Six Reasons Why Students Are Unmotivated (and What Teachers Can … · 2012. 8. 9. · Motivation...

RTI Toolkit: A Practical Guide for Schools

Six Reasons Why Students Are Unmotivated (and What Teachers Can Do) Jim Wright, Presenter

9 August 2012/ROE#12/Robinson, IL Contents Motivation Deficit 1: The student is unmotivated because he or she

cannot do the assigned work. ………………..…………………………………02 Motivation Deficit 2: The student is unmotivated because the ‘response

effort’ needed to complete the assigned work seems too great.. ………...…05 Motivation Deficit 3: The student is unmotivated because classroom

instruction does not engage…………………………………………………...…07 Motivation Deficit 4: The student is unmotivated because he or she fails to

see an adequate pay-off to doing the assigned work.……………………...…10 Motivation Deficit 5: The student is unmotivated because of low self-

efficacy—lack of confidence that he or she can do the assigned work….….13 Motivation Deficit 6: The student is unmotivated because he or she lacks a

positive relationship with the teacher…………………………………….…..…16 Preventing Students from Falling Behind Through Ongoing Teacher

Communication …………………………………………………………….….….19 Helping the Student Who is ‘Under Water’ With Late Assignments: A

Structure for Teacher–Student Conferences ……………………………….…20 Setting Up a Reward Program for a Middle or High School Student: Five

Steps…………………………..………….………………………………….….…23 Intervention & Related RTI Terms: Definitions………………….……….….…27 Accommodations List: Intervention Central.....………………….……….….…28

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

Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem: The student lacks essential skills required to do the task. Areas of deficit might include basic academic skills, cognitive strategies, and academic-enabler skills. Here are definitions of these skill areas:

Basic academic skills. Basic skills have straightforward criteria for correct performance (e.g., the student defines vocabulary words or decodes text or computes ‘math facts’) and comprise the building-blocks of more complex academic tasks (Rupley, Blair, & Nichols, 2009). The instructional goal in basic skills is for students to become ‘automatic’ in the skill(s) being taught.

Cognitive strategies. Students employ specific cognitive strategies as “guiding procedures” to complete more complex academic tasks such as reading comprehension or writing (Rosenshine, 1995). Cognitive strategies are “intentional and deliberate procedures” that are under the conscious control of the student (Rupley, Blair, & Nichols, 2009; p. 127). The instructional goals are to train students to use specific cognitive instruction strategies, to reliably identify the conditions under which they should employ these strategies, and to actually use them correctly and consistently. Question generation is an example of a cognitive strategy to promote reading comprehension (Rosenshine, Meister, & Chapman, 1996); the student is trained to locate or write main-idea sentences for each paragraph in a passage, then write those main ideas onto separate note cards with corresponding questions.

Academic-enabling skills. Skills that are ‘academic enablers’ (DiPerna, 2006) are not tied to specific academic knowledge but rather aid student learning across a wide range of settings and tasks. Examples of academic-enabling skills include organizing work materials, time management, and making and sticking to a work plan. The instructional goal is to train students to acquire these academic-support skills and to generalize their use to become efficient, self-managing learners.

What the Research Says: When a student lacks the capability to complete an academic task because of limited or missing basic skills, cognitive strategies, or academic-enabling skills, that student is still in the acquisition stage of learning (Haring et al., 1978). That student cannot be expected to be motivated or to be successful as a learner unless he or she is first explicitly taught these weak or absent essential skills (Daly, Witt, Martens & Dool, 1997).

How to Verify the Presence of This Motivation Problem: The teacher collects information (e.g., through observations of the student engaging in academic tasks; interviews with the student; examination of work products, quizzes, or tests) demonstrating that the student lacks basic skills, cognitive strategies, or academic-enabling skills essential to the academic task.

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Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 2

How to Fix This Motivation Problem: Students who are not motivated because they lack essential skills need to be taught those skills.

Direct-Instruction Format. Students learning new material, concepts, or skills benefit from a ‘direct instruction’ approach. (Burns, VanDerHeyden & Boice, 2008; Rosenshine, 1995; Rupley, Blair, & Nichols, 2009). When following a direct-instruction format, the teacher:

ensures that the lesson content is appropriately matched to students’ abilities.

opens the lesson with a brief review of concepts or material that were previously presented.

states the goals of the current day’s lesson.

breaks new material into small, manageable increments, or steps.

throughout the lesson, provides adequate explanations and detailed instructions for all concepts and materials being taught. NOTE: Verbal explanations can include ‘talk-alouds’ (e.g., the teacher describes and explains each step of a cognitive strategy) and ‘think-alouds’ (e.g., the teacher applies a cognitive strategy to a particular problem or task and verbalizes the steps in applying the strategy).

regularly checks for student understanding by posing frequent questions and eliciting group responses.

verifies that students are experiencing sufficient success in the lesson content to shape their learning in the desired direction and to maintain student motivation and engagement.

provides timely and regular performance feedback and corrections throughout the lesson as needed to guide student learning.

allows students the chance to engage in practice activities distributed throughout the lesson (e.g., through teacher demonstration; then group practice with teacher supervision and feedback; then independent, individual student practice).

ensures that students have adequate support (e.g., clear and explicit instructions; teacher monitoring) to be successful during independent seatwork practice activities.

References:

Burns, M. K., VanDerHeyden, A. M., & Boice, C. H. (2008). Best practices in intensive academic interventions. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V (pp.1151-1162). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

Daly, E. J., Witt, J. C., Martens, B. K., & Dool, E. J. (1997). A model for conducting a functional analysis of academic performance problems. School Psychology Review, 26, 554-574.

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DiPerna, J. C. (2006). Academic enablers and student achievement: Implications for assessment and intervention services in the schools. Psychology in the Schools, 43, 7-17.

Haring, N.G., Lovitt, T.C., Eaton, M.D., & Hansen, C.L. (1978). The fourth R: Research in the classroom. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill Publishing.

Rosenshine, B. (1995). Advances in research on instruction. The Journal of Educational Research, 88, 262-288.

Rosenshine, B., Meister, C., & Chapman, S. (1996). Teaching students to generate questions: A review of the intervention studies. Review of Educational Research, 66, 181-221.

Rupley, W. H., Blair, T. R., & Nichols, W. D. (2009). Effective reading instruction for struggling readers: The role of direct/explicit teaching. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 25:125–138.

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

Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem: Although the student has the required skills to complete the assigned work, he or she perceives the ‘effort’ needed to do so to be so great that the student loses motivation.

What the Research Says: Research indicates that (1) as the perceived effort to complete an academic task or other behavior (‘response effort’) increases, people are less likely to engage in that behavior, while (2) as the effort to complete the same behavior decreases, people are more likely to engage in it (Friman & Poling, 1995).

How to Verify the Presence of This Motivation Problem: The teacher first checks to see that the student has the requisite skills needed for academic success. The teacher then looks for evidence that, in specific situations, the student is reluctant to undertake academic tasks because they are perceived to require too much effort. Tell-tale signs that a student may be unmotivated because of the required response effort include procrastination, verbal complaining, frequent seeking of teacher help, and other avoidant behaviors.

How to Fix This Motivation Problem:

Teachers can increase student motivation through any method that reduces the apparent ‘response effort’ of an academic task (Friman & Poling, 1995). - so long as that method does not hold the student to a lesser academic standard than classmates (Skinner, Pappas, & Davis, 2005).

Try These Ideas to Improve Motivation by Reducing Response Effort: Here are ideas that use reduction in response effort as a motivation tool:

Start Assigned Readings in Class. Whenever the teacher assigns a challenging text for students to read independently (e.g., as homework), the teacher (or perhaps a skilled student reader) reads the first few paragraphs of the assigned reading aloud while the class follows along silently in their own texts. Students are then expected to read the remainder of the text on their own.

Begin Challenging Homework Assignments in Class. When assigned challenging homework, students are paired off or divided into groups and given a small amount of class time to begin the homework together, develop a plan for completing the homework, formulate questions about the homework, or engage in other activities that will create the necessary momentum to motivate students then to complete the work independently.

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‘Chunk’ Assignments. The teacher breaks a larger student assignment into smaller ‘chunks’. The teacher provides the student with performance feedback and praise for each completed ‘chunk’ of assigned work (Skinner, Pappas, & Davis, 2005).

