The student who was motivated by chocolates!!!

Hi new teachers,

In my earlier posts, I have written about students with learning challenges and how we should provide them with opportunities for accessing our tasks. But we must also remember that everything is so difficult for these students that sometimes, they do not have any internal motivation and it is easier for them to say "I don't know how to do this" so as to not do the work.

Once, many years ago, in an international school in India, I had a student in a lower middle years grade with learning challenges. He would not have any in-class tasks completed and they would pile up. So we arranged with the parent for him to stay back after school one day every week when I would work with him. 

I quickly realised that the student had no motivation to work and especially after school. Understandable. So I asked him if he liked chocolates and he said yes. So for the next class, I had a packet of Gems (small round chocolates) with me. He had in front of him his notebook with the tasks he needed to complete. On my left, on the table, I arranged four small Gems in a straight line near me. When the student would show progress in a task, I would move one Gems a little closer to him. When he made more progress, I would move the Gems even closer. As the student saw the Gems moving closer and closer to him, he would be more and more motivated to complete the task in order to get the opportunity to eat it. Finally, when the task would be completed, the chocolate would be by his side and he would eat it happily. Then we would work on the next task and the second Gems would start its journey!

In this manner, the student would complete all his brief tasks for the day and eat all the Gems too!! He had so much motivation to do the work because he know he would get Gems as a reward at the end!!

Some of the external motivators that may also work:

1. Telling the students before hand that if they finish the work, you would take them to the ground to play football (soccer) or any other game. Students enjoy being outdoors. If some of them would rather read in the library, you can give those students the option of reading while others play.

2. I have always had chocolate quizzes as a fun way to recall facts before an assessment. I would put my students into groups and the group would get small chocolates (or a milk chocolate that they had to divide) for a correct answer. It was great to see how justice prevailed. When a group used to get the correct answer to a question and get a milk chocolate bar, they would decide that one student would cut the chocolate and the others would choose a piece. So out would come rulers for measuring the chocolate as the students who cut the chocolate did their utmost to make sure that each chocolate piece is of the exact same size as someone else was doing the choosing.

You would think that maybe this would work with younger students, but you would be amazed by how much the older kids enjoy chocolate quizzes. That is the first thing the students I taught remember... my chocolate quizzes!!

3. Free time is another motivator. Telling the student that if they complete the work early, they will have free time really works wonders. The student can catch up with their other work or read or put their head down and rest.

4. Having a pizza party or similar is also a motivator. If your students have done something really well, you could have a pizza party during lunch.

5. Encouraging emails to parents is something students sorely need. This might not be a motivator for a task, but it is wonderful for students if parents are emailed about the effort the student has put in or the perseverance the student has shown or the good work the student has done. 

6. Even for behaviours like being an up-stander in teasing or bullying situations, the students could be rewarded by their name on a wall of fame or emails to parents or meetings with parents where you praise the student. Many students don't get this opportunity to be praised and they will love it

Please do check if your school rules allow chocolates or other snacks and if students have any allergies. One student in my class was allergic to nuts. Chocolates have traces of nuts. So for that class, I changed the chocolates to candy. In another class, we had a student with juvenile diabetes, so I changed the chocolate to crackers. So you need to be careful and know the medical history of your students before you give out chocolates or candies. And please take permission from parents.

Also, there is always a debate about external vs. internal motivation and some teachers believe that external motivators will be harmful for students and they will always expect a reward for doing what they are supposed to do. My opinion is that internal motivation is abstract and is quite difficult for children and especially so for students with challenges who already deal with a lot in their lives. If we start with external motivators for demotivated students, once they pick up interest, we can wean away the external motivators. But we will discuss that in another blog post!!!

Cheers!!

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