Motivation in the Bank
One of my co-workers has heard students express enthusiasm for my class. She wants to observe me.
The thing is, the reason the students think so highly of the class is that learned through unusual activities and reflection in September. That first impression created an association at the start of the course that has kept students invested in learning.
Motivation in the bank.
Now, we’re working on small details, things that don’t come so quickly. The pace is slower, and it’s not the best time of the year to observe.
For example, we spent half an hour expressing comparison-contrast analysis of Romeo and Juliet and “Romeo and Juliet in Bosnia” in compound and complex sentences yesterday. The students were willing to engage in the process, even though my sales pitch was “Now we’re going to try to express comparison-contrast analysis in single sentences!”
I’m cashing in on the trust and the motivation that I banked at the start of the year.
(For the record, that sentence-writing activity was productive. We began with simple comparisons, moved to plot/ character comparisons, and ended with text-to-text comparisons. There was a ton of 1:1 teacher-student interaction during the activity, which drove the process and produced learning.)
