Overview

What is that intangible force that makes some classrooms positively buzz with interest, attention, and excitement about learning? While motivation can't easily be quantified, few would dispute its essential role in promoting academic engagement and achievement. This uniquely practical book is the first how-to guide on motivating students in grades K-3. Presented are research-based strategies and techniques that are brought to life in three extended case studies of highly successful motivators. Vividly demonstrating how these exemplary teachers flood their classrooms with motivation, the book provides inspiration and practical ideas that readers can implement in their own work. It also guides teachers in recognizing and avoiding key pitfalls--the attitudes, instructional methods, and classroom management approaches that may inadvertently undermine student motivation.

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9781572309142

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Reviews

No educator--from preservice teacher to seasoned professional--should be without this book! The many practical ideas, grounded in research, will inspire readers to reflect on their own classroom literacy practices. This book evokes insights that will undoubtedly prompt teachers to analyze whether aspects of their teaching promote or undermine student motivation. In a very readable and understandable way, this book unlocks the mysteries of how to encourage lifelong learning through student motivation. --Sarah Zabel, third-grade teacher, Alyce Taylor Elementary School, Sparks, Nevada Although the title refers to motivating students, this book also serves as a wonderful motivator for classroom teachers! The book provides specific best practices with the potential to revolutionize your thinking and teaching. --Anne Alley, MEd, first-grade teacher, Clinton Township School District, New Jersey This book provides worthwhile guidelines for all teachers as they design content and structures to make children's learning distinctly more enjoyable and productive. Recommendations for practice are effectively grounded in experimental research into single motivational variables as well as qualitative studies of multiple factors in primary-level classrooms. Given its dual focus on research and practice, the text will serve as an indispensable resource for teachers, administrators, and educational researchers. The volume is also particularly well suited for teacher educators, since the vivid depictions of teaching practices will help make the conceptual information more accessible to prospective teachers. --Rachel Brown, PhD, Department of Reading and Language Arts, Syracuse University Using Motivating Primary-Grade Students as a course text, teacher educators can guide preservice and inservice teachers on a virtual tour of classrooms. Provided are concrete, authentic examples of how teachers motivate students and encourage academic engagement through supportive environments and high-quality teacher-student interactions. With its skillful use of qualitative research, the book has the potential to minimize the effects of less-than-perfect field placements, and to help shorten the time it takes to go from novice to experienced teacher. --Joyce C. Fine, EdD, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education, Florida International University The authors do an excellent job of informing the reader about academic motivation in a way that encourages replication of practices. The format of the book--scenarios followed by explanations--facilitates its use with both preservice and inservice teachers. Teacher educators will find it an excellent springboard for introducing sound teaching practices that actively motivate students; inservice teachers, for their part, will find it an accessible and stimulating resource. --Carrice Cummins, PhD, Louisiana Tech University

No educator--from preservice teacher to seasoned professional--should be without this book! The many practical ideas, grounded in research, will inspire readers to reflect on their own classroom literacy practices. This book evokes insights that will undoubtedly prompt teachers to analyze whether aspects of their teaching promote or undermine student motivation. In a very readable and understandable way, this book unlocks the mysteries of how to encourage lifelong learning through student motivation. --Sarah Zabel, third-grade teacher, Alyce Taylor Elementary School, Sparks, Nevada <br> Although the title refers to motivating students, this book also serves as a wonderful motivator for classroom teachers! The book provides specific best practices with the potential to revolutionize your thinking and teaching. --Anne Alley, MEd, first-grade teacher, Clinton Township School District, New Jersey <br> This book provides worthwhile guidelines for all teachers as they design content and structures to make children's learning distinctly more enjoyable and productive. Recommendations for practice are effectively grounded in experimental research into single motivational variables as well as qualitative studies of multiple factors in primary-level classrooms. Given its dual focus on research and practice, the text will serve as an indispensable resource for teachers, administrators, and educational researchers. The volume is also particularly well suited for teacher educators, since the vivid depictions of teaching practices will help make the conceptual information more accessible to prospective teachers. --Rachel Brown, PhD, Department of Reading and Language Arts, Syracuse University <br> Using Motivating Primary-Grade Students as a course text, teacher educators can guide preservice and inservice teachers on a virtual tour of classrooms. Provided are concrete, authentic examples of how teachers motivate students and encourage academic engagement through suppo

