Given the robust nature of learning sciences research, this website is best viewed on tablets and computers. A small screen experience is coming in the future.
On June 22, 2021, we will launch updated strategies for the Math PK-2 model, as well as additional updates to the Navigator that highlight equity, SEL, and culturally responsive teaching. To learn more, visit our Site Updates (available in the "About" menu at the top of any page).
Hover to see how factors connect to Motivation. Then click connected factors to explore strategies related to multiple factors.
Motivation is the desire and energy that guides behavior. When we are motivated, we engage more in what we are doing and learn more. Motivation has an essential influence on reading and writing development and students' identification as readers and writers.
Motivation to read and write tends to decrease as children get older. The amount of time children spend reading for pleasure has been found to decrease from 39% of nine- to 11-year-olds reading for fun five to seven days a week to 27% of 12- to 14-year-olds.
One important distinction is between intrinsic Motivation, the inherent desire to learn and accomplish goals, and extrinsic Motivation, which is the desire to accomplish goals because of external rewards/recognition or to avoid a negative consequence. Intrinsic and extrinsic Motivation are not mutually exclusive; it is very common for students to be driven by both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. For example, they may not be intrinsically interested in a specific assignment but they are motivated to do well for a related long-term goal. Further, students who struggle with literacy skills may be less motivated to participate in academic reading but may avidly read other kinds of reading materials that are personally engaging. Students with learning disabilities may need additional support to maintain intrinsic motivation. Providing students with choice can increase student engagement and increase accountability for students to complete the task. Moving students towards being more intrinsically motivated is important for long term engagement in reading and writing.
Some important concepts that impact Motivation include:
Self-efficacy for reading underlies their Motivation to read. Because of this, students with a higher literacy self-efficacy will choose to engage in more challenging reading tasks. Students' self-efficacy may develop from experiences where they master a task (e.g., successfully reading a complex book), the Emotions elicited by reading and writing (e.g., feelings of frustration and anxiety vs. joy), and feedback and messages of encouragement or discouragement they receive from others about their reading and writing skills. Students who appear less motivated or who avoid reading tasks may be struggling with reading or may be exhibiting early signs of dyslexia. In addition, students with ADHD may need additional support to maintain Motivation in different contexts, which can in turn support their executive functioning.
The celebration and acknowledgement of culture and race can also play an important role in the processes of academic Motivation. For example, students who have been historically excluded may benefit from meaningful relationships with school faculty and staff to help support their Sense of Belonging in their school community, which can impact Motivation.
Advance graphic organizers link prior knowledge to upcoming learning to help students anticipate and understand the structure of new information.
Writing can become personally meaningful when students have an actual audience and a real purpose for communicating with that audience.
Students practice making and finding meaning in their reading through a book club model.
Developing empathy in educators and in learners is an iterative process that requires taking the time to understand and honor others' perspectives.
Building positive and trusting relationships with learners allows them to feel safe; a sense of belonging; and that their academic, cognitive, and social and emotional needs are supported.
Checking in with learners, or taking the time to talk with individual learners about their experiences or goals, is important for fostering a positive classroom environment.
Checklists and rubrics help students develop their abilities to self-assess and revise their writing.
Chunking involves breaking texts down into more manageable pieces to help learners focus their Attention while reading and to comprehend text more effectively.
When peers are able to work together to plan, draft, edit, and revise their compositions, their writing quality improves.
Communication boards are displays of graphics (e.g., pictures, symbols, illustrations) and/or words where learners can gesture or point to the displays to extend their expressive language potential.
Expressing ideas through visuals and audio, and understanding others' ideas in these forms, is as critical in today's world as traditional reading and writing.
Discussing race with students can range from celebrating the importance of diversity to understanding the impact of racism from the perspective of those who have been historically marginalized.
A first step to supporting learners is truly understanding who they are.
Actively and authentically encouraging all students to seek support, ask questions, and advocate for what they believe in creates a safe space for risk-taking and skill development and supports a Sense of Belonging.
Equitable grading systems and practices reimagine how to assess and communicate student progress through various methods that reduce subjectivity and increase opportunities to learn.
Family engagement happens when educators and schools collaborate with families to collectively support their child's learning in meaningful ways, both at school and at home.
Providing constructive feedback supports students' writing development by letting them know how to improve their writing.
