Ahh, the end of a long, first semester back in grad school (Side note: Anyone remember when I bored this past Fall? It's like a faraway dream now!). Now, I'm on the brink of celebration. Two finals down, one to go! I love the feeling that accompanies the culmination of a semester. Almost of my "to do" items have been completed. A truly, genuine sense of achievement has been acquired.
As an educator, it's these same emotions I want my students to experience. I'm first challenged to remember how I am able to arrive at this whimsical place. It's simple--I function on internal motivation. External motivation typically throws my equilibrium off. I joke with my family that I succeed in spite of them. (Disclaimer: I have the most supporting family, but compliments and congratulations weren't easily distributed. We had to work harder and better than the previous attempt.) A constant point of confusion in my own teaching has been the equal use of internal and external motivation for my students. Given how I was raised, and to what I'm accustomed, I've always had difficulty over-accentuating external motivating factors. By high school, I believe students should be functioning 85% of the time from an internal root. It turns out that research supports this too! I might be exaggerating with the random 85%, but the point is that good readers are motivated to read via basic human motivation theory? Who knew I was onto something?
In my seminar paper, I explored the connection between motivation and reading comprehension. Those who are internally motivated to read can typically focus more closely and exhibit stronger reading comprehension as a result. It seems straightforward. I wasn't surprised by anything I read. The literature helped me to contextualize my past teaching life. When I explain the logistics of teaching in a high-needs, low-income school, people want to talk about laws, teacher tenure and budgets. My rebuttals always put the focus back on the children--who are simply just children. An underserved population.
In my current teaching life, I experience a very different set of variables on a daily basis. I teach a well-served population, filled with internally motivated students. I'm blessed in a new way. My instruction pushes them to reach new depths of understanding, and stronger comprehension. No longer do I struggle to keep them focused, but now I must motivate them to want to go deeper--and have the confidence to know that they can.
