Student Motivation List

At this time of year many of our students have begun to loose focus, and interest begins to wane. As a result off-task behaviors begin to rise and classroom disruptions increase and we miss out on quite a bit of instructional time as we deal with these issues.

It may be helpful (especially with the males in your classroom) to take this opportunity to build into our instruction some items of high interest.

To that end, I am attaching to this message one of the surveys I provide students who have behavior challenges in an effort to find out some of their motivating factors. Feel free to add to, remove or modify the list as you see fit. Uses can be as simple as counting soccer balls instead of oranges during math class, or building the topics into your writing prompts.

Here is the list:
Airport tour
Animals
Architecture
Art
Auto mechanics
Auto dealerships
Backpacking
Barbecue party
Baseball
Basketball
Beaches
Bike/Hike Trail
Birds
Board games
Boating
Bowling
Buy a car, how to
Camping trip
Canoeing
Car wash
Career clinic
Cars
Cartoons
Castles
Cats
Cave exploring
Child care
Civil defense
College or University visit
Collections
Communications
Community service
Conservation project
Cooking
Court Session
Cruises
Cycling
Dance
Diet and nutrition
Disabled citizen assistance
Dogs
Dolls
Drug abuse/alcoholism
Emergency preparedness
Exercise
Fashion/design
Fire safety
First aid training
Fish
Fishing
Football
Gardening
Golf
Gothic
Government officials
Ham radio
Hiking
History, town
History, family trace
Horseback riding
Horseshoes
Hunter safety
Indians
Industry, local
Insects
Job interview skills
Jogging/running
Jumping rope
Jungles
Leadership skills
Lifesaving, swimming
Martial arts
Military
Model building
Morality, ethics
Motorcycles
Mountaineering
Movies
Music listening
Nature
Nature walks
Newsletter writing
Orienteering
Outdoor living
Part-time jobs
Photography
Physical fitness
Planetarium
Plants and wildlife
Plays produce
Playgrounds
Power station
Public speaking
Puzzles
Racing
Recycling
Rafting
Road rally
Rock climbing
Sailing
Saving money
Scholarships
Scuba
Senior citizen assistance
Skateboarding
Skating
Skiing
Slide show, plan a
Snorkeling
Soccer
Softball
Sports
Sports medicine
Sports safety
State capitol
Summer jobs
Television station
Tennis
Trains
Video games
Volleyball
Walking
Watercraft
Waterskiing
Weather bureau
Wilderness survival
Winter sports
Wolves
Woodcrafts
Other___________________________________

Let me know if you have any questions.

Reggie