Tips and strategies on how to motivate secondary math students.
How to motivate secondary (7th-12th grade) math students should be a job position and title all on its own. Especially during all of the challenges that teachers have had to endure over the last year.
As a secondary math teacher with 18 years of experience, I have had my fair share of students who needed extra motivation when it came time to “work” during math class.
If you’re new around here, welcome! For those that don’t know me, I teach at a very tiny rural school. I teach 6 different math classes every day from 8th -12th grade including 8th-grade mathematics to Calculus and everything in between.
So I like to say secondary math because it applies to junior high and high school grades. Some of you may teach junior high school or middle school, depending on what your district calls it. While some of you may only teach high school mathematics, but trust me you’re in the right place!
This is going to be your go-to series for all things math motivation across all secondary grade levels!
Motivate Secondary Math Students 101
You know how the scenario goes. You provide a lecture with notes and all sorts of props aka manipulatives, interesting tidbits of information, connections to the real world, and then when it comes time for the students to actually do the work, they don’t do it!
Whether it is taking the notes you are providing, doing the “fun” activity, or the homework you have assigned to them, they just don’t do it.
How frustrating is this!! Especially because as a teacher we want our students to LOVE the lessons that we have worked so hard on creating!
Hold up wait a minute! Do they really just not want to do it? You tell me your opinion? I would love to honestly know what you think about this situation.
Motivation in the Math Classroom Strategies
When I really started to sit down and think about this topic I realized that there is much more to this situation, kind of like peeling an onion with all of its layers until you get to the root of it, or we can say the bottom of it.
This got me thinking about ideas to motivate students in the classroom without bending over backward and touching my toes.
I remember during lunch one day talking to my really good friend, who is an amazing teacher, and I was telling her that I just didn’t get it? Why will these kids not work for me? They work for her during her class, but why are these same students not working for me?
This was my aha moment! I had to ask myself “How can a teacher motivate math students in the classroom?” I actually GOOGLED this!
Here’s the thing, nothing really came up other than big-name education companies where the advice was so general. I couldn’t figure out how to apply it to my secondary math classroom. I did find one article that helped me on my path to increase my students’ motivation, but something was still missing.
Since I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I made it my mission to get my students, whatever LEVEL they were on, excited about the math they were doing, and getting them to actually work on it the ENTIRE class period.
I’m not just talking about working on it and not putting forth their best effort either. I’m talking about major mathematically enthused students!
Well, maybe I wouldn’t go that far!
There is no secret sauce (well maybe I do have a few secrets!)
How can teachers motivate math students in the classroom?
It all really started with me! #truthbomb, I needed to change the way I thought of how my students should be acting in math class.
I assumed that my students didn’t really need me! Wait what! I know you might be thinking what do you mean that I assumed my students didn’t need me, of course, they need you!
I knew my students needed me, but they got really good at acting like they didn’t. Can you imagine this?
You know how it goes, assign an assignment (whether it was an activity or just practice problems), no one is asking any questions, students appear to be ”busy.” You walk around a few minutes and ask students if they have any questions, no one is asking any questions, why are they not asking any questions!?!
Then they came in the next day with the assignment not finished or started on at all!
Why weren’t they doing their assignments and why did I “think” they were working on it in class when they really were just grazing the surface of the assignment! They didn’t care about the math topic let alone do an activity or a homework assignment!
They weren’t engaged in my lessons no matter how hard I tried! This wasn’t all of my students, but the students that either secretly or not so secretly hated math and weren’t motivated at all to try to do anything on their own.
I had to ask myself, how was I going to get my students engaged and motivated in my secondary math classroom?
Strategies used to motivate math students in the classroom.
So back to why I had my aha moment as to why my students needed me!
After realizing that my students appeared to be busy but they actually were not doing their assignments, I began to understand why my students needed me.
I have 2 daughters, ages 10 and 12. They are very independent but sometimes they just need their mom to be there, by their side, encouraging them, helping them, and MOTIVATING them to do a good job.
You see I didn’t think of my students as just wanting me to be by their side cheering them on every step of the way. They surely didn’t ask for my help, they acted like they were fine. I would ask them if they were ok and if they needed any help, but they would always say no that they were “OK”!
I would encourage them to ask questions and obviously gave them praise throughout the lesson, but they were always just telling me that they were “OK”
They were not OK! They were sometimes embarrassed or afraid to admit that they needed help.
Do you have students that are needy? Or act like they don’t need you at all?
Trust me when I say that they do in fact need you and are seeking for your approval whether they want to admit it or not!
You may be thinking this is so simple. You already know that your students need you, but maybe you were like me and knew your students needed you but never understood the level at which they needed you.
Whoa! That is some deep thinking!
Why Motivate Math Students in the Classroom?
When students realized that I was there for them, I mean like on the level that they needed me on, which is all dependent on the student, they started to ask questions, and do their math assignments!
This will not happen overnight. It all starts with understanding every student no matter what level they are on, has different needs throughout the year.
As I’m writing this, I’m thinking yikes, I don’t want my teacher besties out there thinking I’m silly! I don’t want them to think how in the world did you not know this! I knew my students needed me. Once I understood what they needed from me, is when the magic happened! The engagement in my classroom was on fire!
Sometimes we know why we need to do something, but we don’t understand how we’re going to do it.
That’s why I have made it my mission to help you with all the tips and tricks to motivate secondary math students in your classroom! There is a ton of more good info to come, but if you want a sneak peek at all of my secrets, you’ll want to hop on over to your inbox!
Thank you if you’re still reading this and allowing me to be honest with you! When I first started my career, I wish I had a course on this when I was in college. How to motivate secondary math students 101! Well, you’re in luck because I’m going to share all of my experiences here with you all!
PS. Are you looking for engaging resources to use in your secondary mathematics classroom? Don’t worry I got you covered! Head over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store to take a peek or check out my Teaching Resources page!
xoxo, Robin
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