Documentation Examples > Documentation Exhibition

Making Learning Visible Makes Learning Possible

School: Academy of the Pacific Rim, Hyde Park, MA

4. Motivation

Seventh grade students at APR read To Kill a Mockingbird, a challenging book that most students have a hard time comprehending and getting into at first. Mrs. Marinilli?s resource room is equipped with a mini basketball hoop and a Nerf basketball. She often uses these tools as well as others to get her students motivated and active in their learning. In the scenario to the right, students would answer a question after reading each chapter summary. In the middle or at the end of class, students would be able to take the same amount of basketball shots as questions that they had answered correctly. The student with the best score would win a small prize (i.e. candy, pencil, etc.).


Mrs. Marinilli: ?Ok. So, we are going to start off with the To Kill a Mockingbird summaries. We are going to read it together. How can we make sure that we are motivated and staying awake while we read??

JD: ?Basketball!?

CJ: ?Push-ups!?

Mrs. Marinilli: ?But how do we incorporate either push-ups or basketball while we read? Like after we read one summary??

JD: ?You get a shot!?