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Jourdan Smoot October 8, 2013 Motivating the Unwilling Motivation continually proves to be one of the more challenging aspects for teachers teacherstoday, especially in the secondary schools. How can educators fully engage students in the classroom? Obviously, nearly all teachers know that literacy is important for students academic growth. Yet, too often do we find students who highly disdain reading and writing. Students would rather be engaging in many other activities with their spare time instead of picking up a book or writing for fun enjoyment. How do we get students excited about reading and writing in the classroom? For that matter, how do we get students to make reading and writing a lifestyle and get students to read and write outside of the school walls? While attending secondary schools myself, I would only do the assignments that teachers gave to us, because of the sheer fact my grade depended on that works completion. I was became a master at regurgitating facts, and my teachers took my strengths in English as a sign that I completely understood the material. Little did they know that I was horrendously bored, and their assignments were monotonous.! I surrounded concerned myself more with activities that I found interesting, such as video games, sports, and my television broadcasting class. Yet, there would be one pearl in the clam of classes that really brought out the spark inside of me.
Comment [JMS1]: Maybe mention friends Comment [JMS2]: Maybe add a little something about how I didnt realize that the literacy I was engaging in could be considered literacy. I didnt see the writing for my broad casting class as literacy. I didnt see video games as literacy.

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There were two or three assignments that really got me interested sparked my ininterest in English classes, one having to do with movies, and the other with music. As soon as I got home those evenings, I couldnt not wait to start on homework, because of how interesting the tasks were. I could have the freedom to choose any movie or personalize these songs in any way that I chose wanted. These assignments assignmentsin particular, gave me the motivation I needed to learn the material, and to this day, I remember almost every aspect of that unit because of the special interest I had with the assignments. In my personal opinion, I am no different than the students I see in my classroom today. I thoroughly enjoyed the multimedia aspect of assignments, and getting to use technological advances really helped engage me with activities. One way to motivate students is to use these tools that are at the tips of our fingers. Teachers see this every day: Students getting in trouble for texting, being on social media, not doing their homework because they would rather play video games, or looking at other websites that are not where they should be looking. Instead of sheltering these students and stifling their interests, we should be embracing the skill sets they already possess, and develop unit plans to incorporate assignments that will motivate using technological advances. One realm of literacy that could be explored in depth is the idea: What is literacy? Yes, a topic debated amongst many scholars and educators, but they are phrasing the question incorrectly. We should be asking: What are acceptable literary practices we want to encourage? Adolescent literacy is social, drawing from various discourse communities in and out of school. They regularly use literacies for social and political purposes as they create meanings and
Comment [JMS4]: Add specific examples on how to flourish this type of meeting. Reiterate previous points. Comment [JMS3]: Mention video games and that broad casting class

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participate in shaping their immediate environments (Adolescent Literacy 3). The environments our students are thriving in are fairly different than the culture we grew up. in. These students today spend more time inside playing with electronic devices than outside playing childhood games like when our generation was their age. Yes, many pupils my age including myself are just as technologically advanced as these students, but as we grow older their advances will grow, while ours will dwindle or stay the same. As a teacher, we need to be able to keep up with these advances to our best extent to continually engage students. Using technology to engage literary practices may seem difficult at a glance, but upon further examination, technology is practically everywhere. The biggest factor in literacy is engaging the students, but secondly, we must maintain that engagement. The easiest way to attack this issue is to show real world implementation for students. Curiosity is aroused by new experiences that challenge or stretch current views of the world. A compelling but puzzling short text or video raises questions and pulls students into the study of the topic, which is usually a historical-era or contemporary issue. Once students care about the lives of the people involved and raise their own questions, they are launched into exploring the topic (Greene 15). Students will be interested in literary practices that raise morals and beliefs of their own. Helping students mold their voice and use their skills correctly is essential, and can be achieved in simplistic ways. In the next section, I will provide sample assignments that use technology and incorporate excellent teaching strategies to correspond with the advances.
Comment [JMS5]: Give examples of where we see technology everywhere.

