Motivation and Active Engagement
What does motivation look like in Franklin County Public Schools?
At all levels, motivation is increased when choice and ownership in learning takes place. The work must
have value for the student and a real world focus. These skills begin at home and at the lower grade
levels and must be maintained as student move forward in their educational careers. At all levels, a
teacher’s approach to instruction matters, and literacy and motivation are improved if an appropriate
amount of time is allowed for literacy to be included and embedded across all content areas.
There must be principal and teacher buy-in and some sort of accountability for building motivational
strategies into lesson plans. We need to focus, particularly, on those students who see themselves as
failure to increase motivation knowing that success builds upon success. A literacy framework will be
helpful to build all of these instructional components. Listening to our students and responding in ways
that meet their needs will increase motivation.
What does active engagement in literacy look like in Franklin County Public Schools?
In the 21st century, “literacy” takes on greater meaning than simply reading text from books and writing
on paper. Technology is a critical component of communications and literacy instruction. It enables
innovating teaching and learning within the schools asking students to think critically and become
problem-solvers. Active engagement in literacy is more likely if students are motivated by having choice
and ownership in the reading/writing/communications process.
Training for teachers is an important component for the success of active engagement in literacy. It
stems from teachers being able to create data-driven lesson plans and units of study, while including
strategies for authentic literacy instruction.