Select a Supportive Peer or Adult to Get a Student Started on Assignments. If a student finds it difficult to get organized and begin independent seatwork activities, a supportive peer or adult in the classroom can get the student organized and started on the assignment.

Provide a Formal Work Plan. In advance of more complex assignments such as research papers, the teacher gives the student an outline of a work plan for completing those assignments. The plan breaks a larger assignment into appropriate sub-steps (e.g., ‘find five research articles for the paper’, ‘summarize key information from research articles into notes’, etc.). For each sub-step, the plan provides (1) an estimate of the minimum amount of ‘seat time’ required to complete it and (2) sets a calendar-date deadline for completion. The teacher then touches base with the student at least weekly to ensure that the student is staying current with the work plan. (TIP: Over time, the teacher can transfer increasing responsibility for generating work plans to the student.)

References:

Friman, P. C., & Poling, A. (1995). Making life easier with effort: Basic findings and applied research on response effort. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 28, 583–590.

Skinner, C. H., Pappas, D. N., & Davis, K. A. (2005). Enhancing academic engagement: Providing opportunities for responding and influencing students to choose to respond. Psychology in the Schools, 42, 389-403.

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Motivation Challenge 3: The student is unmotivated because classroom instruction does not engage.

Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem: The student is distracted or off-task because classroom instruction and learning activities are not sufficiently reinforcing to hold his or her attention.

What the Research Says: In classroom settings, students can choose to respond to a variety of reinforcing events—for example, watching the teacher, interacting with peers, looking out the window at passing traffic. The fact is that classroom instruction must always compete for student attention with other sources of reinforcement (Billington & DiTommaso, 2003; Skinner, Pappas, & Davis, 2005). There are two ways that the instructor can increase the student’s motivation to attend to classroom instruction: (1) by decreasing the reinforcing power of competing (distracting) stimuli, and/or (2) by increasing the reinforcing power of academic activities.

How to Verify the Presence of This Motivation Problem: The teacher observes that the student is engaged in behaviors other than those related to instruction or is otherwise distracted by non-instructional events occurring in the classroom. Furthermore, the teacher has verified that the student’s lack of attention to instruction is not due primarily to that student’s attempting to escape or avoid difficult classwork.

How to Fix This Motivation Problem: The teacher can increase the inattentive student’s focus on instruction and engagement in learning activities by using one or both of the strategies below:

Reduce the Reinforcing Power of Non-Instructional Activities. The teacher identifies any non-instructional activities in the classroom that are competing with instruction for the student’s attention and takes steps to reduce or eliminate them.

Increase the Reinforcing Power of Classroom Instruction. The teacher strives to boost the reinforcing quality of academic activities and instruction to better capture and hold the student’s attention.

Try These Ideas to Improve Motivation by Reducing the Reinforcing Power of Non-Instructional Activities:

Use Preferential Seating (U.S. Department of Education, 2004). The teacher seats a student who is distracted by peers or other environmental factors in a location where the student is most likely to stay focused on instructional content. All teachers have an 'action zone', a part of the room where they tend to focus most of their instruction; the instructor seats the distractible student somewhere within that zone. The ideal seating location for any particular student will vary, depending on the unique qualities of that student and of the classroom.

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Create Low-Distraction Work Areas (U.S. Department of Education, 2004. For students who are off-task during independent seatwork, the teacher can set up a study carrel in the corner of the room or other low-distraction work area. The teacher can then either direct the distractible student to use that area whenever independent seatwork is assigned or can permit the student to choose when to use the area.

Restrict Student Access to Electronic Devices and Other Potential Distracting Objects. The teacher creates a list of personal possessions that can pose the potential to distract from instruction (e.g., cell phones, personal game devices, etc.). The teacher either completely bans use of these items of student property at any point during a course session or restricts their use to clearly specified times or conditions.

Try These Ideas to Improve Motivation by Increasing the Reinforcing Power of Classroom Instruction and Activities:

Use Bellringer Activities. The teacher routinely gives students ‘bellringer’ activities to work on as soon as they enter the classroom. The point of this strategy is to capture students’ attention at the outset with academically relevant activities. Ideally, bellringer tasks should be engaging but also should review and reinforce previously taught content or prepare students for the upcoming lesson.

Provide Opportunities for Choice (Kern, Bambara, & Fogt, 2002). Teachers who allow students a degree of choice in structuring their learning activities typically have fewer behavior problems in their classrooms than teachers who do not. One efficient way to promote choice in the classroom is for the teacher to create a master menu of options that students can select from in various learning situations. For example, during independent assignment, students might be allowed to (1) choose from at least 2 assignment options, (2) sit where they want in the classroom, and (3) select a peer-buddy to check their work. Student choice then becomes integrated seamlessly into the classroom routine.

Structure Lessons around High-Interest or Functional-Learning Goals (Kern, Bambara, & Fogt, 2002; Miller et al., 2003). A student is more likely to be engaged when academic lessons are based on ‘high-interest’ topics that interest the student (e.g., NASCAR racing; fashion) or that have a ‘functional-learning’ pay-off—e.g., job interview skills; money management skills --that the student values and can apply in his or her own life.

Incorporate Cooperative Learning Activities into Instruction (Beyda, Zentall, & Ferko, 2002; Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002). Teacher-directed cooperative learning activities can be highly reinforcing for adolescent students, who typically find opportunities to interact with classmates to be a strong motivator. Cooperative learning tasks have the added advantages of promoting active student engagement and allowing the instructor to get real-time feedback through direct observation about the abilities and learning of individual students.

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Maintain a Brisk Pace of Instruction (Gettinger & Seibert, 2002). Instruction that is well-matched to the abilities of the classroom and moves at a brisk pace is most likely to capture and hold student attention. Additionally, the teacher is careful to avoid ‘dead time’, interruptions of instruction (e.g., time-consuming transitions to other activities; etc.) when students may get off-task and be difficult to redirect back to academic tasks.

References:

Beyda, S.D., Zentall, S.S., & Ferko, D.J.K. (2002). The relationship between teacher practices and the task-appropriate and social behavior of students with behavioral disorders. Behavioral Disorders, 27, 236-255.

Billington, E., & DiTommaso, N. M. (2003). Demonstrations and applications of the matching law in education. Journal of Behavioral Education, 12, 91-104.

Gettinger, M., & Seibert, J.K. (2002). Best practices in increasing academic learning time. In A. Thomas (Ed.), Best practices in school psychology IV: Volume I (4th ed., pp. 773-787). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

Kern, L., Bambara, L., & Fogt, J. (2002). Class-wide curricular modifications to improve the behavior of students with emotional or behavioral disorders. Behavioral Disorders, 27, 317-326.

Linnenbrink, E. A., & Pintrich, P. R. (2002). Motivation as an enabler for academic success. School Psychology Review, 31, 313-327.

Miller, K.A., Gunter, P.L., Venn, M.J., Hummel, J., & Wiley, L.P. (2003). Effects of curricular and materials modifications on academic performance and task engagement of three students with emotional or behavioral disorders. Behavioral Disorder, 28, 130-149.

Skinner, C. H., Pappas, D. N., & Davis, K. A. (2005). Enhancing academic engagement: Providing opportunities for responding and influencing students to choose to respond. Psychology in the Schools, 42, 389-403.

U.S. Department of Education (2004). Teaching children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Instructional strategies and practices. Retrieved July 7, 2011, from http://www.ed.gov/teachers/needs/speced/adhd/adhd-resource-pt2.doc

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Motivation Challenge 4: The student is unmotivated because he or she fails to see an adequate pay-off to doing the assigned work.

Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem: The student requires praise, access to rewards, or other reinforcers in the short term as a temporary ‘pay-off’ to encourage her or him to apply greater effort.

What the Research Says: The use of external rewards (‘reinforcers’) can serve as a temporary strategy to encourage a reluctant student to become invested in completing school work and demonstrating appropriate behaviors (Akin-Little, Eckert, Lovett, & Little, 2004). It is expected that as the student puts increased effort into academics and behavior to earn teacher-administered reinforcers, the student will in turn begin to experience such positive natural reinforcers as improved grades, increased peer acceptance, a greater sense of self-efficacy in course content, and higher rates of teacher and parent approval. As the student enjoys the benefits of these natural reinforcers, the teacher can then fade and perhaps fully eliminate the use of programmed reinforcers or rewards.

