We've been reading Classroom Motivation from A to Z, in our attempt to better motivate student learning. I just finished reading Chapter M: Myths of Motivation. One of the big ideas that all students are motivated, we just have to figure out what causes them to react.
I used this philosophy in today's lesson. Using the Bad Date video (http://got.im/9m4), I introduced the day's lesson telling the class we were going to look at some dating etiquette. Before watching the video, I quickly had them tell me all they knew and remembered about similar figures from two lessons before. The students seemed to really like the video (and as a bonus...I even got my speakers and subwoofer up and working! Woot! Woot!) After reviewing the ratios of the two dates (I was surprised at how many students actually remembered the ratios), I asked them if she had gone out with Bad Date #1 for a second date and if he had spoken 300 words, how many words would she have spoken. We discussed the various methods to solve this problem and introduced the vocabulary word "proportional". I was amazed at how many students grabbed their calculators to find the answers! Most every student was engaged in the learning process. The practice worksheet took us back to shapes, but students quickly completed the 9 problems as they felt successful in their math learning! :)
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