Assignment #4: Complete the 4 part assignment format as you read, reflect, and respond to Chapter 4 – Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition.
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Although your course packet asks you to post to blog for parts A, B, C, and D…we are asking that you only post part C and D. We’re trying to make the blog easier to read and more user- friendly. Thanks!
A. Self Assessment of Current Beliefs and Practices: This component asks you to reflect on how and why you currently use the instructional strategies of Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition in your classroom. The intent of this is to activate your prior knowledge of your strategy use so that you can make comparisons as you read the chapter. Below are the questions to help you complete your self-assessment.
• This chapter discusses the potential influence of reinforcing students' effort and providing recognition for their accomplishments. Think back to your own personal experiences and try to identify situations in which your learning was positively influenced when someone reinforced your effort or recognized your accomplishments in some significant way. You might also remember situations that would have been improved if someone had reinforced your effort or had given you recognition.
• Now try to remember examples of situations that you positively influenced because you did reinforce students' effort or provide recognition.
• How do you currently reinforce students’ effort in your classroom and what is your purpose?
• What makes reinforcing effective or ineffective?
• Although verbal recognition seems to be most effective, providing concrete tokens (e.g., stickers, candy, toys) can also be effective. What advice would you give to a new teacher about using tokens as rewards?
B. Read & Reflect “Research & Theory”: This portion of the assignment asks you to read chapter 4 and reflect briefly on your thinking after reading the “Research and Theory” section for both reinforcing effort and providing recognition. You may want to consider reflecting on the bulleted comment below.
C. Practice: Choose one of the specific “classroom practice” strategies or techniques shared in this chapter to teach to your students (If you are not currently teaching, you may share how you would use this strategy in your classroom). You may want to consider reflecting on the bulleted comment below. Please post a brief reflection of how this went to the posting labeled Week Four: Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition. Click on the “comment” link below.
• This chapter recommends the use of rubrics to help students see the relationship between their effort and their achievement. Try to identify a specific long-term, challenging assignment that might be enhanced by using these rubrics.
D. Final Strategy Reflection: Use the following sequence of questions/promps to reflect on what you’ve learned about both the strategies presented in the chapter and what you’ve learned about yourself as both a teacher and a learner. Please post your brief reflection to the posting labeled Week Four: Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition by clicking on the “comment” link below.
How has the information you read in this chapter on summarizing affected your thinking about teaching and learning? What have you learned about yourself as a teacher and learner? You may use some of the following questions to assist you in writing a brief strategy reflection:
• How might I change how I reinforce students’ effort in my classroom?
• What is something you now understand better about reinforcing effort or providing recognition?
• How might you change how you provide recognition in your classroom?
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2 comments:
This was a very interesting chapter. I had read it earlier so I really had a chance to think ahead about how I wanted to implement an Effort and Achievement rubric. I had never done this before and initially I was a little hesitant about whether or not it would be helpful for students. I decided to use it in my second-year Spanish class with the concept of negative words. This is a difficult concept for students and many get very frustrated while learning it. Some even give up believing that "it's too hard for me to learn." I did the prep as the book instructed. The day that we started I asked how many of the class played a sport or a musical instrument. A large majority raised their hands. I then asked them if they played well when they first began. They all said no. I asked them if they continue to practice in order to improve. We then talked about effort. In each of my second-year classes I picked out a particularly talented athlete. I asked him/her if they thought that they could teach someone to learn how to do some aspect of their sport with some amount of competence (i.e. shooting baskets, dribbling a soccer ball across the field, etc.). They agreed that anyone could learn to do that with practice and effort. Ahhhhhhh. Effort. So, we talked about the concept that we were going to be learning in class and how anyone could learn it with effort. I talked about how I had struggled with the concept when I was learning Spanish but that I kept at it and kept at it and I learned it. We then began. I did all of my typical teaching things, various methods of presenting to different learning styles, etc., individual practice, group practice, etc. We spent several days on the concept. Throughout the entire time I kept actively returning to the idea of effort. At the end of the lesson, I gave the class a quiz followed by the Effort and Achievement rubric. The rubric was basically a copy of what was in the book except I replaced the word "task" with "negative words." Interestingly, the results of the quiz corresponded with how students scored themselves on the Effort and Achievement rubric. When I give this back to students next class, I am going to clearly point this out. I want them to see what a direct correlation there is between the two. I am definitely going to continue with this. I believe that as they continue to learn that there indeed IS a correlation between the effort and achievement, those who did not put forth the needed effort this time will, in time, begin to do so. I really learned a lot from this.
Wow! This was a powerful lesson for me. Over the years I've talked about effort and its importance over and over--blah, blah, blah. But, as usual, unless it's made overt and tied directly to a student's life, it doesn't necessarily connect. I will now OVERTLY teach about effort and its importance. I will also use the effort rubrics. I believe that they are an incredibly effective learning tool. I loved this experience!! I really learned a lot.
Hi Robin...Boy did you hit the nail on the head with this one! You have provided an exceptional model of how to use the strategy of both reinforcing effort and Providing Recognition (through feedback on the rubric). I think that students need to understand the importance of hard work and determination and how it will allow them to excel in their achievement. Thanks so much for sharing your thinking and classroom work...and I'm so glad that your students are benefitting from this coursework :)
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