Here are recommendations for using reward programs with students:

1. Do not use reward programs with students who are already demonstrating acceptable academic effort or general classroom conduct (Akin-Little, Eckert, Lovett, & Little, 2004). While incentives can be a good way to ‘jump-start’ the academic motivation of a disengaged learner, they are not likely to benefit a student who is already making an adequate effort to perform in school.

2. Adjust rewards to match a student’s developing academic skills (Daly, Martens, Barnett, Witt, & Olson, 2007). During initial acquisition of a skill, provide reinforcement (e.g., praise, exchangeable tokens) contingent upon on-task behavior (time-based reinforcement). This approach avoids ‘penalizing’ students for slow performance. As the student moves into the fluency-building stage of learning, change to reinforcement based on rate of performance (reinforcing both accuracy and fluency in the skill). This approach explicitly reinforces high response rates. Then, as the student reaches acceptable rates of accuracy and fluency, maintain high rates of academic performance through such efficient methods as intermittent reinforcement or reinforcer lottery (e.g., the student earns tickets for each successful performance of target behaviors and those tickets are used for periodic lottery drawings for possible rewards).

How to Verify the Presence of This Motivation Problem: Through direct observation, student interview, and/or other means, the teacher has verified that instruction is effectively delivered and sufficiently engaging for most of the class, that the target student has the academic and related skills required for the academic work, and that the student has failed to be motivated by existing incentives such as grades that are typically available in classrooms. In the teacher’s judgment, the

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target student needs additional incentives (e.g., praise, rewards) to promote motivation to complete academic tasks.


Praise the Student. The teacher praises the student in clear and specific terms when the student engages in the desired behavior (Kern & Clemens, 2007). The teacher uses praise statements at a rate sufficient to motivate and guide the student toward the behavioral goal.

Use Rewards. The teacher establishes a reward system to motivate an individual student by implementing these steps (e.g., Kazdin, 1989):

1. Define the Target Behavior. The teacher writes a definition of the undesired student behavior to be decreased or the desired behavior to be increased as a result of the reward program.

2. Establish Criteria for Success. The teacher defines the minimum acceptable criteria for student success in the target behavior, which may include information about time intervals, cumulative frequency, and/or percentage of compliance.

3. Choose Student Incentives. The teacher selects incentives (positive reinforcers or ‘rewards’) that are likely to motivate the student.

4. Decide Whether a Point System Will Be Used. The teacher decides on one of two options in delivering rewards: the student is either given earned rewards directly whenever those rewards have been earned or the student can is assigned points (or tokens or tickets) each time that he or she meets the teacher’s behavioral expectations and then is allowed at some point to redeem these points for items from the reward menu.

5. Decide How the Reward is to Be Delivered. The teacher selects a means for the student to receive earned rewards (e.g., from the classroom teacher, from another school staff member, from the parent).

NOTE: A more thorough description of each step, Setting Up a Reward Program for a Middle or High School Student: Five Steps, is found elsewhere in this document.

References:

Akin-Little, K. A., Eckert, T. L., Lovett, B. J., & Little, S. G. (2004). Extrinsic reinforcement in the classroom: Bribery or best practice. School Psychology Review, 33, 344-362.

Daly, E. J., Martens, K. K., Barnett, D., Witt, J. C., & Olson, S. C. (2007). Varying intervention delivery in response to intervention: Confronting and resolving challenges with measurement, instruction, and intensity. School Psychology, Review, 36, 562-581.

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Kazdin, A. E. (1989). Behavior modification in applied settings (4th ed.). Pacific Gove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Kern, L. & Clemens, N. H. (2007). Antecedent strategies to promote appropriate classroom behavior. Psychology in the Schools, 44, 65-75.

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Motivation Challenge 5: The student is unmotivated because of low self-efficacy—lack of confidence that he or she can do the assigned work.

Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem: The student has a low sense of self-efficacy in a subject area, activity, or academic task and that lack of confidence reduces the student’s motivation to apply his or her best effort. NOTE: Self-efficacy is the student’s view of his or her own abilities specific to a particular academic area (e.g., mathematics) and should not be confused with self-esteem, which represents the student’s global view of his or her self-worth.

What the Research Says: Students who believe that they have the ability to complete a particular academic task (self-efficacy) do better and have higher levels of motivation (Jacobs et al., 2002). Yet students often sabotage their academic performance by engaging in negative self-talk about their abilities and by making faulty attributions to explain poor academic performance (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002).

How to Verify the Presence of This Motivation Problem: Teachers can tap students’ impressions of self-efficacy by asking them to ‘think aloud’ about their abilities in the academic area of interest. Instructors will find the information that they have collected to be most useful if students are encouraged to:

talk about their perceived strengths and weaknesses as learners in particular subject areas give examples (with details) about specific successes and failures that they have experienced

on academic assignments discuss how they complete a range of common academic tasks (e.g., undertaking a term paper,

completing a chemistry lab exercise, doing homework) disclose their routine for preparing for quizzes and tests. As the teacher evaluates the student’s comments, the instructor concludes that the student’s attributions/explanations are unrealistically negative and do not adequately acknowledge the role of effort or other controllable factors in improving that student’s academic skills or performance. How to Fix This Motivation Problem:

Challenge Faulty Student Attributions about Ability. As a student articulates attitudes toward learning and describes techniques that he or she uses as an independent learner, the teacher can use this information to identify whether a low sense of academic self-efficacy may be holding the student back. A useful framework for analyzing student views about their academic abilities is presented by Linnenbrink & Pintrich (2002). The authors analyze student attributions along three dimensions: internal/external; stable/unstable; and controllable/uncontrollable. As explained below, the

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teacher can use this framework to analyze and challenge a student’s faulty attributions about self-efficacy and help the student to reframe those attributions in a more optimistic (and motivating) light.

Internal/External. The student may view the explanation for his or her poor academic performance as internal (tied to aspects of the student’s own personality, abilities, or other personal factors) or external (linked to factors other than the student, such as teacher behavior, school policies, state curriculum requirements, etc.). When listening to student explanations about his or her academic standing, the teacher considers whether the student should reframe that explanation to acknowledge internal factors that may have been overlooked. For example, when a student blames the teacher for giving unannounced quizzes that catch the student unprepared (external explanation of the problem), the instructor can point out that the student has the option to review course content regularly and thus always be prepared for quizzes (shifting the focus by tying the internal explanation of student preparation to the goal of improving academic performance).

Stable/Unstable. The student may view the situation relating to poor academic performance as stable (likely to last for a long time) or unstable (likely to change soon). The teacher evaluates whether the student is realistic in estimating the stability of the situation. For example, when a student laments to her math teacher that her difficulty in grasping concepts relating to negative numbers shows that she ‘will never get a good grade in math’ (a view that the problem is long-term and therefore stable), the teacher can help the student to reframe the problem as unstable and likely to improve soon by noting that many students struggle with negative-number concepts but that the student should find upcoming math instructional modules to be much easier to comprehend.

Controllable/Uncontrollable. The student may see him or herself as having substantial control over the factors relating to academic performance or instead view the situation as beyond personal control. When listening to student explanations of academic problems, the teacher considers whether the student may be overlooking or minimizing his or her own influence and responsibility. For example, a teacher may point out to a student who complains about the requirements of a particular course as arbitrary and unfair (uncontrollable) that the student was given a syllabus at the start of the semester spelling out all academic requirements to be used as a roadmap for the course, that the syllabus will allow the student to complete assignments ahead of time if he wishes, and that furthermore the student is welcome to seek help from the teacher whenever he chooses (controllable factors).

References:

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Jacobs, J. E., Lanza, S., Osgood, D. W., Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Changes in children’s self-competence and values: Gender and domain differences across grades one through twelve. Child Development, 73, 509-527.

Linnenbrink, E. A., & Pintrich, P. R. (2002). Motivation as an enabler for academic success. School Psychology Review, 31, 313-327.

