"Why do we have to do this?" "When am I ever going to use this?" "What's in it for me?" You know that your students' are thinking it. As part of Ontario Extend-Teacher for Learning, we are asked to look those questions and more in the eye and give our students practical responses and not relay on the parental "because I said so".
Interestingly enough I have begun to address this WIIFM with two of my learners that sadly hate school. Their reasons are extensive and valid. All year, I have strived to show them value in learning and asked them not to let school get in their way of getting their education. But all the pep talks, positive energy, modeling have barely scratched the surface. I began to post 3-big questions with just the topic before revealing any tasks or work.
Why must I learn X?
How can I use X?
When can I use X?
They are allowed to respond with "because it's required", because it is true. We fall under state mandated learning objectives. However, I ask that they expand on the three questions beyond the classroom. I ask them to then listen and hear my personal/professional answers to the same three questions. Sometimes they edit their responses either because they agree or couldn't find the words to express the same thought until I said it. Day-by-day their responses are taking shape. The two learners (and others) are beginning to see the benefits and over time I believe will be able to rattle off responses to WIIFM without pause. One recent example of this was on the topic of identifying causes of a problem for a writing task. The students were asked the three questions, and I could see them struggling to come up with responses. Afterwards I shared why I thought they must learn to identify causes of a problem, how they can use identifying causes of a problem, and when they can use having to identify a problem.
(WHY) Perspective and Empathy. Examining the cause(s) of a problem can be applied too many situations in life outside of the classroom. From why the car has a flat tire to how pollution impacts our clean drinking water. And allows us to empathize with those experiencing a problem.
(HOW) Problem Solving. We discover that the same thinking that caused the problem cannot be used to solve a problem. It allows us to keep asking "why" something is they way it is diving deeper in our understanding.
(WHEN) Use it everywhere as an opportunity maker. We can identify the causes of traffic and find a new route. We can identify causes to low crop yields and potentially adjust. We can identify why we are not successful on an exam and reduce or eliminate those causes.
I look forward to using this approach next year with the entire class and might even give a short brown-bag PD session for our team on WIIFM.