Chapter 8: Reinforcing Effort

Thomas Edison said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” However, just placing inspirational posters around the classroom evidently will not ensure that students will apply the messages. According to this chapter, it is important to both teach the students the importance of effort and have them track how their effort relates to their learning.

I liked the ideas of collecting student input on their effort and comparing their effort to the outcome but I am not sure that I will implement this in the library. Tools such as Survey Monkey and using a word processing program to create a rubric are a good idea that I can see at the end or during a long-term project.

I am trying to brainstorm possibilities for the library with this and can see something informal with students attempting to read chapter books for the first time, perhaps having the students keep track of how much time they are willing to read daily in order to finish a book. Maybe having students summarize each chapter before moving on to the next chapter so they can link what happens from chapter to chapter. This activity is easily done with paper and pencil, or with a word processing package. Comparisons with reading time and the summaries could be compared to AR scores.

With more thought, I am sure there are other ways we can encourage effort through the library, but instead of formal ways via technology I will probably stick to discussions of effort and motivating posters.