Senior 1 English Language Arts: A Foundation for Implementation
Implementation Overview: Senior 1
The Senior 1 Learner and the Learning Environment - Part 2
Fostering a Will to Learn
All literate individuals have moments of deep concentration when they lose themselves in the world of a text, or moments of satisfaction and pleasure in using language to express themselves forcefully and with precision. Experiences like these nurture a commitment to literacy. Ideally, the learner pursues every learning experience for its own sake.
Experiences of intense involvement are optimal opportunities for teaching engagement in learning, and teachers endeavour to ensure that they happen frequently in the classroom. Not every necessary learning task, however, can be intrinsically rewarding to every learner. Being a successful learner also requires a high degree of what Corno and Randi (1997) call "sustained voluntary effort" — an attitude that expresses itself in committing oneself to less interesting tasks, persisting in solving problems, paying conscientious attention to detail, managing time, self-monitoring, and making choices between competing values, such as the desire to do well on a homework assignment and the desire to spend the evening with friends. The willingness to make this sustained effort constitutes motivation.
Motivation is a concern of teachers, not only because it is essential to classroom learning, but also because volition and self-direction are central to lifelong learning. Language arts courses seek both to teach students how to read, write, and use language in other ways, and to foster the desire to do so. Motivation is not a single factor that students either bring or do not bring to the classroom. It is multi-dimensional, individual, and often comprises both intrinsic and extrinsic elements. There are things that teachers can do to promote the attitudes and skills that translate into engagement in each learning task.
In considering how they can foster motivation, teachers may explore students' appreciation of the value (intrinsic and extrinsic) of learning experiences and their belief about their likelihood of success. Good and Brophy (1987) suggest that these two elements can be expressed as an equation; the effort students are willing to expend on a task is a product of their expectation of success and of the value they ascribe to success.
Expectancy | x | Value | = | Motivation |
(the degree to which students expect to be able to perform the task successfully if they apply themselves) | (The degree to which students value the rewards of performing the task successfully) |
Teachers may, therefore, want to focus on making certain that students can succeed if they apply reasonable effort, and on helping students recognize the value of classroom learning experiences. The following chart provides teachers with suggestions for fostering motivation.
Ways to Foster Expectations of Success | Best Practice and Research |
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Ways to Foster Appreciation of the Value of Learning | Best Practice and Research |
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Creating a Stimulating Learning Environment
A vital language arts class grows out of, and is reflected in, a stimulating and inviting physical environment. While the resources and physical realities of classrooms vary, a well-equipped English language arts classroom offers or contains a variety of resources that help stimulate learning.
Ways to create a stimulating learning environment include the following:
- Design seating arrangements that reflect a student-centred philosophy and that lend themselves to flexible grouping. Moveable tables or desks allow students to interact in various configurations. Desks arranged in a circle for whole-class discussions convey the importance of each speaker.
- Maintain a print-rich environment. Having a school library does not preclude the need for a classroom library of books for self-selected reading. The classroom library may include fiction and non-fiction of various genres and at all reading levels, poetry and drama, newspapers and magazines, cartoons, children's literature, and students' published work. It may also include a binder of student reviews and recommendations, and may be decorated by student-designed posters or book jackets. Classroom reference books include dictionaries, thesauri, style and usage guides, and books of quotations, facts, and lists. The reference area of the classroom may be designated as an editing station.
- Equip the classroom with one or more cassette players for the class to use in listening to music, speeches, dramas, documentaries, and books on tape, and for students to use in generating ideas, rehearsing and self-assessing performances, and taping oral histories, interviews, and radio plays. Teachers can use the cassette players to record commentaries on student work.
- Have access to a computer, television, video cassette recorder, and video recorder, if possible.
- Exhibit posters, Hall of Fame displays, murals, banners, and collages that celebrate student accomplishments. Change these frequently to reflect student interests and active involvement in the English language arts classroom.
- Display items and artifacts, such as plants, photographs, art reproductions, curios, maps, newspaper and magazine clippings, masks, musical instruments, and antiques, to stimulate inquiry and to express the link between the language arts classroom and the larger world.
- Post checklists, processes, and strategies to facilitate and encourage students’ independent learning.
- Provide a bulletin board for administrative announcements and schedules.
- Involve students in classroom design.
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