Running head: MOTIVATION IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOM

Annotated Bibliography: Motivation in the Social Studies Classroom Rene LeBlanc St. Thomas University EDUC-5953-D

October 30th, 2013

Running head: MOTIVATION IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOM

All six articles are related together in that they are all looking at motivating students in the social studies classroom. Motivating students is important in any subject area because students will learn best if they are motivated to do so. By doing activities they enjoy doing, they will participate in the activities and enjoy coming to class. If learning is fun and it does not seem like a chore to students, they will learn a lot more that way than sitting in a class they find boring. Each article gives suggestions as to ways to motivate students in the social studies classroom. These tools will be useful to put in place because not everyone will enjoy the course solely based on the subject matter. It is important to incorporate ideas, discussion topics and activities that all students will enjoy. Bennett, Linda. (2007). Motivation: Connecting each student with the world. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 19(3), pp. 4-6. Retrieved October 17, 2013, from http://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/publications/ yl/1903/190304.pdf Bennett states that social studies is the most widely disliked subject in todays schools. Many students do not understand why they even have to take the class, therefore, it is that much more important to motivate them to do well. The article discusses the importance of connecting with your students; it can be as little as sharing important aspects of the news in class or mentioning on the morning announcements that a student is involved with some kind of cultural event. The more students feel connected to you as a teacher, the more they will want to learn what you are teaching them. Starting a lesson off with a question can also be a way to motivate students because it will peak their interest and they will want to learn more on the subject if they do not know the answer. It is also important for teachers to get to know their students to find out what motivates them. All

Running head: MOTIVATION IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOM

students are unique, and what motivates one student will not necessarily motivate all the other students in the class, therefore, it is important to employ a variety of strategies to motivate your students. Although this article did provide a great tip on how to motivate students in the social studies classroom, it only provided the one suggestion, which might not work in every case. Deng, Jennifer. (2002). Unmotivated students or unmotivating teachers? Social Education 66(2), pp. 133-134. Retrieved October 17, 2013, from http://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/publications/se/6602/660209.html Teachers may think that students are lazy and unmotivated but more often than not, it is the teachers who need to change up the teaching and find ways to motivate the students. This article focuses on the issue of motivating students at one school in the Onondaga Nation Reservation, in Nedrow, New York. All the students at this school lived on the reservation and most came from families whose parents were uneducated, young, unemployed and did not see the importance of their children getting a good education. Based on the unit test scores in the grade six class, it was apparent that the students were not learning or retaining the information taught in class so a student teacher decided to try something a bit different for their next unit. The teacher focused on four main things to motivate her students and they were changing the classroom environment, using culturally relevant instruction, using a variety of lesson formats, and using a range of materials in every lesson. By the end of the unit she found that students were not enjoying the classroom activities, were learning and passing tests. The strength of this article was that the strategies given could be applied to motivate students in a variety of subject areas and in any grade level.

Running head: MOTIVATION IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOM These strategies will be helpful to keep in mind for teachers who are looking for new ways to motivate their students. Gambrell, Linda B. & Marinak, Barbara A. (2009). Sometimes I just crave information!: Teaching and learning with informational text. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 21(3), pp. 4-5. Retrieved October 17, 2013, from http://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/publications/yl/2103/21030904.pdf In the opening paragraph of this article it states that Social studies can play a particularly important role in helping young learners become familiar with and motivated to read informational text. As teachers it is important to consider that not all students are at the same reading level, nor are all students at the reading level they are expected to be at for their grade. Because of this, some students do not have a desire to read and do not find reading interesting, while others will pick up a book and not want to put it down. When working with informational texts in the classroom as opposed to fiction, it is important to keep in mind the students reading levels to make the experience enjoyable for them. The article suggests that students should be exposed to informational texts more often in the classroom, but a large number of schools do not have the resources to do so. Students will be expected to read a large range of informational texts as they proceed to higher grade levels and through life; therefore, it is good to expose them to this form of writing from a fairly young age. The authors suggestion about different reading levels within a class is important to keep in mind when thinking of strategies to motivate the students. The weakness of this article,

however, is that it only provides the one strategy to motivate students, which was to choose reading material that is age and reading level appropriate.

Running head: MOTIVATION IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOM

Hootstein, Edward W. (1995). Motivational strategies of middle school social studies teachers. Social Education 59(1), 1995, pp. 23-26. Retrieved October 17, 2013, from http://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/publications/se/5901/590106.html How to motivate students and how to keep their attention are questions all teachers have, not just those teaching social studies. This article focuses on the importance of developing motivational strategies for middle school students because that is the age group when negative attitudes towards school really begin. The study that was done focused on teaching social studies at the eighth grade level and gathered research from eighteen teachers and sixty students. The results found that the best motivational strategies focused on hands-on activities, simulations and classroom discussions instead of the traditional textbook and lectured based learning. The data received from the students helped confirm that these strategies do motivate the students to learn. This article will be useful because it does provide some valuable strategies to implement in the social studies classroom. The strength of this article is that it was based on data from real teachers and students but its weakness is that the pool from which the data came was not very large and centred in one region. Morganett, Lee. (1995). Ten tips for improving teacher-student relationships. Social Education 59(1), 1995, pp. 27-28. Retrieved October 17, 2013, from http://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/publications/se/5901/590107.html The author discusses that in todays society students attention is more focused on poverty, divorce, one-parent families, and dysfunctional families. Because of this, it sometimes creates situations that cause young people to deal with personal problems rather than classroom subjects. As a result, it is now more difficult to

Running head: MOTIVATION IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOM motivate students in the classroom but has become that much more important to do so. The author places a high value on the importance of teacher-student

relationships in motivating students in the classroom. There are ten important tips mentioned that can help improve or foster good teacher-student relationships but the three that would be the most beneficial to use would be show students that you are not only interested in them but also that you care about them, avoid the use of threats and punishment, and create an environment where questions and answers-even wrong answers-are encouraged and valued. The strengths of this article is that Morganett provides tips that are basic enough that any teach could use them in the classroom and they can apply for any grade. These tips will be helpful to consider when entering the classroom and thinking about how you want to motivate your students. ODay, Kim. (1994). Using formal and informal writing in middle school social studies. Social Education, 58(1), pp. 39-40. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from http://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/publications/se/5801/580113.html This article emphasises the importance of using both formal and informal writing in the social studies classroom, while still being able to motivate students to enjoy learning. The author talks about how teachers used to mark all over students essays with red pen or as a punishment, get a student to write the same sentence 100 times. Students are not going to be motivated to write by having their work torn apart, especially when they are still learning how to properly express themselves in writing. These strategies would no longer be effective ways of teaching in todays classrooms. Instead, the article talks about beginning writing with topics that are familiar to students, having them work together in small

Running head: MOTIVATION IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOM groups and grade things on a pass or rewrite basis. Once students enjoy writing

and have formed a good base, teachers can then start grading students work. The article also discusses how writing fosters independent learning; writing provides the tools students need to discover things for themselves. This article provides good ideas to help motivate students with writing not only in the social studies classroom but in all other subjects as well. Its strengths are that is compares past teaching strategies that werent effective to newer teaching strategies that are more hands on in the classroom.