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

Profile of a Student with This Motivation Problem: The student appears indifferent or even hostile toward the instructor and thus may lack motivation to follow teacher requests or to produce work.

What the Research Says: Because humans are highly social beings, positive teacher attention can be a very powerful motivator for students (e.g., Kazdin, 1989). However, teachers often do not make adequate use of simple but effective tools such as praise to promote positive interactions with their students (Kern & Clemens, 2007). At times, instructors and students can even fall into a ‘negative reinforcement trap’ (Maag, 2001; p. 176) that actively undercuts positive relationships. In this situation, a student who has difficulty with the classwork misbehaves and is then sent by the teacher to the principal’s office. Both teacher and student are reinforced by the student’s exclusion from the classroom: The teacher is negatively reinforced by having a difficult student removed from the room and the student is also negatively reinforced by being allowed to escape the challenging classwork. Because this scenario is reinforcing to both parties, it is very likely to be repeated with increasing frequency unless the teacher intervenes to break the negative cycle.

How to Verify the Presence of This Motivation Problem: The teacher looks for evidence that the student lacks a positive relationship with the teacher, such as:

the student’s apparent avoidance of opportunities to talk to the teacher

a lack of eye contact, sarcastic or defiant student comments

a general pattern of defiant or non-compliant behavior.

NOTE: Because teachers as well as students are social beings, an instructor’s impression of whether a student ‘likes’ them or not can often be a good predictor of the actual state of the teacher-student relationship.


The teacher provides the student with increased doses of positive attention at times when the student is engaging in appropriate behavior (Kazdin, 1989). (At the same time, the teacher keeps interactions with the student brief and neutral when that student misbehaves—although the student otherwise is held to the same behavioral expectations as his or her peers.)

Try These Ideas to Improve Motivation by Improving the Teacher-Student Relationship: Here are ideas that promote an improved teacher-student relationship as a motivation tool:

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Strive for a High Ratio of Positive Interactions with Students (Sprick, Borgmeier, & Nolet, 2002). A general, proactive rule of thumb to promote positive teacher-student relationships is for instructors to maintain a ratio of at least three positive interactions with any student for every negative (disciplinary) interaction that they have that student.

Commit to a Short Series of Positive ‘Micro-Conversations’ (Mendler, 2000). The teacher selects a student with whom that instructor wants to build a more positive relationship. The instructor makes a commitment to spend 2 minutes per day for ten consecutive days engaging the student in a positive conversation about topics of interest to that student. NOTE: During those two-minute daily conversations, the teacher maintains a positive tone and avoids talking about the student’s problem behaviors or poor academic performance.

Emphasize the Positive in Teacher Requests (Braithwaite, 2001). The teacher avoids using negative phrasing (e.g., "If you don't return to your seat, I can’t help you with your assignment") when making a request of a student. Instead, the teacher request is stated in positive terms (e.g., "I will be over to help you on the assignment just as soon as you return to your seat"). When a request has a positive 'spin', that teacher is less likely to trigger a power struggle and more likely to gain student compliance.

Strive for at Least One Daily Positive Verbal Interaction (Fields, 2004). The teacher makes a point early in each class session to engage in at least one positive verbal interaction with the target student. Whenever possible, the teacher continues to interact in positive ways with the student throughout the rest of the class period through both verbal (e.g., praise comment after a student remark) and non-verbal means (e.g., thumbs-up sign, smile.). In all interactions, the teacher maintains a polite, respectful tone.

References:

Braithwaite, R. (2001). Managing aggression. New York: Routledge.

Fields, B. (2004). Breaking the cycle of office referrals and suspensions: Defensive management. Educational Psychology in Practice, 20, 103-115.

Kazdin, A. E. (1989). Behavior modification in applied settings (4th ed.). Pacific Gove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Kern, L. & Clemens, N. H. (2007). Antecedent strategies to promote appropriate classroom behavior. Psychology in the Schools, 44, 65-75.

Maag, J. W. (2001). Rewarded by punishment: Reflections on the disuse of positive reinforcement in schools. Exceptional Children, 67, 173-186.

Mendler, A. N. (2000). Motivating students who don’t care. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service.

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Sprick, R. S., Borgmeier, C., & Nolet, V. (2002). Prevention and management of behavior problems in secondary schools. In M. A. Shinn, H. M. Walker & G. Stoner (Eds.), Interventions for academic and behavior problems II: Preventive and remedial approaches (pp.373-401). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

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Preventing Students from Falling Behind Through Proactive Teacher Communication

Struggling students benefit greatly when the teacher provides a clear explanation of course requirements, and offers regularly updated information about upcoming assignments, missing work, and students’ current standing in the course. When the teacher makes a proactive effort to keep students fully and continually informed about course expectations and their own performance, the instructor substantially reduces the likelihood that students will fall behind in their work and be at risk for underperformance or failure in the course. Here are some recommendations for teachers in communicating about course requirements:

1. Prepare a Course Syllabus. At the start of the semester, the teacher hands out a syllabus listing all major course assignments, their descriptions, and due dates, as well as dates of quizzes and tests. This syllabus provides the student with a comprehensive map of all of the work to be done in the course for the semester. It also gives a clear explanation of the grading system, including the relative weight toward the final grade of tests, quizzes, homework, classwork, and student participation. Additionally, the syllabus spells out any penalties for submission of late work.

2. Hand Out Weekly Work Agenda. On Mondays, the teacher gives students a work agenda for the week. The agenda lists any in-class and homework assignments for that week, their descriptions (if necessary), and due dates. [Optional but recommended] The agenda may also include milestone tasks from larger, multi-week projects (e.g., reminding students in a November agenda that they should have their 6 required source documents for a term paper selected by Friday of the current week).

3. Schedule Weekly Student Conferences. The teacher holds brief meetings with individual students. In those mini-conferences, the teacher reviews with students their performance in the course to date, notes any missing work and gets the student to commit to a plan to submit that work, and checks in with the student about upcoming assignments, quizzes, and tests to ensure that the student continues to stay on top of course requirements. NOTE: If time constraints prevent the teacher from being able to conference with the entire class each week, the instructor may instead meet with at-risk students weekly and meet less frequently (e.g., every other week or monthly) with the remainder of the class.

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Helping the Student Who is ‘Under Water’ With Late Assignments: A Structure for Teacher–Student Conferences

When students fall behind in their classwork, they can quickly enter a downward spiral. They must stay caught up in their current assignments and also submit late assignments; as the work piles up, some students become overwhelmed and simply give up.

In such cases, the teacher may want to meet with the student to help that student to create a work plan to catch up with late work. (It is also recommended that the parent attend such a conference, although parent participation is not required.) At the meeting, the teacher and student inventory what work is missing, negotiate a plan to complete that overdue work, and perhaps agree on a reasonable penalty when late work is turned in. Teacher, student (and parent, if attending) then sign off on the work plan. The teacher also ensures that the atmosphere at the meeting is supportive, rather than blaming, toward the student. And of course, any work plan hammered out at this meeting should seem attainable to the student.

Here in greater detail are the steps that the teacher and student would follow at a meeting to renegotiate missing work:

1. Inventory All Missing Work. The teacher reviews with the student all late or missing work. The student is given the opportunity to explain why the work has not yet been submitted.

2. Negotiate a Plan to Complete Missing Work. The teacher and student create a log with entries for all of the missing assignments. Each entry includes a description of the missing assignment and a due date by which the student pledges to submit that work. This log becomes the student’s work plan. It is important that the submission dates for late assignments be realistic--particularly for students who owe a considerable amount of late work and are also trying to keep caught up with current assignments. A teacher and student may agree, for example, that the student will have two weeks to complete and submit four late writing assignments. NOTE: Review the form Student Late-Work Planning Form: Middle & High School that appears later in this handout as a tool to organize and document the student’s work plan.

3. [Optional] Impose a Penalty for Missing Work. The teacher may decide to impose a penalty for the work being submitted late. Examples of possible penalties are a reduction of points (e.g., loss of 10 points per assignment) or the requirement that the student do additional work on the assignment than was required of his or her peers who turned it in on time. If imposed, such penalties would be spelled out at this teacher-student conference. If penalties are given, they should be balanced and fair, permitting the teacher to impose appropriate consequences while allowing the student to still see a path to completing the missing work and passing the course.

