How to Motivate Children to Want to Learn
IV. Variety is the Spice of Life!
With that all said, it’s also important to change things up within the schedule. For example, if you spend the first 10 or 15 minutes each day doing vocabulary activities, make sure you vary these activities so they don’t get boring and stay motivated. If you see that the children of one class don’t respond to an activity, avoid it in the future and stick to the ones they like. It’s also important to realize that some groups of children will be motivated by certain activities that the next group of children will literally detest. For example, one group might really like role playing activities while another group would rather have a tooth pulled.
Another way to create variety is to keep changing the pace. Play a game that wakes the children up and follow it with a calm game so that the students do not get too excited. Then play a fast game so the children do not become so calm that they start to become restless and misbehave or drift off.
V. Give Them Options
If you spend long periods of time with your class, or if you have a mixed ability class and have to split your teaching time between groups, then the following ideas may help when the children have some free or unsupervised time in your class. Having a collection of fun, learning activities for them can motivate children that like to waste time and be a time-filler for children that like to make trouble.
Get a variety of activities for the children such as educational board games, crossword puzzles, sudoku puzzles, art projects… anything that they can learn something from that they would also find fun. For older kids, you can make a competition to complete a packet of activities to get extra credit points or put them on a team to be the first to complete a series of tasks. If you have a library then to look at suitable English reading material such as comics, or teenage magazines about cars for the boys and dating and make up for the girls! If discipline is a problem then the children will have to work individually at their desks in silence, but at least they will be engaged in the activity.
VI. One Last Idea…
This really motivates younger classes of children up to age 12, but it can work with all ages. Plan an end of the term program so the children can show off what they’ve learned to their parents and anyone else who attends the program. You can do it right in the classroom and have the children play games, recite poems, whatever you can come up with to have them showcase what they’ve learned for their parents.
Because this is such a successful strategy you can even put on two performances, one in the assembly hall in front of the whole school, and one in front of the parents, perhaps in the evening or immediately after school. You should find that your head of school is very open to this as it gives him or her an opportunity to show off too!
So, there you have it. There are lots of ways you can motivate your students to WANT to learn and to pay attention without bribing them with tangible gifts that become more important to them than learning the material.
The End
Source: https://www.teachingenglishgames.com/Articles/Motivating_Children.htm
Editor: Michael R. Clarke
