It's Amy and I'm sharing a little bit about how I motivate my students. As we all know, multiplication is an essential skill necessary for math from third grade forward. It's is my job to present multiplication to students using a variety of strategies such as arrays, number lines, groups of, and skip counting. I am a firm believer that multiplication is a skill that should be DRILLED!! Yes, all of these strategies are excellent to help students understand the concept of multiplication, but they MUST know the facts.
I teach two math segments each day. My students take home a multiplication log and are asked to log multiplication practice minutes. I check the log each Monday. We graph the results for each class on a bar graph displayed on the inside of the classroom door. The student in each class who practices the most minutes is rewarded with a certificate (not pictured). The certificates are displayed for a week on the door. The next week the certificate is given to the student and the new multiplication leader's certificate is displayed. As you can see from the graph below, these students mean business. They are neck and neck with minutes practiced. It's awesome on Monday when the students are eager to find out how many minutes practiced they are adding to the graph.
The students are also given multiplication practice pass-off sheets every few days. At the end of each math lesson, when time allows, I give the students a quick one-minute drill. The drill is based on each student's pace. I keep a log as students pass of any set of facts. The log is not pictured due to privacy. Once a student passes off a set of facts their name is added to the "I CAN" posters. Each class is represented using a different color. As the students master facts from 0-12, they enter the "Home run Club" and are given a nice certificate and prize. The first class to get all members in the Home run Club earns a pizza party.
Each class looks for their "class color!" It's really cool to hear, "Look there is more blue!" or "Oh no! They are catching up to us!"
I keep the pass-off quizzes in this file box. It takes me a matter of minutes to call students names out to come get their practice quiz. They really get excited about these drills.
I use competition within the classroom in many different ways. This is just one way to share. I've challenged class for class, student for student, gender for gender, and table for table. Students are more motivated to learn and become very competitive when a challenge is presented. I am very cautious to only display the necessary information and not to criticize or point out any student "pulling" down class averages or in this case practicing fewer minutes than others. What are some of your motivational techniques?
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