Pages

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Next Year's Reward System

With this past year's mistakes fresh in my mind, I am thinking about what to do next year for a reward system. After talking with other teachers about what types of reward systems work for them, and asking other adults which reward systems really stuck with them when they were young... I saw a common denominator.

The ticket system/point system kept popping up in peoples' answers. So this year, I think I am going to try this system. Here's what I came up with --

For every week, students can reach up to 10 points for good behavior. I made a list of common good behaviors that I will be looking for such as: turning in work, attendance, not getting on my consequences list, and making good grades on assignments. I thought I'd focus on turning in work and having a good work ethic as I am teaching math support again this year. I really need to nurture the basics in math support. Students may also loose all of their points by going to ISS or OSS for any reason.

I am going to have a tiered reward system. The students will turn in their points for rewards in one of two boxes. One box will be worth 20 points, and the other will be worth 40 points. I am thinking that rewards in the 20 point box should cost no more than a dollar, whereas rewards in the 40 point box can cost anything between $1 and $3. Some rewards will be free as well. Laminated tickets that say "pick your seat for one class period" or "use your phone for one class period" will work well. I know that I need to make my rewards more appealing to the middle level students, and that will be the challenging part.

Also, keeping up with the point system will be difficult. At the moment, I am thinking of keeping a tally on a clipboard. I can just use my roster sheets to keep up with the tally. Then at the end of the week, I can add the students' tallies up and give out 10 point tickets. The students will be responsible for keeping up with their tickets. This teaches them a little bit of responsibility too. If they want something, they've gotta work for it, and keep up with the money or paperwork to get it.

I don't have everything worked out yet, but I do have a whole summer to think about it.

If you have any suggestions to add to this reward system, or any experience with this type of reward system please leave a comment.

No comments:

Post a Comment