RTI: Motivating the Struggling Student

In many classrooms, poor student motivation is a central concern. This full-day workshop presents a flexible, problem-solving approach that identifies why a student lacks academic engagement and matches that student to appropriate interventions that will increase motivation to learn.


The workshop opens with a review of general principles of motivation. The training then presents these 6 major reasons why students may lack motivation:

  1. The student cannot do the assigned work.
  2. The ‘response effort’ needed to complete the assigned work seems too great.
  3. The student lacks confidence that he or she can do the assigned work.
  4. Classroom instruction does not engage.
  5. The student fails to see an adequate pay-off to doing the assigned work.
  6. The student does not have a positive relationship with the teacher.

Participants learn how to identify the presence of each of these ‘motivation blockers’ and to select matching evidence-based strategies to engage and motivate the student. The workshop also presents methods to measure the progress of students who are placed on intervention plans to boost motivation. Additionally, free Internet resources are shared that can help schools to better motivate students.


As a result of attending this workshop, participants will:
  • describe general principles of motivation.
  • identify specific reasons why students lack academic motivation.
  • select evidence-based interventions matched to specific reasons for poor motivation.
  • measure academic and behavioral progress resulting from individual intervention plans that target motivation.