Tips for Motivating the Unmotivated Student
"If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect." ~Benjamin Franklin I saw this quote on a poster on the Persuasive Writing teacher's classroom door this week, and it got me to thinking about how, in my experience, teenagers do need a lot of persuasion to be convinced that studying any particular subject is worth their while. So how do we persuade them in a World Language class? Appeal to their interests, such as: Music Food Entertainment Cultural Differences All of the above are easy to weave into French class if you're willing to exert a little extra effort. Let's take music, for example. Over the years I've developed a list of French music that I use to teach listening skills and to reinforce grammatical concepts at appropriate times. Students also learn cultural information when they listen to authentic French music, so they're really learning on so many levels when a teacher ...