Reflection # 7

From your experience, what are some of the affective factors that you encounter in your classrooms? How do they interfere in learning?How do lower the affective filter? Many of you work with children. What are some of the issues concerning motivation with children? How do address motivation in the classroom? Can you motivate them or does motivation come from within?

I have notice that the affective filter gets to be high when the instructor mentions the word “test” as the book refers. Testing is the forbidden word in the classroom. It has the same affect for children as well as for adults. Besides testing I have noticed in the bilingual elementary classroom the attention filter will be high when the class switches from Spanish to English class. Students sometimes go through a silent period and they feel uncomfortable speaking. The adult student’s attention filters usually goes up when they haven’t done their homework or they have a presentation. Moreover, when teachers call on who are shy or quiet to read and this can also alter the affective filters of the students.

Motivation:
While I was doing my student-teaching I had the opportunity to work with 3rd graders. A motivation factor for the students was the opportunity to have lunch with the teacher, or have lunch outside vs. the cafeteria. Another motivation was a pizza or ice cream party if they had 100% attendance rate. Students like to compete. I remember also, we had a reading circle and we will measure the reading rate in a bar chart. Student A did not want to be behind student B, so he/she would try harder and read more. I will consider this behavior motivation within. Another thought to consider, students enter kindergarten with dreams that they want to be cops, presidents and doctors, etc... What happens afterwards? Is it the teachers who kill that motivation? Let’s keep in mind Carols’ ABC rules, attitude/activation, belief and consequence when we talk to our students no matter how old they are.