This document cover criteria to help motivate students. The key concepts of this document include best practice strategies for motivating students: what does the research say, strategies for increasing motivation, motivating students to engage in class activities, getting the most out of homework, overall tips for success, and much more.

The research states the motivation is divided into two categories extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic involves a reward as incentive for a student to be motivated and intrinsic is more internally driven through self interest and desire. Strategies for increasing motivation include using rewards sparingly; clarity of expectations, comfort ability, positive environment, grouping tasks into small goals, promoting learning, and be timely in evaluation.

Motivating students to engage in class activities focuses on tying students’ interest with content material. In order to accomplish this, teachers must ensure course material relates to student interest. Ways teachers can accomplish this is allowing students to have some degree of control over learning such as letting a student chose from several activities to obtain a grade. In addition, realistically assigning challenging but achievable goal is important for teachers to consider. Finally, teachers can involve student interest through curiosity about the topic, and design projects to allow students to share knowledge.

Getting the most out of homework involves doing the homework with parent and teacher involvement. Homework benefits the student through repetition and reflection to cognitively understand the material.

Finally, tips for success revolve around teacher planning. Lesson planning involves most of the categories listed such as: expectations, consistency, purpose, and time, explain, variety, coordinate, and evaluate.