Visiting places connected to classroom learning provides opportunities to deepen understanding through firsthand experiences.
Flexible grouping is a classroom practice that temporarily places students together in given groups to work together, with the purpose of achieving a given learning goal or activity.
Teachers can help students understand that learning involves effort, mistakes, and reflection by teaching them about their malleable brain and modeling their own learning process.
As students walk through stations working in small groups, the social and physical nature of the learning supports deeper understanding.
Setting overall goals, as well as smaller goals as steps to reaching them, encourages consistent, achievable progress and helps students feel confident in their skills and abilities.
Visualizing how ideas fit together helps students construct meaning and strengthens their recall.
Providing feedback that focuses on the process of developing skills conveys the importance of effort and motivates students to persist when learning.
Learning about students' cultures and connecting them to instructional practices helps foster a sense of belonging and mitigate Stereotype Threat.
Independent reading promotes literacy by emphasizing student choice with teacher support in selecting books, as well as by making time for free reading.
As students work with and process information by discussing, organizing, and sharing it together, they deepen their understanding.
Journaling allows students to reflect on their thinking and feelings, process their learning, and connect new information to what they know.
Rhyming, alliteration, and other sound devices reinforce language development by activating the mental processes that promote memory.
Full sentence manipulatives allow students to practice producing more complex Syntax and writing.
Providing physical representations of parts of a sentence activates learners' mental processes.
By sharing their own reading and writing, teachers can create a literacy community that supports students in finding meaning in their own work.
Brain breaks that include movement allow learners to refresh their thinking and focus on learning new information.
Instruction in multiple formats allows students to activate different cognitive skills to understand and remember the steps they are to take in their literacy work.
Multiple display spaces promote collaboration by allowing groups to share information easily as they work.
Using multiple methods of assessment can help educators gain a comprehensive understanding of learner progress across a wide range of skills and content.
Multiple writing surfaces promote collaboration by allowing groups to share information easily as they work.
We take in information through all our senses.
Connecting information to music and dance can support Short-term and Long-term Memory by engaging auditory processes, Emotions, and physical activity.
Research shows physical activity improves focus and creativity.
Playful activities can support the development of learners' Metacognition and also inspire their narratives and writing.
When students reframe negative thoughts and tell themselves kind self-statements, they practice positive self-talk.
Helping students think about what they know about the topic of upcoming work helps activate their Background Knowledge or reveals gaps.
Project-based learning (PBL) actively engages learners in authentic tasks designed to create products that answer a given question or solve a problem.
When students read models of the type of writing they are doing, they can identify effective elements to incorporate in their writing.
Reading aloud regularly exposes students to new and familiar Vocabulary and texts.
Through one-on-one conferences, teachers can provide individual support to each student to deepen comprehension and interest in reading.
When students explain to others, they deepen their understanding and gain confidence in their learning.
Providing space and time for students to reflect is critical for moving what they have learned into Long-term Memory.
Response devices boost engagement by encouraging all students to answer every question.
Reading materials of varying complexity and levels are necessary for all students to experience success.
Providing varied types of resources that align with interests of individual students supports overall literacy development.
With figurative language and creative sentence structure, poetry supports the development of a deeper understanding of the different ways language makes meaning.
Selecting culturally responsive reading materials, including multicultural and diverse texts, is critical for supporting all students.
Shadowing a student involves an educator, administrator, or designated adult observing a learner across different parts of their day to deepen their understanding of that learner's experience beyond their classroom.
A strengths-based approach is one where educators intentionally identify, communicate, and harness students' assets, across many aspects of the whole child, in order to empower them to flourish.
Providing students a voice in their learning is critical for making learning meaningful.
Student-led conferences are meetings between students, parents, and teachers where the student actively leads the conversation by reflecting on their progress toward goals and sharing examples of their work.
Bringing students' every day literacy practice of texting into the classroom provides regular, low-stakes practice communicating with authentic audiences.
Students develop literacy skills by listening to and speaking with others in informal ways.
Translanguaging is a flexible classroom practice enabling students to listen, speak, read, and write across their multiple languages or dialects, even if the teacher does not have formal knowledge of these additional languages.
Wait time, or think time, of three or more seconds after posing a question increases how many students volunteer and the length and accuracy of their responses.
