Response to SDM's question: I have certain students who like to get right to work. They seem intrinsically motivated to do the work. Sometimes they are quite interested and other times they aren't, but still have good motivation to finish the work. Perhaps they want to chat with friends or read on their own. I think their reasons may vary, but they always get to work right away and work until finished. If the work interests them, they will often ask for more work to complete - I usually have extra pages with different and more challenging work available. If it is not an area that really interests them, they will go on to read or do something else that is an option. I have some students who like to try and get other children to do their work for them. Like Brenna noticed, they display some learned helplessness. I work diligently to remind students to help their friends without giving them the answers. We also do growth mindset activities and have growth mindset discussions frequently to help students increase their intrinsic motivation. I frequently model how to help our friends without giving them the answer. We discuss how it will help our friends to help them work through something and really understand it as opposed to what happens if you just give them the answer. I also have students who finish quickly and then eagerly ask to help friends. They love to be peer teachers and help. I have had a few students who shut down when work is challenging. It took a lot of coaching and one on one work to help them learn how to persevere through challenging tasks. Reminding students that I don't expect their work to be perfect has helped. Setting up lessons where we work independently but then collaborate and edit our work has helped. When students realize that work can be ongoing and that it is a process they relax and are more able to keep at challenging tasks. Also just listening to how they are feeling helped. One little girl would just start to cry. When I would sit with her and ask her questions about how she felt and what was going on, she seemed to relax. We used breathing techniques, structured grouping and different work spaces to allow her some space and a bit more quiet. By the end of the year she was working independently on challenging tasks without shutting down. She needed to build her self-confidence. When her self-efficacy strengthened, she took off.

Inclusive teaching...Best-practices

can we please have chapter 8 too!

watch language here

My question is: In what ways can we create a classroom environment that supports students' autonomy, competence, and relatedness? I'd love to hear philosophies and/or specific strategies which support these three needs. Also, can we look at negative behaviors and ask ourselves "are one of these three basic needs not being met?" How can we decide which one may need to be met in order to increase motivation and on-task behavior?

structured grouping

This is a good place to think about how you set up your classroom and dialogue with students. Sometimes a student comes into your classroom with learned helplessness. What can we as teachers do to keep learned helplessness from occurring and how can we help students let go of learned helplessness.

Back to watching language here to support intrinsic and not extrinsic motivation

individual learning goals

discussing value and relatedness is important to promote intrinsic motivation and increase engagement

use structured grouping

are they meaning that low achievement and motivation by peers affects academic achievement more if there is a wide range of abilities in the classroom? I read research that says the opposite.

working on growth mindset with students helps students not go down this path as readily.

When I have a student displaying a behavior that is counter-productive in the classroom, I try to figure out what is causing the negative behavior. Are they fearful? Are they tired or hungry? Are they needing to move more or stand while listening or working. Thinking about what is causing a behavior and working to alleviate that has been very helpful. I also feel it motivates my students to know that I care and that I am there to help them learn and grow as much as possible. When they see me working to help them and create a relationship with them, they are much more responsive to working.

i try to help motivate my students by helping them see the value in what we are learning or doing. I frequently tell students that if I am asking them to do something, it is because it is important. We talk about how it is no fun to do busy work and I make them a promise that I will not just give them busy work. I make sure to look at all work I have them complete and get it back to them with feedback. We talk about why assignments are important and what it helps us with.