Student Contributor: M. Hoppis
Showing interest in your student’s work can help encourage them and limit misbehavior. Your interest can create a big impact on their lives as well as their behavior within the classroom.
This tool is used when complimenting a student with words that are meaningful to them. This could mean that this student is struggling with something and they are slowly making progress, they are doing very well with a topic, or they just reached a learning target that they did not meet standard on previously. In my own experience, when teachers had complimented me in the past by saying things like “good job!” or other generic phrases, it did not mean much to me. If a teacher went out of their way to tell me things that I specifically did well on and they created a compliment that was personal to me, then it encouraged me and helped me strive to do better. I wanted to make my teacher proud.
This tool falls into the supportive phase. When students are struggling with something they often feel discouraged. Showing that you care about their performance can help give them persistence within their work and make them want to put in more effort. There is a trust and mutual respect built when utilizing this tool. Once this trust and respect is built, you won’t need to use as many corrective strategies because the student will care about your relationship, and it will allow the student to take pride in his/her work. This strategy is related to the student-directed and collaborative theories of influence. You are a facilitator of the classroom and are exhibiting that through your specific-to-student compliments. There is a built sense of trust and you are displaying how this is the students own work and it allows the student to become proud of their work. By you stepping in to encourage the student, you both work together to achieve the same goal – ensuring student success.
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Tool Source: Brittney B.
Showing interest in student work is a strategy that I have heard of before viewing this website. I know that showing interest is anything that the students tell you or show you is important for them to feel accepted, cared for, and safe. In my classroom placement in 2nd-grade, I have been very focused on showing interest in student work more closely the past 3 weeks. This had created a closer bond between me and the students. They have started to show me more of their work, and raise their hand when they are finished so I can view their work. They are taking more pride in what they do because of the relationship that we have! One student in particular in the classroom I am placed in has a hard time staying on task and maintaining good behavior. Whenever I ask this student to show me their drawings or tell them before a task that I cannot wait to read their work when they are done, they work harder, quicker, and more efficiently! I will consistently remind myself to show genuine interest in my students and their work.