Wednesday, May 26, 2010

An Attempt to Motivate Students

Motivation is one of our main concerns as teachers, especially if we teach teenagers, whose motivation span deflates at lightning speed. In an attempt to encourage my teenage students to adopt English learning habits at home, I've created classroom blogs and wikis to upload material for my students to use after class. Thanks to my Twitter colleagues I'm able to receive creative ideas I do my best to put into practice so as to prevent my students' motivation from fading.

In this post, I'd like to share some of the links I've used to update my students' blogs and wikis:

1) Quizzes: Definitions

2) WallWisher: Students' Expectations

3) Games: Synonym Toast


5) Surveys: Free Time Survey

6) Articles connected to the topics introduced in class: Extreme Sports

7) Interactive Stories: Inanimate Alice

8) Grammar Tasks: Multiple Choice

9) Intonation Awareness Exercises: English Media Lab

10) Bakcground Knowledge: 2010 World Cup Map

11) Listening Practice: Accidents at Home

12) Speaking Practice: Questions Recorded with Vocaroo

This list is just an example of the kind of material I upload, for which I am thankful to my Twitter fellows for sharing it.

I'm interested in knowing how you encourage your students to practise outside the classroom.
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4 comments:

  1. UnknownMay 26, 2010 at 2:17 PM

    What great ideas! I love your wiki by the way and the assignments!

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  2. AnonymousMay 26, 2010 at 7:38 PM

    Hi!
    Thank you for sharing these great ideas with us.
    I teach French at HS level. I opened a WIKI at the beginning of the year for my French 4 and 5 group. I updated it a couple of times, posted links to videos, songs but I really doubt they ever clicked on any of them... And they are really good students!
    How do you get the students to be motivated enough to open these links if it is not assigned as homework? It is crucial to show them that languages exist outside the classroom and that students can learn after classes.
    Thank you!
    Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. MarisaMay 26, 2010 at 9:19 PM

    Thanks, Shelly, for your comment and encouragement!
    Marisa

    ReplyDelete
  4. MarisaMay 26, 2010 at 9:29 PM

    Thanks, Celine, for your comment and for sharing your experience. You see, my students are not different from yours. What I do is to show them in class what I've uploaded so as to encourage them to participate. Some of them have a look, others don't. Anyway, I also upload homework that's compulsory for them to do and hand in. In that way, I forced them to have a look at the blog/wiki.
    I hear lots of comments like, "I don't have time, teacher." But I also hear other comments like "We've been revising some vocabulary with my mother." Even when it's a small number the ones who take advantage of all this, I'll keep on sending them material.I'm convinced that this is a helpful way and that apart from learning English, they develop a way of communication that'll be the rule in the future.
    A pleasure to have you among the readers of my post, Celine.
    Regards,
    Marisa

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