Interest is an important ingredient
in motivation for producing
art, as well as for studying and enjoying it in other ways.
Students are always more motivated
in their studies when those studies relate to topics, ideas, experiences,
and materials that children / youths find fascinating.
Some strategies for educators:
Identify
students' interests. Discuss these. Probe further using interview techniques or questionnaires. For instance: "Values strategies" (e.g. "Twenty
Things I Love to Do") provide means to identifying and evaluating interests.
Watch what students do in their free time as a guide to what
their true interests are. Plan surprise activities and instructional
games.
Consider how student interests can be
integrated into the curriculum as starting points of lessons,
examples of lesson concepts, and applications of learned skills.For
example, when beginning a study of mythic heroes, ask students
to list their own heroes from sports, television, and contemporary
affairs, or to bring to class comic books they have to depict
"super heroes."
Individualize by providing choices, so
students have more opportunity to select assignments, activities,
or projects that are interesting for them. Contracts, learning
activity packages, and centers can help provide choices.
Perennially sure-fire subjects:
self-portrait, family portrait,
my bedroom, a favorite place, a playground structure
or an amusement park ride, my name, butterfly, fantastic
creature, mask, and Surrealism.
"Ye are the salt of the earth: but
if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?"
Jesus Christ. Matthew 5:13.
"If your work is becoming uninteresting
so are you. work is an inanimate thing and can be made lively
and interesting only by injecting yourself into it."
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955), American educator and writer.
interesting
- A subjective evaluation
of something or someone stimulating or holding attention.