Research has shown that students write longer pieces with stronger quality when they use word processing software.
Writing conferences allow students to share, reflect on, and receive feedback about their writing, which promotes Motivation for revising.
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This is our homepage. You can access many of the features of the Navigator here, and learn more about how learner variability intersects with topics in education and learning. To start, select a content area – we call them Learner Models – to visit a factor map.
Factor maps show research-based concepts, "factors," that likely impact learning. They are organized into four categories: Learner Background, Social and Emotional Learning, Cognition, and Content Area. The map is interactive. Move your cursor over a factor to see connected factors. Select any factor to visit its summary page. We'll look at factor summary pages next.
This is a factor summary page. It provides a brief definition and review of the factor, a factor connections diagram, additional resources, and strategies that support this factor. On the strategy card, the multi-colored boxes show all the factors that it supports. Select a strategy to visit its summary page.
Strategy summary pages have an overview, information about using the strategy in different learning environments, resources of interest, the factors this strategy supports, and related strategies you can explore. To view all the strategies in a content area, use the strategies tab at the top of the page. We'll look at all the Strategies for this learner model next.
The strategy page shows ALL of the strategies for that learner model. You can select factors of interest for you or your learners, and it will narrow the strategies to only those that match all of the factors selected. This makes it easy to find key strategies to better design for learner variability. Again, select the strategy name to visit its summary page. Use the plus signs on each strategy card to add a strategy to a workspace. We'll explore those next.
The “Tools & Workspaces” tab on the navigation bar or the “My Workspaces” button on the account menu takes you to a page that shows your workspaces. There are two tabs on the My Workspaces page: a Workspaces tab and a Reports tab. The Workspaces tab lists workspaces you can personalize and update. You can create new sections, move cards between sections, add annotations, share with collaborators, and write reflections. The second tab, "Reports", are a kind of workspace created through the Instructional Design Tool or the Product Assessment Tool and have fewer personalization options.
There are three, step-by-step tools you can access on the Navigator to help make workspace or a workspace report. The Learner Centered Design Tool has four steps and helps you create a workspace. First, enter basic information and select a content area of interest. Second, select a few factors that you want to focus on. Third, review connected factors you may not have considered. Note – you don't have to select any extra factors on this step if you don’t want to. The fourth and final step, review and select strategies that you want to use, and save them to a workspace.
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Learner variability is the recognition that each learner is a unique constellation of strengths and challenges that are interconnected across the whole child. Understanding these connections and how they vary according to context is essential for meeting the needs of each learner.
It disrupts the notion of a one-size-fits all education. Understanding learner variability helps educators embrace both students’ struggles and strengths as we connect practice to uplifting the whole learner.
Throughout the site, we talk about "factors" and "strategies." Factors are concepts research suggests have an impact on how people learn. Strategies are the approaches to teaching and learning that can be used to support people in how they learn best.
Use the Learner Centered Design Tool to build a workspace. Go to Learner Centered Design Tool.
Or, create a new blank workspace for your product or project.
Use one of the guided tools to build a workspace.
Or, create a new blank workspace for your product or project.
Make a copy of this workspace.
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On this page, using your heatmap, you will be asked to select factors to further explore, and then select new strategies you might incorporate into upcoming instruction. Once done, click “Show Summary" to view your Design Summary Report.
On this page, using your heatmap, you will be asked to select factors to further explore, and then select new strategies you might incorporate into upcoming instruction. Once done, click “Show Report” to view your Design Summary Report.
By selecting "Show Report" you will be taken to the Assessment Summary Page. Once created, you will not be able to edit your report. If you select cancel below, you can continue to edit your factor and strategy selections.
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Learner variability is the recognition that each learner is a unique constellation of strengths and challenges that are interconnected across the whole child. Understanding these connections and how they vary according to context is essential for meeting the needs of each learner. It embraces both students’ struggles and strengths. It considers the whole child.
Throughout the site, we talk about "factors" and "strategies." Factors are concepts research suggests have an impact on how people learn. Strategies are the approaches to teaching and learning that can be used to support people in how they learn best.
The Learner Variability Navigator is a free, online tool that translates the science of learner variability into factor maps and strategies that highlight connections across the whole learner. This puts the science of learning at teachers' fingertips, empowering them to understand their own practice and support each learner.
