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It's hard to get some students' motivated to do their own work at home. Does anyone have unique motivation tips?

I have the same problem with many of my students. Communication with the parents is vital. I find that parents, for the most part, are grateful to know when their student is not doing his or her work. For some students this will not work, and for some it may even make it worse, but for the majority of students, having strong participation from parents is essential.

I think as teachers we all face this problem. In my classroom while I would love for all students to be intrinsically motivated, I find that if I offer extrinsic motivations they get the job done.

I use a treasure box as a reward. If they turn in their homwork all week, then they get to go in the treausre box. There are pencils, free homework passes, and other fun trinkets.

Another idea used in my classroom is that during the week I will allow students to choose one homework assignment they do not want to complete. If before they go home they can demonstrate to me they understand the topic or math problem, etc., then I will excuse them from the homework that day.

Good Luck!

I come at this issue from a different perspective. I am anti-homework. Kids are at school for 6-7 hours a day. Let's do some figuring: 24 hours in a day. Subtracting 8 for sleep leaves 16. Subtracting 7 for school leaves 9. Subtracting at least an hour for travel to and from school leaves 8. If they play a sport or a musical instrument, subtract 2 for practice, leaving 6. Older teenagers often work, so subtract another 5 hours. That leaves 1 hour for dinner and family time. When will they find time for themselves, let alone time to do homework?

My philosophy is that when kids are at home, they need to be focused on home, not on school. They go to school for 12 years. They will work for more than 50. Let them enjoy being young.

By the way, most of my students' parents have expressed appreciation for my not giving homework.

Heck, I'm not motivated to grade papers or read essays or prepare lessons when I'm at home!

In reply to #2: I have to agree that parent communication, especially at the middle school level is critical.  I usually e-mail the parents once a month or so with just some important dates, such as quizzes and test.

This really helps the parent feel that the know what is happening and keeps them on top of their kids--getting them to do their work at home.

 I've also tried doing notebook quizzes where the students can use their notes to answer questions to things like hw and class notes that they should have in the notebook.

I also do notebook quizzes.  I am trying to help students become more organized in the middle grades.  I pair students that need help with this and also will sometimes give class time where we will review a table of contents that I keep for each class. 

I also agree that parent communication is key.  I have been in my school for quite some time and parents know that when I call with a concern, I care about their child's progress because I have made the time to talk to them.  Parents also are more supportive if there is a behavior issue because they have already talked to me.  Positive calls and notes are very important too!  I send out a bi-weekly plan that lets parents know  of upcoming graded assignments, tests, and quizzes.  I also note what homework is every evening on these plans.  I have gotten quite a bit of positive feedback on this and it helps me to be better organized.

I agree that work at home should be minimal. However, getting middle school kids to be responsible and organized takes effort.

This past year my teammate and I took this approach.

First Quarter- Missing work that is being collected requires a student to complete a MAC (missing assignment card) This gives the vitals AND requires a REASON as to why the assignment is not turned in...and forgot or left at home is not a reason....that is an excuse..the reason might be that I wasn't organized and didn't write in my planner, etc. This gives me something to show parents that their students are accepting responsibility for missing work.

Second Quarter-Students complete a MAC AND EMAIL their parents to explain why they have missing work. If there is no email, they get to call.  This is a bit embarrassing, but does take the responsibility of notification off of me. It also puts the ball in the parents court.  I've told the parents to feel free to email the students back and I will be sure to give them the message.  Those are fun to read!

Third Quarter-All of the above AND they have to work on missing work at lunch. This is their only free time and we take it away when they are irresponsible.

Fourth Quarter-All of the above AND Saturday school for any work not completed. Parents must stay and we drink coffee and talk while the student does the missing work. It only happens once.

Again, I don't assign much homework, but expect work from the classroom to be completed daily.

This tightening of the screws has been very successful for us.

I put a lot of the work on the kids' shoulders.  We do Socratic Seminars where they are the ones writing the questions and preparing to discuss.  I observe and redirect as necessary or ask a crucial question that hasn't been tackled.  We do lots of projects and most of the writing or portfolios, etc. is done in class.  I do expect my students to do the reading, but I usually give 2 days or more for that to get done so that smaller increments of reading will suffice each night or over a weekend.  They know that if they don't read, they can't participate in the Seminar, and that takes away their voice and part of their daily grade.

With my students, this works.  Put the responsibility on them.  In addition, I do keep a website with my assignments and class itineraries on it.  Students can check that when they are absent or forget to write an assignment down, and they can also email me from there.  IT's great for parents, too.

I teach high school math and have students of all motivational levels. What I have found to work best is adjusting my late work policy. Instead of having strict due dates and not accepting any late work or counting off for things turned in late, I have implemented the policy that anything will be graded for full credit up until the chapter test day. I communicate this very clearly at the start of each school year and also emphasize it when a test is coming up. This policy does not mean I have students with no missing assignments, but it does allow for those students who get busy or did not understand something at the beginning of the unit and begin to towards the end.

I think it's important to make sure that the homework is not only relevant to what was just taught, but also made meaningful to them.  Students don't care about hw if they are given ditto after ditto, which seems to be pretty common.  A simple discussion of how the topic relates to them in their own world, will improve motivation in completing assignments.  Also, not being afraid to discuss pieces of your own experiences is also helpful.  It makes you "real" and relatable to them, and therefore they will want to work harder for you.  Quite often, teachers aren't seen as real people from the perspective of the students. 

An example of this would be assigning students to write a story about their own life experiences that may still affect them positively or negatively in their current lives.  They couldn't have done this without explicit instruction, step by step instruction, and modeling.  I told them a personal story (not overly personal though), put it into writing while they helped me word it, described how it had affected me in my adult life, and transitioned with them in how to put it all together.  They were extremely motivated and I received beautiful stories that also had the required elements.