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Designing a Motivational Curriculum 1
Designing a Motivational Curriculum
Stephanie Herrera
American College of Education

Introduction
When constructing a unit of study, the creator must consider each individual student and
their learning needs. It is important to also think of strategies that will engage and motivate the
students of today with modern day links, relationships between the content and media, and
appropriate set up assignments and assessments that students can prove their competence based
on the entire unit. Reflecting on a particular unit and making modifications to it is what makes a
teacher stronger each time it comes to teaching the same unit. By having the opportunity to
break the following unit of study apart and focus on the goals, strengths, and weaknesses found
throughout will not only make the unit stronger, but the teacher as well. The ARCS (attention,
relevance, confidence, and satisfaction) Model of Motivation has a way to analyze how engaged
and motivated the students have been throughout an entire unit and an opportunity to realize
what changes are needed to be made in order to capture every student and keep them focused
throughout the unit.
Part 1: Modify a Unit of Study
Unit Name: May I please order a(n)…?
Unit Objectives: -Students will know the food and beverage vocabulary when ordering their
preferences off a menu at a restaurant.
-Students will know how to apply the question words and phrases to be able to
order off a menu at a restaurant.
Subject Area: Spanish I
Target Group/Grade: Grade 9
The goals of this unit of study are to develop an understanding and recognition for the
food and beverage vocabulary that are typically found in the United States along with question

words and phrases that will enable students to apply it to order off a menu at a restaurant with the
given vocabulary. The strengths found in this unit that I would like to maintain include the
ability to be appealing to all students because students love food and therefore, they will take a
high interest in this unit, which helps their initial intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy. The
entire unit does not talk about anything but elements found at a restaurant, which is mainly food,
beverages, and questions on how to order off a menu so the interest is held throughout the entire
lesson since it relates to what all students have done at one point or another and can become
personal as the unit develops with ordering their own food and drinks. Students are encouraged
to learn skills that I teach them in order to remember the new vocabulary to the best of their
ability so that they can order off a menu and where certain terms come from in Spanish that can
be connected to English, enhancing the mastery goal orientation instead of focusing on receiving
the highest score on assessments and trying to out perform their peers. A weakness found in this
unit is found within providing adaptive feedback. Throughout the unit, there is not enough
thought built in to providing feedback to allow students to know they are headed in the right
direction with the content in the lessons in this unit. Another weakness is related to intrinsic
motivation because I lack telling my students why each task is important and related to the
objective and outcome I expect of them by the end of the unit. Without telling and reminding
them of the importance of each task they are less likely to make a connection as to why every
activity must be completed to fulfill their learning. Unfortunately, students are also not given
enough sense of control over their own assignments when they need to be included to feel that
they are important in the learning process. A final weakness is that all students take the same
assessment instead of allowing a variety of ways of assessing students to measure their progress
since all students have different ways of demonstrating competence.

Part 2: Applying a Motivational Framework
Attention: In terms of capturing students’ attention, variability is used throughout the unit by
incorporating many different types of activities and tasks to maintain their attention and reach the
goal in ordering off a menu at a restaurant. The variety of tasks range from looking at images on
slides, to guided practice through repetition, independent worksheet practice, activities in pairs
with audio, drawing, games, and speaking dialogues, and as well as reading in the target
language that incorporates all of the vocabulary needed from this unit. A modification I would
suggest to capture the attention of students more successfully is by using perceptual arousal to
grab the students’ attention further than simply liking the topic. I want to get them more curious
about something they thought was so plain and simple. According to Banas (2015), “perceptual
arousal provides some sense of novelty, surprise, or uncertainty” (Part 2: ARCS, slide 2). In
order to do this I would show them a bunch of vocabulary in Spanish, before learning them, and
scramble up the corresponding images to have them guess which words belong to each picture.
By initially showing this type of display, it will make them want to know what the actual
vocabulary words are for each image; they will want to know the correct answers, which open up
the entire lesson on this fun unit. Another way to incorporate perceptual arousal is not only by
using it in the beginning but by using throughout the unit. Whenever a new, relevant vocabulary
phrase is about to appear in context on a given day, I could display each image on the Smart
Board right in front of the class in the beginning of each class period to get students curious as to
why the new phrases are displayed and wondering what they mean. The engagement points at
the beginning of each lesson in this unit can incorporate questions in Spanish that are related to
the lesson that make students wonder what it means and why it is important enough to be an
engagement point for the day.

