Ideas on How You Can Have Your Students Do a
Student Motivation Journal
Many teachers are implementing the practice of having a student
motivation journal as part of their classroom routine. A
student motivation journal can go far in helping a student stay
focused on their work. It also goes far in helping them retain
what they have learned. If you are considering having your
students do a student motivation journal here are some things
you should think about:
1. How important do you want the student motivation
journal to be? Will it be part of the student’s grade? Will it
be something that he or she has time to work on during class
time or will it be purely a homework project? What type of
things do you want recorded in the journal?
2. How are you going to introduce the subject of a
student motivation journal to the class? What can you tell the
students about the benefits of doing a student motivation
journal? Will it be extra credit? Will it comprise part of
their semester grade? Is it purely a creative outlet?
3. Are you going to do a journal, too? Many students will
embrace the idea of a student motivation journal if they see
their teacher journaling, too. Will you be open to sharing what
you are writing in your journal? If so, will you ask students
to share their work publicly? What if they feel it is too
private?
4. Will you require that the student motivation journals
all look alike in appearance? Will you require that they have a
table of contents? Can the students use a spiral notebook, or
do you want them to use loose leaf notebook paper?
Many teachers find that having their students do student
motivation journals opens the doors of communication. They get
an inside peek into the mind’s of their students which enables
them to teach better. You can take whatever route you would
like to take with a student motivation journal. You may require
your students to take notes in it throughout the day on every
subject, or you can just apply it to something like poetry. You
could read a passage to your students and then have them write
about what they have just heard. This is one way that students
learn how to tap into their imaginations and open up their
inner beings.
Another popular method of having students
do motivation journals involves just letting students free
write for a set period of time. If this is the route you take
it is important that your students are made aware that you will
be reading what they write, if you do plan to read them.
Another method that could be considered is having your students
do their student motivation journal via the Internet. This
often gives students the motivation they need. You can set up a
community of sorts for your class and make them each maintain a
blog or journal of their life. It could focus on their school
work, personal life, goals, dreams, pets or whatever the
students wish to write about. If you go this route it is
important that you first have the parent’s permission and that
you make certain that each student has access to the Internet.
Not all students will have access to the Internet, so you do
not want to embarrass a child who may not. If not every student
has computer and Internet access, simply revert back to a
handwritten student motivation journal.
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