4. Periodically Check on the Status of the Missing-Work Plan. If the schedule agreed upon by teacher and student to complete and submit all late work exceeds two weeks, the teacher (or

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other designated school contact, such as a counselor) should meet with the student weekly while the plan is in effect. At these meetings, the teacher checks in with the student to verify that he or she is attaining the plan milestones on time and still expects to meet the submission deadlines agreed upon. If obstacles to emerge, the teacher and student engage in problem-solving to resolve them.

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Student Late-Work Planning Form: Middle & High School

Teacher: ______________________________ Course: ________________________________

Student: _______________________________ Date: _________/_____/___________________

Directions: At a teacher-student conference, use this form to create a plan for the student to complete and submit missing or late work.

Assignment Target Date for

Completion

NOTES

What penalty--if any--will be imposed for these late assignments? __________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________ Student Signature

_____________________ Teacher Signature

_____________________ Parent Signature

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Setting Up a Reward Program for a Middle or High School Student: Five Steps

Students who lack motivation to apply effort or behave appropriately in their middle or high school classrooms may benefit from the temporary opportunity to earn incentives for important behavioral goals such as paying attention in class, doing assigned work, or complying with teacher requests. Reward programs can work well for students who chronically struggle in the classroom and do not see a meaningful payoff to doing their assigned work. The purpose of a reward program is to give the student external incentives to encourage increased effort. Presumably, as the student tries harder to attend to instruction and complete academic tasks in order to earn rewards, there is the possibility that the student will also begin to experience collateral benefits from the increased effort, such as improved grades, greater peer acceptance, and an improved sense of self-efficacy with course work. As these benefits accrue, the teacher can gradually fade, then discontinue, the reward program. General guidelines appear below for setting up an individual reward program in a middle or high school classroom:

1. Define the Target Behavior. The teacher writes a definition of the undesired student behavior to be decreased or the desired behavior to be increased as a result of the reward program. The behavioral definition should be written in clear, specific terms—sufficiently clear to allow different observers who might review the behavioral definition to all be in general agreement about when the student is displaying that behavior in the classroom. Here are sample behavioral definitions:

John turns in homework, with clear evidence that he has attempted each problem or item assigned.

Jane remains in her seat during large-group instruction.

Frank complies with teacher requests within 1 minute.

2. Establish Criteria for Success. The teacher defines the minimum acceptable criteria for student success in the target behavior, which may include information about time intervals, cumulative frequency, and/or percentage of compliance. Time-intervals. Most reward systems are based on time intervals. If the student meets the behavioral goal within a specified time interval, the student is judged to have earned an incentive (e.g., reward, token point, praise, etc.). Here are examples of success criteria tied to time intervals:

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During each 45-minute math class session, Jane will leave her seat without permission no more than once during large-group instruction.

During daily 20-minute independent seatwork periods, Roger will avoid engaging in non-instructional conversations with other students lasting longer than 30 seconds.

Cumulative Frequency. Reward systems may occasionally be tied to cumulative behaviors within or across sessions. When the student has engaged in a desired behavior a sufficient number of times, that student then is judged to have earned an incentive (e.g., reward, token point, praise, etc.). Here are examples of success criteria tied to cumulative frequencies:

Francine will write short summaries to show that she has read at least 3 books as outside reading.

John will submit homework any four days in a row.

Percentage of Compliance. Other reward systems might include a minimum percentage of compliance as a condition for success. Here are examples of success criteria that use percentage of compliance:

When given a teacher request, Frank will comply with that request within 1 minute at least 90 percent of the time.

John will turn in homework at least 4 of a possible five times (80 percent) per instructional week.

3. Choose Student Incentives. The teacher next selects incentives (positive reinforcers or ‘rewards’) that are likely to motivate the student. The goal is to develop a ‘reward/reinforce menu’ from which the student can select rewards whenever they have been earned. Because reward menus include a variety of incentives and allow the student to exercise choice, they offer the advantages of being more motivating and of often lasting longer than single reward choices. There are several ways that the teacher can discover what reinforcers the student would prefer. The instructor can:

a. Conduct a reinforcer survey. The teacher (or other school staff member) compiles a list of reward ideas that can be delivered in a school setting. The teacher meets with the student and reviews the potential rewards. For each reward, the student rates whether he or she ‘likes it a lot’, ‘likes it a little’, or ‘does not like it’. The teacher then takes all reinforcers that the student rated as ‘likes a lot’ and compiles them into a reinforcer/reward menu.

b. Observe the student’s preferred activities in various school settings. Often, teachers can gain insight into the kinds of experiences or incentives a student finds reinforcing by noting the preferred activities that the student regularly seeks out. A teacher may

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discover, for example, that a particular student likes opportunities to socialize with two close friends, to visit Internet sites about space travel, and to work on art projects. This information could potentially be used to create motivating reward options for that student.

c. Interview the student and others who know the student. Meeting with the student and asking what school activities or incentives he or she would find rewarding can be an efficient way to identify rewards the student will work for. Or the teacher can talk with the student’s parents or others—such as past teachers—who know the student and may have insight into rewards that will motivate him or her. These ideas can be turned into a reward menu for the student.

4. Decide Whether a Point System Will Be Used. Teachers have two options in delivering rewards: the student can be given their earned rewards directly whenever they have been earned or the student can be assigned points (or tokens or tickets) each time that they meet the teacher’s behavioral expectations and then are allowed at some point to redeem these points for items from the reward menu.

For simple reward systems with time intervals that are limited to a school day or less, the teacher may elect to have the student claim a reward as soon as it has been earned.

For reward systems that extend beyond a school day, the teacher may use a point system. For example, a student goal may be to turn in completed homework four out of five days in the instructional week. The teacher has the student record a ‘reward point’ on her chart for every day that she turns in homework and then allows the student to redeem those points for a reward if the student earns a cumulative 4 points during the week. The advantage of points (or tokens or tickets) is that they provide immediate positive reinforcement of student behaviors in situations when the actual reward payoff is delayed.

5. Decide How the Reward is to Be Delivered. The use of rewards can be very motivating for some students. However, teachers may be concerned at the potential negative impact in their middle and high school classrooms if peers observe a student receiving rewards not available to the entire group. Here are options that offer some flexibility in the delivery of student incentives by allowing teachers to reap the benefits of reward programs while reducing the probability of negative side-effects:

The teacher meets with the student privately to deliver rewards. The teacher briefly meets with the student individually (e.g., just before or after a class session; during a free period) to deliver an earned reward.

Another school contact delivers the reward. In this scenario, the teacher is responsible for recording the student’s target behaviors and tracking when the student has earned a reward. However, another school staff member (e.g., assistant principal; guidance

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counselor; school psychologist) is enlisted to actually deliver rewards. For example, a teacher notes that a student has met her goal of turning in completed homework 4 out of five times in a given instructional week, making the student eligible for a reward. At the end of class, the teacher hands the student a ticket signifying that she has earned an incentive and directs the student to stop by the school psychologist’s office at the end of the day to claim her reward for a successful week.

The parent delivers the reward at home. The teacher communicates with the parent prior to starting the reward program. The parent and teacher reach agreement about a range of privileges and/or incentives that the student will be able to access at home based on reports of acceptable behavior supplied to the parent by the teacher. Details to be worked out include how the teacher will communicate with the parent about the student’s behaviors (e.g., phone call, email, text message) and how often the reward can potentially be earned (e.g., daily, weekly).

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Intervention & Related RTI Terms: Definitions Educators who serve as interventionists should be able to define and distinguish among the terms core instruction, intervention, instructional adjustment, and modification. (In particular, interventionists should avoid using modifications as part of an RTI plan for a general education student, as they can be predicted to undermine the student’s academic performance.) Here are definitions for these key terms. Core Instruction. Those instructional strategies that are used routinely with all students in a general-

education setting are considered ‘core instruction’. High-quality instruction is essential and forms the foundation of RTI academic support. NOTE: While it is important to verify that a struggling student receives good core instructional practices, those routine practices do not ‘count’ as individual student interventions.

