giving small rewards. These rewards should not be huge and should mostly come in the form of encouragement and opportunities to further explore interest areas (such as going to a dinosaur museum) because Calvin should not learn to depend on this extrinsic motivation entirely, for if he does, he will never gain intrinsic motivation. This is an important part of attribution theory, in which students must take responsibility for their own education. Calvin currently blames educational problems (such as inability to get projects done and poor grades) on you and on his parents. For example, we observed Calvin asking his mother for supplies for a project, in which she responded that he should have thought of getting supplies sooner. Calvin then blamed the failure to finish the project on his parents and the lack of supplies, not on himself. If Calvin’s parents work on personal responsibility at home, at the same time as they are encouraging, giant leaps and bounds may be made in Calvin’s motivational pattern.

Thank you for your time. Good luck working with Calvin in the future. We have every reason to believe that you not have the tools necessary to reach even the most unmotivated student.

Sincerely,

The Society for Undoing Serious Ills in Education (SUSIE)

Amanda Belles, Nicholas Curran, Erin Gregory, Deone Horinek, Fabiola Mora, and Ryan Van Ornum