Co-op: student motivation

[vlshort]

I have been directing a co-op for the last two years. We modelled it somewhat after Classical Conversations - teaching similar subjects.

 

After two years, we've continued to have the same problem with the middle school kids - lack of motivation in class, as well as with completing assignments at home.

 

I've spoken with friends who speculate that students in "pay" classes seem to perform much higher than in classes where all the moms are pitching in together. There may be some merit to that, in that both parents and students feel they have more invested.

 

However, I'm sure there must be other ways to motivate these students, and perhaps even the parents. Incentives, performance reporting, etc... Do you have any suggestion to pass along? I would greatly appreciate it! This year we will be doing Tapestry of Grace History/Geography, Apologia Physical Science, and an art class for these middle schoolers. BTW - it's a class of six boys!

 

TIA

Vanessa

[fhjmom]

Lack of motivation and completing assignments is one of the reasons I only taught middle school science at a co-op for one year. I didn't want to deal with it again.

 

I taught Apologia General Science and one thing I did was to require a pre-lab write up before class that included safety information and procedures. If the student did not have that completed, they did not get to do the lab with us and sat and worked on written work instead. It was a safety issue - they had to know what was going on and what to watch out for or someone could get hurt.

 

Beyond that, :bigear:

[angela in ohio]

Co-op teachers have no recourse. So your only recourse for the students will come from parents.

 

What do the parents want? Do they want it to be as accountable as paid classes?

[Ellie]

Is it the teacher's job to motivate the students or to teach them?

[LaxMom]

Lack of motivation and completing assignments is one of the reasons I only taught middle school science at a co-op for one year. I didn't want to deal with it again.

 

 

This has been my experience as well, and the reason I stopped teaching classes that required continuity or outside work at our co-op. Unless you have parental motivation/buy in, it just won't happen.

 

In my experience, no matter the age group, the only thing that worked was a self contained topic each week. Very frustrating.

[KungFuPanda]

Our co-op teachers set their own standards. The middle school science class had a policy of kicking kids out of the class if they failed to do their homework 3 times. Any kid that got 'evicted, had to spend that hour with their mother. Seemed to work :D

 

KFP