Allison Behne
November 2, 2012
The other night I was reading a story with my 6 year old son, Nathan. When we finished the story he said, "That story was so good, I got lost in the book. Do you know what it means to get lost in a book, mom?" Surprised at his question, I asked him what made him think of that. He said, "My teacher talked about it today. She told us to think about what it means to get lost in a book. Now, every time I read a book, I think about if it was a book I got lost in and why."
I thought it was so cute that a first grader was talking about getting lost in a book, and that he actually understood what it meant. I also thought about how fortunate I was that he remembered this instruction and was continuing his learning at home. His teacher had created a curiosity that kept him going and wanting to find out more.
As educators, we make instructional choices. One, we have the ability to teach the standards so that our children "learn what they need to know", or two, we have the opportunity to teach the standards in a way that creates curiosity and enhances learning past the four walls of our classroom. By activating prior knowledge, making connections, and creating a sense of urgency, we can motivate our students to deeply dive into the lesson instead of just scratching the surface.
Take a close look at your lessons for next week. Do they "scratch the surface" or do they encourage your students to "dive deep"? What can you do to enhance your lessons and create a desire to learn more? Here are a few thinking stems you may wish to use during your focus lessons:
- That reminds me of...
- I'm remembering...
- I have a connection to...
- I have schema for...
- I can relate to...
Other ideas to enhance motivation include:
- Visualization
- Making text-to-self, text-to-text, or text-to-world connections
- Making inferences
Let's dive deep together.
You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives. —Clay P. Bedford