Academic Intervention. An academic intervention is a strategy used to teach a new skill, build fluency in a

skill, or encourage a child to apply an existing skill to new situations or settings. An intervention can be thought of as “a set of actions that, when taken, have demonstrated ability to change a fixed educational trajectory” (Methe & Riley-Tillman, 2008; p. 37). As an example of an academic intervention, the teacher may select question generation (Davey & McBride,1986.; Rosenshine, Meister & Chapman, 1996), a strategy in which the student is taught to locate or generate main idea sentences for each paragraph in a passage and record those ‘gist’ sentences for later review.

Instructional Adjustment (Accommodation). An instructional adjustment (also known as an

'accommodation') is intended to help the student to fully access and participate in the general-education curriculum without changing the instructional content and without reducing the student’s rate of learning (Skinner, Pappas & Davis, 2005). An instructional adjustment is intended to remove barriers to learning while still expecting that students will master the same instructional content as their typical peers. An instructional adjustment for students who are slow readers, for example, may include having them supplement their silent reading of a novel by listening to the book on tape. An instructional adjustment for unmotivated students may include breaking larger assignments into smaller ‘chunks’ and providing students with performance feedback and praise for each completed ‘chunk’ of assigned work (Skinner, Pappas & Davis, 2005).

Modification. A modification changes the expectations of what a student is expected to know or do—typically

by lowering the academic standards against which the student is to be evaluated. Examples of modifications are giving a student five math computation problems for practice instead of the 20 problems assigned to the rest of the class or letting the student consult course notes during a test when peers are not permitted to do so. Instructional modifications are essential elements on the Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) or Section 504 Plans of many students with special needs. Modifications are generally not included on a general-education student’s RTI intervention plan, however, because the assumption is that the student can be successful in the curriculum with appropriate interventions and instructional adjustments alone. In fact, modifying the work of struggling general education students is likely to have a negative effect that works against the goals of RTI. Reducing academic expectations will result in these students falling further behind rather than closing the performance gap with peers

References Davey, B., & McBride, S. (1986). Effects of question-generation training on reading comprehension. Journal of Educational

Psychology, 78, 256-262. Methe, S. A., & Riley-Tillman, T. C. (2008). An informed approach to selecting and designing early mathematics

interventions. School Psychology Forum: Research into Practice, 2, 29-41. Rosenshine, B., Meister, C., & Chapman, S. (1996). Teaching students to generate questions: A review of the intervention

studies. Review of Educational Research, 66, 181-221. Skinner, C. H., Pappas, D. N., & Davis, K. A. (2005). Enhancing academic engagement: Providing opportunities for

responding and influencing students to choose to respond. Psychology in the Schools, 42, 389-403.

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AccommodationFinder: Checklist Maker

Accommodations List: Intervention Central

This report lists selected accommodations in one column and research citations for each in the nextcolumn. A third column includes a space to write notes.

Accommodation Research Citation NOTES1. CUE IMPORTANT INFORMATION.

Identify those concepts, ideas, orother academic content likely to beevaluated on upcoming tests andquizzes. During lecture or classdiscussion, teacher comment candraw attention to important content,while on handouts, asterisks or othervisual highlighting techniques can beused to emphasize content likely toappear as test items.

International DyslexiaAssociation. (2002).Accommodating studentswith dyslexia in allclassroom settings.Retrieved fromhttp://www.interdys.org/

2. EMPHASIZE THE POSITIVE INREQUESTS. When delivering arequest, directive, or command to astudent, state the request usingpositive phrasing (e.g., "I will be overto help you on the assignment just assoon as you return to your seat")rather than negative phrasing (e.g., "Ican’t help you with your assignmentuntil you return to your seat."). When arequest has a positive ‘spin', thatteacher is less likely to trigger a powerstruggle and more likely to gainstudent compliance.

Braithwaite, R. (2001).Managing aggression. NewYork: Routledge.

3. FOCUS ATTENTION VIA SILENTCUES. Meet with the student andagree on one or more silent teachercues to redirect or focus the student(e.g., placing a paperclip on thestudent’s desk) during classinstruction. Use the cue as needed.Optionally, direct the student to keeptrack of the number of times the cue isused and provide incentives to thestudent for reducing the number ofteacher prompts needed.

Barkley, R. A. (2008). 80+classroom accommodationsfor children or teens withADHD. The ADHD Report,16(4), 7-10.

www.interventioncentral.org • Copyright © 2009-2012 Jim Wright

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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES4. PREPARE A COURSE GLOSSARY.

Create a glossary with definitions ofvocabulary terms essential for thecourse or content area. Make copiesof the glossary available to allstudents. Provide opportunities forstruggling students to practice anddemonstrate mastery of these crucialvocabulary items.


5. PUBLICLY POST DIRECTIONS. Postroutine directions on classroom wallsor provide copies for students to referto as needed. Format complexdirections into bulleted sub-steps forposting.

Beech, M. (2010).Accommodations: Assistingstudents with disabilities.Florida Department ofEducation. Retrieved from http://www.fldoe.org/ese/pdf/accomm-educator.pdf

6. REPEAT/REPHRASE COMMENTS.Repeat or rephrase student questionsor comments to the class or groupbefore responding.

Disability Resource Center:University of Florida (2008).Instructor fact sheet:Teaching students withhearing loss. Retrieved from http://www.dso.ufl.edu/drc/documents/hearing_loss_instructor_fact_sheet.pdf

7. SIMPLIFY DIRECTIONS. Simplifywritten directions on assignments andtests to the bare essentials to avoidstudent confusion ormisunderstanding. Aim for simplevocabulary and conciseness ofexpression.


8. USE STRONG TEACHERCOMMANDS. Maximize the likelihoodof student compliance with teachercommands by (1) gaining the attentionof the student, (2) stating thecommand calmly in clear and simplelanguage as a ‘do’ statement, (3)presenting multi-step commands onestep at a time, and (4) waiting forcompliance with each step beforemoving to the next.

Kern, L, & Clemens, N.(2007). Antecedentstrategies to promoteappropriate classroombehavior. Psychology in theSchools, 44(1), 65-75.

9. ALLOW MUSIC DURINGINDEPENDENT WORK. Permit thestudent to listen to music withearphones during independent work ifthis allows her or him to improveconcentration and increaseproductivity.



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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES10. ARRANGE CLASSROOM SEATING.

Arrange classroom seating to elicit thedesired student behavior: (1) topromote higher rates of studentengagement and on-task behavior,arrange seats in traditional rowsfacing the instructor; (2) to promotediscussion and student questions,arrange seats in a semi-circle.


11. CREATE LOW-DISTRACTIONWORK AREAS. For students who areoff-task during independent seatwork,set up a study carrel in the corner ofthe room or other low-distraction workarea. The teacher can then eitherdirect the distractible student to usethat area whenever independentseatwork is assigned or can permit thestudent to choose when to use thearea.

U.S. Department ofEducation (2004). Teachingchildren with attention deficithyperactivity disorder:Instructional strategies andpractices. Retrieved fromhttp://www.ed.gov/teachers/needs/speced/adhd/adhd-resource-pt2.doc

12. DIRECTIONS: ASSIGN A BUDDY.Assign a study buddy who is willingand able to repeat and explaindirections to the student.


13. PROVIDE APPROPRIATE OUTLETSFOR PHYSICAL MOVEMENT. Toaccommodate the student who isfidgety or has a greater need thanpeers for physical movement,negotiate with the student appropriateoutlets for movement. For example,the teacher and student may agreethat it acceptable for the student tostand when completing independentwork at his or her desk.


14. PROVIDE CLASSROOM STORAGESPACE. Provide the student with asection of shelf or container in theclassroom to store work materialsrequired for class.



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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES15. PROVIDE MISSING WORK

MATERIALS. Provide reasonablework materials (e.g., paper, writingutensil) for students who forget tobring them to class. Rather thanwithhold work materials from thehabitually unprepared student, deviseother appropriate consequences formissing materials (e.g., incentives forstudents who come to class prepared; deductions in global ‘effort’ grade forunprepared students).

Skinner, C. H., Pappas, D.N., & Davis, K. A. (2005).Enhancing academicengagement: Providingopportunities for respondingand influencing students tochoose to respond.Psychology in the Schools,42, 389-403.

