How do you motivate reluctant learners?

Question

Some day some student at high school doesn't want to participate in the class. What can you do?. Anny advise?

Answer 1

Find out why the student isn't participating.  Work from there.  Some kids feel an idea is beyond them.  In that case you need to prove to them that it is not.  It is important for students to know that, given enough time, anyone can learn anything.  (Unless, of course, there is a biological impediment.)Some kids feel that it is needless information: like algebra.  I try to get students to realize that algebra might not be relevant to them but logicial thinking processes are.  Working on algebra stimulates the 'logical' portion of your brain.

Answer 2

After many years in teaching, a hundred silly thoughts spring to mind.

First, is the person really not learning?  Or just not participating?  It's hard to tell the difference sometimes.  Is there a different way you can give this person to demonstrate what's going in in his/her head?

By the way, I read a study quoted years ago in "Psychology Today" that said, on average, teenagers have a mood swing every twenty minutes...which means some of them are having far MORE than that.  Ouch.

Answer 3

Something must be troubling them. Maybe the problem is not in the classroom but at home. Who knows? If things are amiss at home its more likely a child would misbehave either to get attention or act out. Just my opinion....

Answer 4

Try to include a lot of group activities within the class. Ask the students what they would like to do by having a suggestion box. That way it doesn't take any time away from your teaching time.

Look for some ideas from a book called Tribes. It helps build communities in the classroom, which also helps with reluctant learners. You place the ownership of the material in the students hands and let them discover the magic.