Relevance: Mastery goal orientation is incorporated into this unit by emphasizing the need to
develop skills to use in a restaurant, competence in the vocabulary, improving their learning in
this unit, and reaching the expected standards to be able to order off a menu at a restaurant on the
spot. Ames and Archer (1988) emphasize that students “strive for their own learning process in
mastery goal orientation” (as cited in Yerdelen, Aydin, Yalmanci, & Goksu, 2014, p. 437). By
students taking ownership in all those areas, that are relevant to the unit, they are reaching for
their own success. Building familiarity also exists by constantly relating the food and beverage
vocabulary to their favorite foods and drinks. I have also displayed food and beverages that their
favorite celebrities claim to like so they see more interest and relevance in the unit. Knowing
that their favorite artist, actress, or athlete enjoys the same foods they do make it even more
appealing to the students. A modification I suggest to increase the level of relevance in my
classroom is by matching motives and needs. I can do this by allowing more options to be
available for students to choose from according to their own learning needs. The options would
be found throughout the unit for some activities in which I can find multiple ways to evaluate
their competence in the lessons from this unit. Kohn (1993) and Sanacore (1999) suggest, “when
students have freedom to make choices that are relevant to their lives, they are less likely to burn
out because freedom can positively influence their values and behavior, their academic
performance, their overall growth and development, and their general well-being” (as cited in
Sanacore, 2008, p. 42). If I provide options for students to choose from, they are more likely to
take the unit serious because they are included in the decision-making process for their learning
and understanding and find more relevance in the methods if they are able to choose some of
them.

Confidence: The measures found to increase confidence are performance requirements and
success opportunities. My students are well aware of what they will learn, how they will learn,
and how they will be assessed in this unit because of my ability to explain to them exactly what
is expected in all areas. All of the tasks and activities are appropriately challenging experiences
for each individual learner because of the new goal in providing more options for students to
select the methods and activities they will take on to reach the given goal. To increase student
confidence in my classroom, I would need to incorporate personal control. As the unit is
progressing I need to be direct and tell the students to say aloud how the strategies they have
chosen are linked to comprehending the lessons in this unit. I may even have to provide some
examples as to how a strategy is related to the concept of success we should have in mind, which
is to be able to understand and use the vocabulary and question words in order to order off a
menu at a restaurant. I will incorporate this by having multiple “check-ins” with me throughout
the unit in which they must take ownership for their educational choices in my classroom by
explaining to me their links and comprehension thus far. The more someone speaks aloud, the
more likely they are to understand what it is they are doing, increasing their confidence level.
Satisfaction: Intrinsic motivation and equity are two components that are found in terms of
satisfaction. The topic of talking about favorite foods, beverages, and being at a restaurant
generate a personal interest to each student which makes them intrinsically motivated throughout
the unit. As for equity, all of my expectations and consequences stay consistent throughout the
entire unit. Everything has been communicated to my students from the very beginning and
nothing has ever been altered. In fact, I have reminded my students of the standards they need to
meet throughout various times in the unit so that it is not lost in sight of what they have to
achieve. I would suggest in incorporating extrinsic motivation since it is not found often in my

classroom or this unit. Since this is a fun, easy-going unit I find it difficult to extrinsically
motivate my students properly. I am used to praising my students through extrinsic rewards like
bonus points or candy in front of the whole class for simply winning class games. However, I
need to start praising students individually for their improvements and successes they each
reached so it becomes more meaningful and overall a more satisfying experience knowing that
they are on the right track and it has not gone unnoticed. I can build in time to each lesson to
make it a point to praise at least a few students who I know have been trying their best to
improve and to those stand-out students for their brilliant strategies in achieving the goal in
comprehension of the vocabulary. E-mailing the parents or guardians for recognition is
something I can begin to do, as the praising occurs in my classroom, so the individual
recognition can also be noticed at home for further praise that is well-deserved for the student in
mind. Research states the importance of communicating and collaborating with parents in order
to support and increase students’ educational goals (Titiz & Tokel, 2015).
Conclusion
As a teacher, it is important to reevaluate and modify any current unit that one may feel
can use improvement in some areas. In modifying a unit of study and acknowledging the goals,
strengths, and weaknesses found in the unit, help me reflect on whether the goals are made clear
enough and what areas I want to keep in my strategies compared to what I want to modify to
make the unit stronger for my students. By using the ARCS model of motivation to determine
which motivational strategies to incorporate into the existing unit of study, it has forced me to
take a deep look at so many different elements for each topic of interest in this motivational
framework. With the modifications that have been said that will occur, I am confident that my
unit has become stronger in being able to deliver it to my next group of students and I expect

their outcome in reaching the goal in mind will be easier, more student-enhanced, direct,
rewarding, worthwhile, and successful.

References
Banas, J. (2015). Student Engagement [Lecture- PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
https://ace.instructure.com/courses/1326171/files/56475209?module_item_id=12724736
Sanacore, J. Turning reluctant learners into inspired learners. The Clearing House, 82(1), 40-44.
Titiz, H., & Tokel, A. (2015). Parents’ expectations from teachers and school administrators
regarding school-family cooperation development. International Journal on New Trends
in Education & their Implications, 6(2), 172-186.
Yerdelen, S., Aydin, S., Yalmanci, S.G., & Goksu, V. (2014). Relationship between high school
students' achievement goal orientation and academic motivation for learning biology: A
path analysis. Education and Science, 39(176), 437-446.

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