Motivating Unmotivated Students

[tmann50]

learned so much from this game. definitlly need to put history and video games together for history class.
make it so you need to know whats best against what in battle.
who was the leader of so and so. who ruled. what happened at this part and what you need to to save someone.
so on and so on. this is a awsome idea!!!

[Wildor]

This is all well and good, but...

How about reading a book, folks???

[Rota]

I taught a class once, I made a deal with them. If they would pay attention in class, then I would never assign homework. I believe schooltime is schooltime, and hometime is hometime. I had fairly common quizzes to make sure people were paying atention, but nothing too strenuous. By the end of the class, everyone passed the final(which was quite difficult). Grades were all across the spectrum, but the majority of finals got A's and B's.

The occasional reminder that I could assign a paper to do over the weekend was generally a sufficient reminder to keep down horseplay/goofing-off/etc...

[Lazzzzzzzzalicious!]

This is all well and good, but...

How about reading a book, folks???

what's a book?

[armbarchris]

This is all well and good, but...

How about reading a book, folks???

Why not both?
After I beat every one of my video games again over the summer, I sat down and re-read the Lord of the Rings series plus a healthy dose of Clancy.

[Kalent]

This is all well and good, but...

How about reading a book, folks???

I play games, and read books when I have spare time, usually before bed. Since I am still a child (;p), my computer time is limited (Although it's not that short), and the rest of the time, I go through books and documentaries. The book and documentaries give you good, solid facts, but games give people a good understanding that lasts.
Also, games, such as Evony, has a very great alliance system, having everybody interact, lead, discuss, etc. It builds leadership (and stuff like that), and some hosts can teach some young players manners better than their parents can. Many others games also have this feature. ;p
Also, I have recommended lots of RTS games to friends having problem with math, and gave them lessons on the battle mechanics, which are usually math. It seemed to help boost their grades and help think math is not all that useless and boring.

[Rota]

I had an undergrad professor that came up with a unique system. He made the A-train and B-train paths to follow through the quarter.

If you chose the A-train, you had a paper due at the midterm, and a major project with a presentation due at the end. You had quizzes each week and the midterm and final. You had one set of homework questions each week. You could earn any final grade in the spectrum.

If you chose the B-train, then you had the weekly in class quizzes and the midterm and final, and that was it. But, no matter what grades you got, you could never earn higher than a B+. You could ace everything 100% and your final grade would be 89/100.

The slackers jumped on the B-train instantaneously. The grade-chasers all took the A-train. As a lazy bum, myself, I hopped on board the B-train and got a B+.


As for motivating the unmotivated... I can honestly say I have never seen the slacker students more attentive or enthused for any other class. I don't think anyone failed that course. I'm fairly sure, that noone ended up with even a "D" grade.

[Boleslav]

Rota, every teacher faces a moral crisis when it comes to grading. I always ask myself would X have a higher grade if I had explained this diferently?" or "did I do enough to help Y?" That's why we come up with grading systems. So we can sleep at night.

[Cosmic Fury]

I would come up with a system that balances out hard work and written-down performance.

If I see that they are working very hard, but still struggling, I give them a bit of credit, along with necessary help.

If they do well, but study hardly at all, then I find more challenging work for them to do, but also with extra credit, so as to not make it unfair for him and the other students.

It keeps him from boredom, and therefor eliminates a potentially devastating distraction...

[LaoOmologo]

what's a book?

Facebook...? does that count as a book?