"Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day…" - 5 new articles

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Presidents’ Day celebrates the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln (though there is some confusion about the day itself).

You might be interested in The Best Resources About Presidents’ Day

     

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What is the role of teaching support in students’ motivation and engagement trajectories during adolescence? A four-year latent growth modeling study is a big open access study that is a poster child for why teachers often don’t read research.

I tried reading it and my eyes just glazed over.

So, instead, I uploaded it to ChatGPT with these instructions:

Identify specific recommendations to teachers from this research, along with a very short quotation from the study supporting each one. Make it practical.

Here’s what it came up with (it also developed this one-page PDF summary):

Practical Teacher Recommendations

(Based on “perceived teaching support” factors)

1. Build emotional support by showing advocacy and care

Practical move:

• Greet students by name

• Check in on struggling students privately

• Notice effort and perseverance

Why:
Emotional support (teacher warmth/advocacy) boosts motivation and engagement.

Study quote:

Emotional support “is related to students’ motivation and engagement”.

2. Make expectations clear and consistent

Practical move:

• Provide clear learning goals

• Use step-by-step instructions

• Show strong, predictable routines

Why:
Clear expectations are a major part of instructional support, improving motivation and learning.

Study quote:

Instructional support includes “expectations, organization and clarity”.

3. Improve organization and clarity of lessons

Practical move:

• Present material in logically ordered chunks

• Provide models or exemplars

• Use visual organizers

Why:
Students stay more engaged when lessons feel structured rather than chaotic.

Study quote:
Clear communication and predictability are part of teaching structure linked to motivation.

4. Give feedback that helps students see their next steps

Practical move:

• Shift from “good job” to “Here’s what will improve your next attempt…”

• Use brief feedforward (what’s next)

• Tie feedback to learning goals

Why:
Feedback/feedforward is a central instructional support factor tied to motivation and achievement.

Study quote:
Instructional support includes “feedback-feedforward” that enhances learning.

5. Make learning relevant to students’ lives

Practical move:

• Give real-world examples

• Connect tasks to students’ interests

• Provide choices in how they show learning

Why:
Students engage more when work feels meaningful.

Study quote:
Perceived support includes “instructional relevance” as a motivator.

6. Strengthen classroom management to create a predictable, safe environment

Practical move:

• Establish simple, practiced routines

• Use calm, preventative management

• Teach behavior expectations, don’t just correct

Why:
Management support has strong links to engagement, learning, and achievement.

Study quote:
Classroom management is “associated with enhanced motivation, learning, and achievement”.

7. Understand that teaching support shapes motivation over time

Practical move:

• Don’t assume early declines in motivation are fixed

• Use consistent supportive practices across the year

• Reinvest in routines and relevance during mid-year dips

Why:
Teaching support influences students’ motivation and engagement trajectories across adolescence.

Study quote:
Teaching support helps shape “motivation and engagement trajectories” across years.

Summary for Teachers

To boost student motivation and engagement, focus on:

• Warmth & care (advocacy)

• Clear expectations

• Organized lessons

• Useful feedback

• Relevant learning tasks

• Predictable, fair routines

These are the concrete, modifiable teacher behaviors shown in the study to influence student motivation and engagement over time.

I’m adding this post to Best Posts On “Motivating” Students.

     

For the next month or so, I’ll be republishing my best posts from the last half of 2025.

TheDigitalArtist / Pixabay

This new TED-Ed video would be a great one to show students.

I know people in their early twenties are the biggest users of sports betting apps, but I would…bet that younger folks are not further behind.

As previous research has shown, preaching to young people about the dangers of gambling, sweets, AI, etc. are not very effective strategies.

However, if you show them how corporations are manipulating them – that’s a different story.

I recently learned that this concept is called “reactance,”  You can learn about it here and here.

I’ve shared about this idea in the past at:

A Look Back: Important New Study Looks At Assets, Not Deficits, Of Teen “Defiance”

Video: “How Stores Try to Manipulate Your Senses to Sell You Stuff”

Here’s the new TED-Ed video about gambling:

 

     

Darkmoon_Art / Pixabay

I thought readers might, or might not, find this new regular post useful.

Each week, I highlight several sentences, with links to their sources, that I find interesting/concerning/useful.  And they may, or may not, be directly connected to education.  I may also include my own comments or related links.

This regular post will join my other regular ones on teaching ELLs, education policy, Artificial Intelligence, infographics, and Pinterest highlights, not to mention sharing of my regular Education Week posts.

Here are this week’s sentences:

This leaves the average chronic absenteeism rate for these states and the nation’s capital at 23%, roughly 50% higher than their pre-pandemic baseline. See The Best Resources On Student Absenteeism

When tutoring is outsourced to AI, we rob both groups of students—the learners and the tutors—of experiences that shape their academic and professional futures. See THE BEST RESOURCES ON PEER TUTORS

Like a chef, mastering math is not just about following a recipe or executing techniques correctly; it is about understanding how elements work together so that, when faced with something new, students know how to reason through the problem and build on previous knowledge.

But our English-learner classes, some of them are less than half in attendance in person.

Without adequate consideration of the humanity of the migrant, it is impossible to construct just policies ordered to the common good and to the benefit of society’s weakest members.”

If you think AI can make something like Khan Academy 2x better, which is probably impossible, then you are still measuring effects with microscopes.

She said that she had been followed by federal agents and that federal agents had recently been outside the homes of members of her school board.

“Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”

“We’ve never seen this much surveillance,” said John White, a University of North Florida education professor who was asked to remove words such as “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion” and “culture” from his syllabus.

And act on the results!

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— Larry Ferlazzo (@larryferlazzo.bsky.social) February 2, 2026 at 7:42 AM

Or when you agree to take notes in a meeting

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— Larry Ferlazzo (@larryferlazzo.bsky.social) February 3, 2026 at 6:49 AM

this is a wicked man who knows he is being wicked and does it anyway

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— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) February 4, 2026 at 8:41 AM

as i keep saying, the things to do to secure elections are to volunteer to work the polls or to serve as an observer, & to pressure your *state representatives* to take steps to further secure voting locations and ballots. you should also learn about how election administration works in your area.

— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) February 5, 2026 at 5:35 AM

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that K-12 districts & individual schools have been much more active in defending their students and families than colleges ——12 Columbia Professors and Students Are Arrested at Anti-ICE Protest www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/n…

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— Larry Ferlazzo (@larryferlazzo.bsky.social) February 5, 2026 at 6:06 PM

Here’s the thing — if you are a Trump-supporting teacher, there is no way a Black student can feel safe in your classroom.

That was true before his most recent post, but it is undeniable now.

Period. Full stop.

— Chris Lehmann (@clehmann.bsky.social) February 6, 2026 at 3:14 PM

     

I think that there are lot of more substantial actions schools can do to reduce student absenteeism, but this new study finds one interesting thing that I would guess could help on the margins.

This Ed Week article summarizes the results: The Surprising Factor That Makes Absenteeism Interventions More Successful.

The 74 also has an article on the survey: They Examined 3.3 Million Text Messages on Chronic Absenteeism. Here Are 4 Big Findings

As the above textbox says, that factor was when during the day the families were contacted.

There are some other useful tidbits in the article, too.

This technocratic strategy is definitely not where I’d start if I was an administrator, but it’s certainly easy to try and it can’t hurt.

I, however, would focus more on parent home visits, in-depth conversations with students, and more.  You can read about those strategies, and others, at The Best Resources On Student Absenteeism.