Laurie L Bower discussed the motivational style of teaching in the chapter, “In our own voice”. As a teacher how we can motivate our students to enjoy their writing classroom and motivate them intrinsically are the main points of discussion. Now one may ask, why do we need to motivate when students are already in the classroom, submitting assignments regularly, and getting out with pass marks? So, here you go with the answer-
Because a large number of students enrolled in the composition class because they are compelled to do so. They join the class with a negative attitude towards writing. Though writing is all about practicing, they think that successful writers are born with the blessings of writing power. So, they do the writing class reluctantly. They are completely unaware of the joy of writing. However, encouraging a positive attitude in students may rediscover the joy in writing among them. Man has an innate desire to learn (Aristotle) which gives the hope that we can bring changes to the attitude of these students. We can provoke their intrinsic motivation in learning by discouraging extrinsic motivation.
Richard De Charms Introduced ‘pawn’ and ‘origin’ in his book “Enchanting motivation”(1976) to refer to these two different types of students.
Pawns are the type of students who are extrinsically motivated whose end goal is getting a degree to get a good job. On the contrary, we will also get some students in our classroom who are intrinsically motivated and named as origins here. Origins are the group of students who are self-motivated and they join the classroom with full enthusiasm and energy. Nevertheless, the facilitator can’t just account for those origins. It’s our responsibility to turn those pawns into origins. Now, the question arises, how we can do that?
Creating a safe environment, initiating fun writing exercises, and having them evaluate themselves, some favorable writing attitudes can be fostered. First of all, we have to convince them they are writers.
This chapter gives some tips on that.
1. Introducing free writing- The author suggested the teachers be the model in the classroom. So that students get motivated to write seeing their teacher doing free writing along with them. When they will see teachers making mistakes, writing nonsense sentences, misspelling words, missing punctuation may inspire them to do so.
2. The strategic use of praise- However, the author emphasized the timely use of praise. Though acknowledging someone’s work and giving recognition of success(even light one) lessen the anxiety and help to boost up, again too much praise too soon can be detrimental to motivation.
3. The use of personal writing- Personal essay can be easy and a self-directed start for them. They will enjoy writing when they will advocate their own voice. David Bartholme criticized this one though.
4.Peer Workshopping - This one is a great way to get students connected with their peers and to get them helped.
5.Modeling imperfection and
6.Allowing failure
Imperfections are the base of perfections. So, if we model some papers which are not up to the mark and show them the transition from that paper to the better one, that might remove that fear from their mind and assure them that they are not the only one. Every single writer goes through the same process. However, allowing for failure and giving them a chance to revise and do better will encourage them to think critically. However, writing is a process.
In your classroom which one worked better? How can we facilitate these in our online classes? Might these mislead the students to any extent?
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