EDL 719 Choice Book Reflection and Questions

Choice Book: Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers to Classroom Challenges by Larry Ferlazzo


I’m not even sure where to start. This book is full of goodies that can easily be adapted at any level. The book is written by Larry Ferglazzo who is a high school English and social studies teacher. The book is structured into thirteen questions that educators would often ask themselves. I appreciated how the book offers lesson plans, templates, and free downloads. The book does not only talk about what needs to change and why, the book tells one how to implement these changes. For example, he explains a two day step-by-step lesson plan on how to incorporate goal setting into the classroom. Not only does Ferlazzo provide the easy step-by-step, he provides templates for goal worksheets and outside sources for students to read with the links. It certainly makes any job of a teacher easier.  

I think one major reason that I loved the book so much was that many of his examples were taken with an English approach that would work with any class. Some of the lessons are: first week lessons, goal setting, self-control, Bloom’s Taxonomy, and the brain is like a muscle (Ferlazzo 2011). I am very appreciative of these lesson plans. I often ask my students to write discussion questions with a quick review on what makes a good question. I never thought of teaching them Bloom’s Taxonomy, but I should. Now, I have an easy lesson that I can adapt in the first few weeks of the school year.  I especially appreciate these lessons because I think they will be beneficial to my team taught LA 101 class. The class will be filled with about 25 students who are not yet at the appropriate reading level for their grade. I think by incorporating some of these lessons will motivate students to realize they can read and they will see improvement. I’m hoping that these lessons will make them excited about reading and happy to be in my class.

Other ideas that Ferlazzo writes that will motivate students are to not use rewards, praise effort and actions, set high expectations, build relationships, use cooperative learning, prove to students that doing well in school will better them in the future with economics and health, create opportunities for students to make decisions, and help students develop a positive self-image (2011). Along with these suggestions, he supplies lesson plans and ideas on how to do this on a regular basis in any classroom.

The book would also be good for any new teacher or teacher struggling with classroom management. He offers ideas on how to deal with the kid that will not work and/or listen. One of his ideas came from a principal at his school. The idea is to use points to immediately reinforce positive behavior and to immediately punish negative behavior: For example, a teacher may say: “John, I want you to keep 50 points.” “John, I want you to keep 45 points”, and so on. Ferglazzo suggests that at about 30 points, student needs to be removed from the room. Students can also gain back points (Ferlazzo 2011). This idea may seem elementary but for a class or student that is problematic, it might work. I can see myself using this with the freshmen, not so much with the seniors. One question that ran through my mind, though, was how would we in the Howard-Suamico School District use this method with grading reform with the 90/10?

Another method he offers with dealing with classroom management is to handle the problem immediately and with positive diction. Some of his ideas include: Reflection cards, positive framed messages, tell what students can do, call parents about good behavior, be polite, remain calm, provide stress balls, get to know your 

students, and many more (2011).

The whole idea behind the book is to get students to find intrinsic value for themselves and for teachers to show them how.  Ferlazzo also brings up the idea that was discussed in Cognitive Surplus with Deci’s experiment with the Soma, which finds that people are more likely to work hard if they work toward intrinsic rewards vs. extrinsic rewards. One quote that struck me and I plan to use next year is from Gandhi when he said, “Look at every problem as an opportunity, not as a pain” (p. 68). We as teachers need to teach this valuable lesson, so students can start to motivate themselves for the right reasons.

Ferlazzo, L. (2011). Helping students motivate themselves: practical answers to classroom  
    challenges. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.