How to Motivate Reluctant ESL Students and Build Their Independence.

As a new teacher, I have understood that some of the things I couldn’t function without from day one are classroom routines, clear explanation of consequences for misbehavior and non-completion of tasks, clear statement of expectations from each task.

Taking care of those is a learning process, but in the end, it pays off. One of the things that caught me off guard is the fact that students do not necessarily have accountability for their work. They tend to shift the ownership of their completed assignments to me, hoping I will magically turn them into A graded papers.

So the question my students have been driving me bananas with is “Teacher, is it good?..”

Bombarded by this question 10-15 times within a ten-minute interval, I would feel overwhelmed and reply, “Yes, just put it on my table.” What I meant by saying this is “Don’t interrupt me. Place the work on my table. You will get evaluation later.”

What my students heard is “Your work is great! You will definitely get an A. Your work is done here. I promise it will be great!” And this is where the question of ownership arises.

Who is really responsible for the outcome of task completion? My students think this person is me.

And I have made this mistake many times and was faced with misunderstanding my students expressed after receiving a grade or comments.

“But you said it’s good! But I thought my work is finished! But I thought this is what you want!” Wait a minute! I don’t want anything! I am not responsible for your scribbles! Why do you think I even understood the elf language you scribbled on the page?!

Do you think I enjoyed reading it like a chapter of “Weathering Heights” or “Great Gatsby’s” party scene where Gatsby is waiting for his love to arrive? No, no, no…

What I came to understand during my second year of teaching in high school is that to teach students the idea of accountability for their work, ownership of what they produce, responsibility for aiming at expectations I set at the beginning of the task is a must-teach skill. In this post I am going to describe a few strategies that help me solve “Teacher, is it good?” problem.

Motivate and Encourage Students by Redirecting a Question and Making Them Ponder.

A student approaches me with a paper of a half-completed assignment, “Teacher, is it good?” “I don’t know. Do you like it? Do you think it’s good?”, I reply.

A student has a puzzled look on her face. “Has my teacher lost sanity? What does she mean? Is she having a bad day?” I smile to a student, “Gloria, do you like what you have written? Do you think you completed what I expect from you?”

Students’ responses vary. Some shrug their shoulders and go back to their seats. Some are gravely wounded, and they show it to my face that I hurt their dignity (Oh boy! I cannot make everyone happy!).

Some reply, “No, I actually don’t like it. I want to start again.” Others say, “Let me reread instructions. I think I forgot what I was doing.” Well, this is the first step of breaking the ice. I deliberately refuse to give a pass ticket on the assignment.

I divert a question “Teacher, is it good?” right back to them. I ask, “Do you like it? Do you think you followed all the steps of the assignment? Do you want to change anything? Do you think it will get a high grade?”

After hearing this feedback, a lot of students choose to go back to their work, check the requirements of the assignment once again, consult their peers, reread, rewrite, or just simply go back to their seats and think. Few students take it personally.

They make a face. They interpret my questioning as a sign of doubting their work; therefore, they often throw it in the “In-Box” (a place designated for submitted assignments) and choose to ignore me for the rest of the class.

The next day, however, they come back to their senses and continue working on their assignment. They grin, give me a sneaky look, but they realize they cannot get away with having zero accountability for what they hand to me.

Motivate Students by Utilizing Pre-Made Comments.

A lot of the time, my A students expect the assignment to have an automatic A just because they are A grade students. It’s so fascinating for me to see how my B and C students tend never to question anything.

They expect B or C, and they are the ones I love most. Don’t get me wrong. They are not easy to grade. But they are the ones who are open to negotiations with me. I explain them all the expectations and talk about the possibility of an A if the assignment is completed according to the requirements.

They are the most dedicated and the most appreciative of my comments, my support, my intentions to make them good writers. (I focus a lot on writing). Contrary to my Bs and Cs, my As show the least effort. They are less likely to accept my comments and make corrections, and this is merely because they feel entitled to get an A.

I will be honest, I became one of those teachers who rush the entitlement out of the classroom with no mercy. So here we go again. Angela, an A grade student, approaches me with a “completed” paper. She asks the evil question, “Teacher, is it good?”.

This case is more difficult because from my experience a student must have completed all the steps of the assignment, so there is nothing to argue about.

Nevertheless, I still want to teach them accountability, this is how I respond, “I will read your writing, make some comments and recommendations. Maybe you can make it better if it’s necessary.” The reaction is the same: a confused face, disbelief in me as a teacher, a push-back because I question the quality of their assignment.

Above all, here they understand it’s not the end. The accountability for their work, ownership of the project stays with them, not me anymore. (Never with me since now on!).

The first thing to tackle is their long, long sentences with nothing but comas. All of my students are Spanish speakers, so run-ons and comma splices are common errors. I ask students to separate their “paragraphs” into sentences separated by a period. Usually, it’s a massive task in itself.

They have to reread their ideas and figure out what exactly they want to tell me in their long paragraphs. The next level is to deal with content, organization, word choices, details, etc. It seems to be a huge task.

I would never attempt to dive into corrections of content, organization, word choices, and details have I not had an easy system to utilize to save my sanity and time. Here is what I am currently using. I have become a member of 40-hour work week club by Angela Watson. Every month and every week members of the clubs receive great techniques, tools, ideas for handling a variety of teacher’s tasks. One of them is related to fast grading.

The tool that I use is a document of over 200 comments on a variety of aspects, such as content, organization, word choices, details, etc. They are modifiable and copy-paste type. I have to note that I have no affiliation with this product mentioning. I receive no money from it. It’s my own choice, and I purchased the resource with the membership, and I paid myself for it.

You might tell me it still seems to be a colossal task to generate comments for all students’ papers. It is not. Two reasons are copy-paste modifiable comments are much faster to use then generating them by myself. I certainly do not use this technique for all my students.

I target my A students because this is where the demand is larger and the effectiveness is higher. It makes my task of handling A students’ papers easier because my comments allow students understand the aspects where their writing needs improvement.

The comments are specific, so it leaves the task of correcting and improving papers up to students, not me. Done!

Motivate Students by Talking to Them About Them.

The last thing I use to solve the problem of “Teacher, is it good?” question is my constant affirmation of students’ difficulties and struggles.

My students have this idea that if it’s not perfect, it’s not an A – they automatically fail. I took on a task of acknowledging in front of them that the process of learning is hard because it happens in their second or third language.

I keep telling them that practice doesn’t make perfect, it simply makes progress. I reaffirm that I want to see their progress and grades do not tell the whole picture. You may question the idea of how you can explain to an F struggling student that a C paper actually shows progress and it’s not a fail at all. It’s hard to explain to an A students than a B or B- paper might be more eye-opening when it’s well-deserved.

It’s hard. It might sound like the last tip is more like do blah blah, and you will see how it will make blah blah.

Yes, conversations with students are not measurable, they cannot be evaluated based on the rubric to see their effectiveness.

But what I know is conversations with students helped me to fight students’ defiance, and they also allow students to gain ownership of their learning.

Another important point to emphasize is that everyone’s progress is different, everyone’s pace is different, and while all the students continue moving on their language continuum at a different speed, I continue to stress the significance of demonstrating progress.

Talk to you later!