One Year Turnaround, Part Seven

The Self-Motivated Student

In his seventh chapter, James Young writes about his insight that he raised his school from an F to a C (Ribault High), but something different had to take place if the school was to move up from there. Specifically, he recognized that students were putting in the work to learn because he threatened them with loss of privileges: prom, class trips, pep rallies. If his school was to achieve higher, the motivation would have to come from the students themselves.

"In order to achieve our goal, we needed the students to want it and work hard without us pushing them."

Exactly, but forget the school goals. I want students to want success for themselves, value learning for its own sake, and work hard without needing threats of bad grades, et cetera, for motivation.

This is my real job. Students like to ask when they will ever use what they are learning. I have several answers most of which run along the lines of adolescent brain development (math is really good for this) and acquisition of critical and creative thinking skills (again, math is really good for this).

But my real job is to help students find a passion for learning and a sense of where they want to go and gain the confidence that if they work hard at it, they will succeed. It's not what anyone is born with; it's what they do with what they have. AND! What they don't have, they can learn if they are willing to learn and work for it.

Much of what secondary teachers do is help students internalize motivation and values so that they move under their own power, which is what they really want.

Young recognizes that teens are self-motivated by nature: "There is seldom an issue with a teenager being self-motivated to eat, acquire a cell phone, listen to music, watch TV, belong to a peer group, or simply survive." He describes the problem as one of not being motivated to work hard to achieve goals or reach their potential because they don't see it happening in the neighborhoods where they live.

How will he accomplish the goal of self-motivation?

First, he says that teens need to be taught. They don't know what self-motivation is and they don't understand its importance. To accomplish this, as the principal, he met with groups of students during the day to explain, give examples, and encourage.

Second, he had students take a questionnaire to make them aware of their level of self-motivation.

Third, he required every student to write a plan for themselves that included personal and academic goals and strategies to reach each goal. Afterward, each student met with an adult to review the plan to ensure that the goals were obtainable. Having students list strategies to improve their performance had the effect of improving their performance.

Fourth, teachers provided follow-up support and review of progress under the plan. They offered advice for revision if students were not making progress.

Key is to support the students.

This is a chapter I fully endorse. In fact, Young has given me some ideas for my students and I thank him for that.