16. USE PREFERENTIAL SEATING.Seat the student in a classroomlocation that minimizes distractionsand maximizes the ability to focus onthe teacher’s instruction. Whenpossible, the student should beconsulted and offered two or moreseating choices. Also, preferentialseating should be presented as asupport, not as a punitive response tostudent misbehavior or inattention.


17. CLASS NOTES: PROVIDE ASTUDENT COPY. Provide a copy ofclass notes to allow the student tofocus more fully on the lecture andclass discussion. This strategy can bestrengthened by requiring that thestudent highlight key vocabulary termsappearing in the prepared notes asthey are brought up in the lecture ordiscussion.


18. ADJUST INSTRUCTIONAL MATCH.Verify that the student possesses therequired skills to understand courseinstruction and complete academictasks assigned as in-class work orhomework. If necessary, provideadditional instruction (e.g., via tutoringsessions with a peer or instructor) orother supports to enable the studentto meet academic expectations.


19. CHUNK CLASSWORK ANDINCLUDE BREAKS. Break up lecturesor student work sessions into smallerchunks and include brief breaks tosustain student attention.



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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES20. CLASS NOTES: CREATE GUIDED

NOTES. Prepare a copy of notessummarizing content from a classlecture or assigned reading—withblanks inserted in the notes where keyfacts or concepts should appear. Asinformation is covered during lectureor in a reading assignment, thestudent writes missing content intoblanks to complete the guided notes.

Konrad, M., Joseph, L. M., & Eveleigh, E. (2009). Ameta-analytic review ofguided notes. Education andTreatment of Children, 32,421-444.

21. CLASS NOTES: PROVIDE LECTUREOUTLINE. Make up an outline of thelecture to share with students.Encourage students to use theelements of the outline to help tostructure their class notes and toensure that their notes do not omitimportant information.


22. INCREASE OPPORTUNITIES TORESPOND. Provide the student withincreased classroom opportunities foractive academic responding.Examples of active studentresponding are reading aloud,responding in writing or orally to ateacher question, and collaboratingwith a peer to solve a math problem.


23. INTERSPERSE LOW- ANDHIGH-INTEREST ACTIVITIES. Whenstructuring a lesson, switch betweenless-appealing and more-appealingactivities in short spans to holdstudent interest.


24. LECTURE: SUMMARIZE OFTEN.When lecturing, review and reinforcestudent understanding throughrepetition, paraphrase, and frequentsummarization of important points.



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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES25. LECTURE: TIE INFORMATION TO

COURSE READINGS. Whenpresenting important course conceptsduring lecture, explicitly link thatcontent to page references in thecourse text or other assigned readingsthat also cover that information. Inclass notes, also link importantinformation to the course text by pagenumber.


26. MATCH WORK TO PEAK ENERGYPERIODS. Schedule the mostchallenging academic subjects, tasks,or activities when students’ energylevels are highest (e.g., at the start ofthe day or class period).


27. PREPARE READING GUIDES. Develop reading guides to helpstudents to better access demandingtexts in the course or content area.Reading guides provide a generalmap of the text, summarize mainideas and key details presented, andoffer tips and pose questions to alertthe reader to important content.Depending on student needs, readingguides can deal broadly with wholesections of a text or focus morespecifically on chapters orsub-chapters.


28. PREPARE WEEKLY HOMEWORKASIGNMENTS. Share weekly listingsof upcoming homework assignmentswith the student. Also, ensure thatthese homework assignments areshared with the student’s parent(s), tohelp them to support their child’shomework completion.


29. SET A REASONABLE HOMEWORKQUOTA. Limit homework to amanageable amount of work. Use thisformula to estimate an appropriatehomework load: 10 minutes times thestudent’s grade level equals anappropriate TOTAL time devoted tonightly homework.



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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES30. TEST: ALLOW EXTRA TIME. For

tests that evaluate student knowledgeor skills but do not formally assessspeed/fluency with fixed time limits,allow all students a reasonableamount of additional time if needed.

Nelson, J. (2000). Studentpreferences for adaptationsin classroom testing.Remedial & SpecialEducation, 21, 21, 41-52.

31. TEST: ALLOWOPEN-BOOK/OPEN-NOTES. Insituations in which students are beingtested on their ability to apply – ratherthan memorize—course information orconcepts, allow students full access totheir textbooks and/or notes during thetest.


32. TEST: EVALUATE MOREFREQUENTLY. Assess studentmastery of course content frequently(e.g., weekly) through shorter quizzesin place of less–frequent,more-comprehensive tests. Morefrequent, smaller assessments canmake study more manageable forstudents, build strong habits ofcontinual study and review, andprovide more formative assessmentinformation for the teacher.


33. TEST: HIGHLIGHT KEY WORDS INDIRECTIONS. When preparing testdirections, highlight key words orphrases in bold or underline to drawstudent attention.


34. TEST: PRACTICE UNDER TESTCONDITIONS. Create practice teststhat mimic the actual test in formatand environmental conditions (e.g.,with time limits). Have the studentcomplete practice tests to buildendurance, reduce test anxiety.


35. TEST: PROVIDE EXTRA SPACE.Format tests with extra space to writeanswers. This formatting change hastwo advantages: (1) it canaccommodate students who havedifficulty writing in small spaces due tofine-motor issues, and (2) it can resultin a neater test that looks lesscrowded and therefore lessintimidating.



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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES36. USE GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS.

Select the graphic organizer(s) (e.g.,outline, chart, or other visualrepresentation) most appropriate tohelp the student to better understandcourse content by noting key ideas,recording important details, makingspecific connections betweenconcepts, etc. To adequately usegraphic organizers, students shouldfirst be explicitly trained in their use.Teachers should also require thatstudents turn in completed organizersperiodically to monitor their use andeffectiveness.


37. USE WHITEBOARDS FORSTUDENT RESPONDING. Reduceimpulsive responding and increasestudent participation by providing allstudents with small white boards andmarkers. The teacher (1) poses aquestion, (2) directs students to writetheir answers on whiteboards, andthen (3) prompts all students in unisonto hold up their whiteboards forteacher review.


38. INCORPORATE STUDENTINTERESTS. Structure or reworkinstruction or academic tasks toincorporate topics of student interests.If students are interested in NASCARor fashion, for example, the teachercan work these topics into writing ormath lessons.


39. OFFER CHOICE IN MODES OFTASK COMPLETION. Allow thestudent two or more choices forcompleting a given academic task. Forexample, a student may be given theoption to use a computer keyboard towrite an essay instead of writing it byhand -- or to respond orally tomath-facts on flashcards rather thanrecording answers on a mathworksheet.



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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES40. OFFER CHOICE VIA ASSIGNMENT

SUBSTITUTION. Present the studentwith two or more alternative activitiesto choose from that contain equivalentacademic requirements. For example,an instructor who wants students toreview a chapter of the coursetextbook might allow them the choicesof reading the passage independentlyor discussing that passage in astructured cooperative learningactivity.


41. OFFER CHOICE: TASK SEQUENCE.When the student has several tasks tocomplete during independent worktime, allow the student to select theorder in which she or he will completethose tasks. When the student beginsthe independent work, provideencouragement and prompting asneeded to keep the student engaged.

Kern, L., Bambara, L., &Fogt, J. (2002). Class-widecurricular modification toimprove the behavior ofstudents with emotional orbehavioral disorders.Behavioral Disorders, 27,317-326.

42. PROVIDE ADULT ATTENTION.Provide the student with brief, regular,repeated doses of positive adultattention (‘scheduled attention’) attimes when the student is behavingappropriately. Examples of positiveteacher attention are greetings, briefconversations, encouraging noteswritten on assignments, andnon-verbal signals (e.g., thumbs-up).


43. REWARD ACCURACY AND EFFORTFOR BEGINNING LEARNERS. Forthe student just acquiring an academicskill who is not yet proficient, provideencouragement and/or incentives foroverall effort and accuracy of anywork completed-- rather than focusingon speed or total number of problemsfinished.


44. ASSIGN A ‘FALL-BACK’ PEER.Choose a peer whom the student cancall or email to get details aboutmissing or lost homeworkassignments.