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PRACTICAL APPROACHES: In a secondary setting, making sure each student has his/her needs met will ensure prosperity, but with the incorporation of small groups and technology, student engagement will tremendously increase. To start off, break up your set of students into smaller groups, and make sure that each different level of student is a part of each different group. This is corporative learning, and this type of learning proves to enrich student output. Teachers who employ corporative learning methods promote learning because these collaborative experiences engage students in an interactive approach to processing information, resulting in greater retention of subject matter, improved attitudes towards learning, and enhanced interpersonal relations among group members (Allene). After breaking students up into well-planned groups, then they may be given the task to perform. Provide the students with the technological tools needed for the assignment, assuming these tools can be provided. Tell the students they have the class period to come up with a restaurant. They are given a budget, and a few minor guidelines, but the rest is all on them. Teaching is more of a mentor, or there for guidance in this way as opposed to the standard teaching format. The students must learn to budget, divide income, create a menu, and make a presentation to present to the rest of the class. Students must use what theyre learning from math and perhaps a business classroom, but also use skill from an English classroom, because they will have to propose their idea to the classroom and create a sample

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menu, using adjectives and logical reasoning. Students can use Prezi, PowerPoint, excel, word, and a plethora of other helpful, technological tools to help their projects grow (My Restaurant Project). Students will be much more engaged in a project like this, because everyone can have input. This project is hefty enough that one student would not be able to do the entire project on their own, so dividing up the tasks would be vital to their success. Students would not only be engaged because of the creativity of making their own restaurant, but would also be hooked because of the technology they are used to. This is form of Project Based Learning, but with the added expansion of technology, because this will really grasp the students attention and maintain this attention. This type of learning allows for a freedom of choice while projects are also, carefully planned, managed, and assessed to help student learn key academic content, practice 21st century skills (such as collaboration, communication, and critical thinking), and create high-quality, authentic products and presentations (Buck Institute for Education). Another prime example of the wonderful value of technology is how the help of technology personally assisted me. I was working with a partner my freshman year of college in a class called Technology in Education. This class ended up helping me out in more ways than I can even express, and not only did this homework help me and my partner, but this work helped out our entire group of English Education majors for our future endeavors here at the University of Indianapolis. The task my partner and I set out to do was to plan our schedule for the rest of our undergraduate degree here at the University. All we started out with was our paper guide for

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our general education requirements for the Bachelors of Arts and Science, our paper guide for English Education, and a book that listed course descriptions and when specific courses would be offered. We had a big hill to overcome, but with technology on our side, my partner and I were able to climb over this seemingly unobtainable obstacle. Using twitter and texting to communicate, we were able to keep in touch on our progress throughout the project, along with email every so often. We started by using a word document to rewrite all of the classes onto one sheet of paper. We then wrote when each class was offered based on fall or spring semester and if a certain class was only offered every other fall/spring, we made a special notation, because those would be harder to schedule. Therefore, we made sure to pay close attention when scheduling those classes. We then went to an excel spread sheet to create a semester-by-semester look at each class. We would calculate how many credit hours (no more than eighteen) we were taking each semester, then we would add the classes in by color coordinating them, general education classes would be green, English classes would be blue, education red, and so on. After getting organized all the way up through senior year, my partner and I were beyond relieved, because we knew exactly what to sign up for each semester without ever having to think twice about the problem. Although my partner and I were vastly comforted by our project, we thought our research would be beneficial to many others in our major who could suffer a worse fate if not for our help. To finalize our project, we opened up Google accounts on the Google web page. We then added all of our friends onto this page, and posted all of our research onto the site. At any time, our friends could look at our page and comment on the link, or use the link

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themselves to fit into their own personal scheduling. Without these technological advances, our entire group of English majors would have been more confused and could have possible had issues in the future years trying to fit in all of the classes. Research shows us that engaging student can perhaps be much easier than our current perception. Yes, more effort on behalf of the educator will have to be put forth, but this determination will not go in vain and will ultimately benefit the student. These different types of learning, such as project based learning, are working in classrooms. If teachers take the time to add technology into these already working cycles then students will be even more prepared than with just a project alone. By having students work in small groups, teachers are also able to give more attention to students who need the extra help, and aids with molding lifelong literacy practices in the process. Just because students are writing on a word document or in an excel spreadsheet or reading for a presentation, doesnt make those activities any less literate. Take the time out to engage your students through small group projects and technology. I was able to complete my time through the system, but with the added benefits of these small skills, the classroom will become a new home for students and will make a world of difference in your classroom. This paper attacks two different issues. I attack not only incorporating technology in the classroom, but I talk about engaging students and motivating them. First off, I need to find a topic and stick to it. Secondly, I need to give examples on what I mean. I allude to ideas or theories but dont ever expand on my idea.

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Works Cited Allene, C.. N.p.. Web. 17 Oct 2013. <http://www.pgcps.pg.k12.md.us/~elc/learning1.html>. Buck Institute for Education, . N.p.. Web. 17 Oct 2013. <http://www.bie.org/about/what_is_pbl>. Greene, Maxine. Curricular Stance: Active Learning into Active Citizenship. n. page. Print.
My Restaurant Project. 2013. video. Project Based Learning for the 21st CenturyWeb. 8 Oct 2013. <http://www.bie.org/videos/video/my_restaurant_project>.