Can Backfire if a Student Feels Pressured Too Much?

If you tell students, "You're going to need this some day," that often backfires. If you encourage students to make their own connections and say, how do you think this will be valuable or useful to you in the future, then that is much more motivating than telling them it's important now. A friend of mine has developed these what she calls the sensitivety sketch books wherese there are these personal journals that all the students in the classroom have. And they can all write in thee sketch books, and they're kind like journals. Yow, yes, yes. That's such a great idea. We're not usually encouraged to tune into that at school.