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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES45. CREATE STUDENT ORGANZATION

FOLDER. Help the student to createa work folder to organizer materials fora course or content area. The foldershould include dividers andcolor-coding to organize materials bysubject or topic.


46. DEVELOP A STUDENTSELF-CHECK ERROR CHECKLIST.Meet with the student and generate ashort list of the most common errorsthat the student habitually makes oncourse assignments (e.g., ‘In writingassignments, some words areillegible’, ‘Not all words at sentencebeginning are capitalized’.) Formatthat list as a customizederror-correction checklist. Instruct thestudent to review completedassignments using the error-correctionchecklist before turning in the work.


47. HIGHLIGHT ESSENTIAL MATERIAL.Have the student use a highlighter toidentify key ideas and vocabulary intext. If necessary, train the student inthe skill of highlighting only essentialmaterial (e.g., with the teacher initiallyhighlighting a text selection andcomparing her/his highlights to thoseof the student).


48. PROMOTE STUDENT-DEVELOPEDSTUDY SCHEDULES. Sit with thestudent to develop daily (and perhapsweekly and monthly) schedules tostudy material from a course orcontent-area. Meet periodically withthe student to update these studyschedules, gradually placing fullresponsibility on the student to createthe schedule independently and bringto the instructor for review.

Gettinger, M., & Seibert, J.K. (2002). Contributions ofstudy skills to academiccompetence. SchoolPsychology Review, 31,350-365.


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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES49. PROVIDE SCHEDULES/AGENDAS.

Provide the student with an academicagenda or schedule for the classperiod or school day. This agendaoutlines the instructional activities,independent assignments, and othertasks to be covered during the period,as well as their approximate duration.Preview the schedule with students toprepare them for upcoming activities.To forestall problem behaviors thatmight arise during a long orchallenging activity, refer to theschedule at several points during theactivity in order both to remindstudents of the time remaining and(perhaps) to describe the next activityto follow. Prepare students with a briefprompt/warning to prepare them forupcoming transitions betweenactivities.


50. SELF-MONITOR STUDENT GOALS.Meet with the student to develop oneor more classroom performance goals(e.g., arriving to class on time;completing independent assignments;participating in class discussion).Have the student monitor and charther or his performance during eachclass period. Meet periodically withthe student to review performance.


51. TRAIN THE STUDENT IN BASICSTUDY HABITS. Share study tips withthe student, including theserecommendations: (1) Schedule themost difficult academic tasks andcontent for times when the studenthas peak energy; (2) break largerassignments into smaller, moremanageable chunks; (3) mix and varystudy tasks (e.g., reading writing) toavoid monotony; (4) show flexibility inupdating the study schedule toaccommodate unforeseeninterruptions or unexpected windfallsof study time.

Gettinger, M., & Seibert, J.K. (2002). Contributions ofstudy skills to academiccompetence. SchoolPsychology Review, 31,350-365.


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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES52. TRAIN THE STUDENT TO REQUEST

ASSISTANCE. Meet with the studentand share your expectations for whenand how he or she should requesthelp during independent work. Thistraining is likely to include theseelements: (1) providing the studentwith simple fix-up skills to use whenstuck; (2) self-identifying when thestudent needs outside assistance(e.g., ‘If you have worked for morethan five minutes on a math problemand are still not sure what to do, it’stime to get help.’); and (3) guidelinesfor seeking additional assistance (e.g.,‘First, ask a peer for help. If you arestill stuck, come to my desk forhelp.’). Create a checklist with theassistance steps and tape it to thestudent’s desk, place into his or herwork folder, or post on the wall.


53. USE ‘VISUAL BLOCKERS’.Encourage the student to reducedistractions on assignments by usinga blank sheet of paper or similar aid tocover sections of the page that thestudent is not currently working on.


54. USE DAILY HOMEWORKASSIGNMENT SHEET. Create anassignment sheet for the student torecord daily homework assignments.The sheet should include columns torecord individual homework tasks,materials needed for each task, anestimated amount of time needed tocomplete each task, and whether thestudent actually completes and turnsin each assignment task. Optionally,have the student collect completedhomework assignment sheets andturn them in each week to verify thatthey are being used.



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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES55. ALLOW EXTRA WORK TIME. Allow

the student additional time tocomplete an in-class activity orassignment. Particularly for longerassignments, the instructor may wantto announce to students at the startthe amount of extra time available forthose that need it.


56. ELIMINATE BUSY WORK: Decreasethe student’s class or homework toinclude just the essential tasksneeded to master course or topiccontent. Maintain high academicstandards but eliminate any ‘busy’work not required for student success.


57. FORMULATESTUDENT-SEATWORK GOALS.Before beginning an in-class orhomework assignment, have thestudent set a work goal (e.g., tocomplete 20 math computationproblems; to write an introductoryparagraph for an essay). Later, checkin with the student to see whether thegoal(s) were successfully attained.


58. GIVE AN ASSIGNMENTHEAD-START. Allow students whorequire extra time to complete alengthy or involved assignment to startit early to secure additional time tocomplete the task.


59. HIGHLIGHT TEXTBOOKINFORMATION. Encourage thestudent to use post-it notes and/orerasable highlighter to highlightimportant information in the coursetextbook.



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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES60. PROVIDE A WORK PLAN. Provide a

Formal Work Plan. In advance ofmore complex assignments such asresearch papers, give the student anoutline of a work plan for completingthose assignments. The plan breaks alarger assignment into appropriatesub-steps (e.g., ‘find five researcharticles for the paper’, ‘summarizekey information from research articlesinto notes’, etc.). For each sub-step,the plan provides (1) an estimate ofthe minimum amount of ‘seat time’required to complete it and (2) sets acalendar-date deadline for completion.The teacher then touches base withthe student at least weekly to ensurethat the student is staying current withthe work plan. TIPE: Over time, theteacher can transfer increasingresponsibility for generating workplans to the student.


61. PROVIDE TEXTS WITH EASIERREADABILITY. Locate alternativetexts for course readings that have thesame vocabulary and concepts as thestandard text(s) but are written at alower reading level. Allow students toselect the easier texts as substitutesor as supplemental course readings.


62. PROVIDE WORK SAMPLES ANDEXEMPLARS. Provide samples ofsuccessfully completed academicitems (e.g., math computation or wordproblems) or exemplars (e.g., samplesof well-written paragraphs or essays)for the student to refer to whenworking independently.


63. RESPONSE EFFORT: CHUNKINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS. Toreduce the response effort for aparticular student, break a largerin-class or homework assignment intosmaller ‘chunks’. Optionally, theteacher can then provide the studentwith performance feedback and praisefor each completed ‘chunk’ ofassigned work.



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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES64. RESPONSE EFFORT: START

ASSIGNED READINGS IN CLASS.Whenever students are assigned achallenging text to read independently(e.g., as homework), have either theteacher or other skilled reader (e.g.,student) read the first few paragraphsof the assigned reading aloud whilethe class follows along silently in theirown texts. Students are then expectedto read the remainder of the text ontheir own.


65. RESPONSE EFFORT: STARTCHALLENGING HOMEWORKASSIGNMENTS IN CLASS. Whenassigning challenging homework, pairstudents off or divide into groups andgive them a small amount of classtime to begin the homework together,develop a plan for completing thehomework, formulate questions aboutthe homework, or engage in otheractivities to create the necessarymomentum to motivate students thento complete the work independently.


66. STRUCTURE ASSIGNMENTSFORINITIAL SUCCESS. Promote studentmotivation on worksheets andindependent assignments bypresenting easier items first and morechallenging items later on the sheet orassignment. Placing easier problemsor questions first provide both skillspractice and reinforcement to thestudent.


67. USE A PEER TO HELP INSTARTING ASSIGNMENTS. If astudent finds it difficult to getorganized and begin independentseatwork activities, select a supportivepeer or adult in the classroom whocan get the student organized andstarted on the assignment.



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Accommodation Research Citation NOTES68. WORKSHEETS: GIVE TWO COPIES.

Provide the student with two copies ofworksheets. The student can use thefirst as a ‘draft’ and the second asthe final, neat copy to be turned in tothe teacher.



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Six Reasons Why Students Are Unmotivated (and What Teachers Can … · 2012. 8. 9. · Motivation...

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