The text is extremely readable for both the teacher in training and the experienced educator. Concepts are presented clearly and treated with sufficient detail....The authors state that all educators are responsible for continually assessing the appropriateness and effectiveness of their teaching strategies and have provided a well-researched text at which to begin to do so. -- Professional Educator <br> Clearly understandable and usable for the reader...well-suited for primary teachers, pre-service teachers, principals, teacher educators, and school consultants....Rich, detailed examples....Educators will be able to use the strategies in this book to transform their own classrooms....This book needs to get into the hands of educators. The significance of this work is that it provides teachers with an understanding of academic motivation and offers practical, effective, research-based strategies that can improve student academic motivation, engagement, and learning in the classroom. It will be the students who will benefit most from the book. It is well worth the investment. -- Education Book Reviews <br>

No educator--from preservice teacher to seasoned professional--should be without this book! The many practical ideas, grounded in research, will inspire readers to reflect on their own classroom literacy practices. This book evokes insights that will undoubtedly prompt teachers to analyze whether aspects of their teaching promote or undermine student motivation. In a very readable and understandable way, this book unlocks the mysteries of how to encourage lifelong learning through student motivation. --Sarah Zabel, third-grade teacher, Alyce Taylor Elementary School, Sparks, Nevada Although the title refers to motivating students, this book also serves as a wonderful motivator for classroom teachers! The book provides specific best practices with the potential to revolutionize your thinking and teaching. --Anne Alley, MEd, first-grade teacher, Clinton Township School District, New Jersey This book provides worthwhile guidelines for all teachers as they design content and structures to make children's learning distinctly more enjoyable and productive. Recommendations for practice are effectively grounded in experimental research into single motivational variables as well as qualitative studies of multiple factors in primary-level classrooms. Given its dual focus on research and practice, the text will serve as an indispensable resource for teachers, administrators, and educational researchers. The volume is also particularly well suited for teacher educators, since the vivid depictions of teaching practices will help make the conceptual information more accessible to prospective teachers. --Rachel Brown, PhD, Department of Reading and Language Arts, Syracuse University Using Motivating Primary-Grade Students as a course text, teacher educators can guide preservice and inservice teachers on a virtual tour of classrooms. Provided are concrete, authentic examples of how teachers motivate students and encourage academic engagement through supportive environments and high-quality teacher-student interactions. With its skillful use of qualitative research, the book has the potential to minimize the effects of less-than-perfect field placements, and to help shorten the time it takes to go from novice to experienced teacher. --Joyce C. Fine, EdD, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education, Florida International University The authors do an excellent job of informing the reader about academic motivation in a way that encourages replication of practices. The format of the book--scenarios followed by explanations--facilitates its use with both preservice and inservice teachers. Teacher educators will find it an excellent springboard for introducing sound teaching practices that actively motivate students; inservice teachers, for their part, will find it an accessible and stimulating resource. --Carrice Cummins, PhD, Louisiana Tech University The text is extremely readable for both the teacher in training and the experienced educator. Concepts are presented clearly and treated with sufficient detail....The authors state that all educators are responsible for continually assessing the appropriateness and effectiveness of their teaching strategies and have provided a well-researched text at which to begin to do so. -- Professional Educator Clearly understandable and usable for the reader...well-suited for primary teachers, pre-service teachers, principals, teacher educators, and school consultants....Rich, detailed examples....Educators will be able to use the strategies in this book to transform their own classrooms....This book needs to get into the hands of educators. The significance of this work is that it provides teachers with an understanding of academic motivation and offers practical, effective, research-based strategies that can improve student academic motivation, engagement, and learning in the classroom. It will be the students who will benefit most from the book. It is well worth the investment. -- Education Book Reviews

Author Information

Michael Pressley, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Teacher Education and Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education, College of Education, Michigan State University. Sara E. Dolezal, Lisa M. Raphael, and Lindsey Mohan are graduate students in the College of Education at Michigan State University. Alysia D. Roehrig, PhD, recently completed her doctorate in psychology at the University of Notre Dame. Kristin Bogner is a graduate student in school psychology at the University of Minnesota.

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