Issue 128: Mar 21, 2011 Connections Newsletter

Motivating Students (and Parents) With an Academic Fair

Debbie Willingham
Mar 21, 2011

How can culminating and Extending Thinking projects motivate students to learn more about important topics?

Schools are always looking for ways to get parents more involved, whether with conferences, PTA meetings, to volunteer, or to just see the good things going on. Parents tend to come more often to events in which their own children are involved. For this reason, some schools and districts have expanded the idea of a science fair to all subject areas.

We've seen school-wide academic fairs planned in which every student has an entry in at least one subject area, usually of their choice. Entries may range from science projects, to digging deeper in a social studies or an English/Language Arts topic answering the age-old questions of how (does it work) and why (is it like this). Students create models applying mathematical formulas and solving real life problems, perform original dances, music, or skits, or prepare and carry out demonstrations. In other schools, each PTA meeting has a different subject area through the school year as the focus for displaying student work with each student participating more than once during the year.

The key to a successful academic fair lies in the quality of the work students do. It should not be a series of thrown-together models and posters that tend to just be “arts and crafts” work. Rather, they must continue the academic learning experience by taking students to a deeper level of understanding on any given topic; they must extend students’ thinking by encouraging them to use one or more Extending Thinking strategy (abstracting, analyzing perspectives, constructing support, using deductive or inductive reasoning, classifying, using error analysis, and comparing and contrasting). Student projects may take just one topic that has been studied and delve much deeper into it (Extending Thinking) or may pull together the bigger picture of a unit topic and answer the Unit Essential Question in a culminating project.

The reason these kinds of projects and academic fairs are successful in motivating students to want to do a great job is because they enable students to show off something not everyone else knows; they get to become the expert and explain something that is often difficult. Students are able to “tell the rest of the story” in their own way, whether that is hands on, creatively, or in a uniquely authentic way. They answer their own meaningful essential question using a modality and materials they choose, and a friendly competitive spirit often inspires them as much as the best teacher can. In the meantime, students are learning more about important things and expanding their ability to think at a higher level—a win-win situation!



Motivating the Unmotivated

Debbie Cargill
Mar 21, 2011

In Hattie’s Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement (2009), motivation is ranked 51st (of 138) in terms of its impact on student achievement. Dörnyei (2001) noted that “motivation is highest when students are competent, have sufficient autonomy, set worthwhile goals, get feedback, and are affirmed by others” (as reported in Hattie, 2009).

A first step in helping students become self-motivated learners is to create a classroom culture of cooperation and collaboration in which students’ voices are heard and honored. Students should also become active partners in planning their own learning.

Educational writers and researchers have identified many strategies for motivating students. Among those are the following:

  • Make sure they understand. Do students know what you are asking them to do? There are several tools and strategies in the Learning-Focused Strategies Model that ensure expectations are clear for students. The Student Learning Map visually shows the key concepts, skills, essential questions, and vocabulary to be learned in a unit. The Lesson Essential Question focuses the lesson and communicates what you want students to know and be able to do by the end of the lesson. Students know that they must answer the question. 

  • Make learning interactive. Are your students actively engaged in the learning? In the Acquisition Lesson plan, there are multiple opportunities for students to be engaged. The use of collaborative pairs allows for talking about the learning. Assessment Prompts, distributed summarizing, distributed practice, and Summarizing Strategies that answer the Essential Question help to maintain a high level of student engagement. When engaged in Extending Thinking activities, students are typically actively participating in a project or performance. Engaging work should stimulate curiosity and creativity which serves as motivation for students. 

  • Make sure you care about your students as individuals. Do students feel like valued members of your classroom community? When students can make sense of and connect to the learning, they are more likely to see it as relevant. Recognizing different learning styles and providing opportunities for choice when demonstrating learning gives students a greater buy in. 

  • Give frequent and specific feedback. Are students aware of how well they are doing or of the progress they have made toward a goal? To ensure student success, tasks should neither be too hard or too easy. Appropriate and timely feedback helps students to stay on task and move forward with the learning process. Assessment Prompts and distributed summarizing by collaborative pairs builds feedback into your lessons.


Motivating students to become self-motivated learners requires deliberate and thoughtful planning of lessons and units that engage students with clear expectations and opportunities for success.

Educational Leadership. What Helps Us Learn? February 2010, Volume 67, Number 5, Pages 68-69.

Hattie, John A.C. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Routledge, New York.