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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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?
7 comments:
C. Practice
I have always struggled with the idea of effort. When I have a sample of what I want to see from the students, it seems to help. In the last Social Studies Unit on Explorers, I struggled to demonstrate to my students what I was looking for. I just assumed that the kids understood. Now that they are finished, I will keep some great looking projects to show to next year’s students. I think this will help the students understand what I want to see.
I really like the rubric on page 52. I can see using this with my students after each big project as a self reflection. I just finished a writing project with my kids and can see how this would be helpful for that as well.
D. Final Strategy Reflection
Very interesting! I have always struggled with the idea of rewards, recognition, etc. I prefer long term rewards that kids have to work for. In my class I give tickets to students who follow directions, who are polite, who help each other, who are good role models, and anything else I see that I want to reward. Once a month, I open a classroom store where kids can buy fun little trinkets, pencils, stickers, etc with their tickets. I like this because it’s not instant. They have to be responsible with their tickets and keep them in a safe place until the monthly store. These tickets are also like our classroom currency. The kids can also charge each other tickets. Every week, we have 10 classroom jobs. Each job enables students to charge tickets for doing their task. I think this set up is a great way to reward without reducing intrinsic motivation.
C. Practice
A program that came to mind as I read this chapter was Read Naturally where students chart “cold” read alongside “hot” read. Yes this reflects more on familiarity with the text, but I feel it also gives students a picture of how effort applied to the material increases a score.
Before using an E & A rubric I would have students look into the meaning of the words, then talk about the similarities/differences between the words, and through examples & personal stories discuss how effort is linked to achievement. Effort is the exertion, the try, the elbow grease that leads to the fulfillment, the accomplishment, the mastery, the achievement. At the beginning of a grading period students often write out personal goals, what they hope to achieve. I would tie a subject area, such as spelling/vocabulary or math, to this goal setting activity. Goals would need to be specific. Not just, “I want to learn my multiplication tables,” but specifically to what level of mastery. I would, over several days, have students brainstorm how they will exert themselves toward this achievement. Describe the elbow grease that they’ll use! Then introduce the E & A rubric, as on page 53. Students would record as assignments, quizzes, tests take place. The Handbook for this course’s textbook shows a graph (pg.102) that’s similar to a Read Naturally graph. I would have students keep a graph because I feel it delivers that added dimension of a visual. They really see their accomplishment, or lack of.
D. Reflection
I appreciate this chapter, as this aspect of classroom process and management is one I feel unpracticed with and uncertain about. I remember several in-depth debates during my teacher training course work concerning effort grades and effort rewards. Used to be, and still may be, that students received a grade for effort on their report card. Part of the debate was what aspects of an effort grade are based on teacher opinion and can that opinion really be bias free. Therefore the significance of “reward is most effective when contingent on successfully completing a specific level of performance” (pg.95 Handbook). I also feel it’s important for students to see the connection between believing-in-effort and believing-in-self.
I’ve been at schools that have a character trait as a school-wide theme for the month: responsible, honest, reliable, etc. Teachers name one/two students to receive the character trait award at an all-school assembly. A description of what the student did to be eligible to receive the award is read to the student body. My experience is that students get their awards, everyone returns to the classroom, end of story. A next step I now see as important to reinforcing and teaching about effort is to have an all-class conversation about how and why the award was achieved, what efforts did the students in all grade levels make. Talk about refining personal goals, what more can be done with the E & A rubric and graph, etc. Getting student input and feedback could be invaluable to enriching this aspect of classroom instruction.
Lastly, I’ve pondered a lot on the statement: global praise does not give individual students information about their knowledge or abilities. I will be more conscious of how I hand out praise. I will attempt to be specific with praise to specific students so that the praise is useful to the student.
C. I know that effort looks different from one student to the next. I liked the ideas from this chapter, particularly the one about discussing effort, and how it directly relates to success. The stories about how different people put effort into a task or project was an idea that I put into use this week. I think that students need to identify what their own personal success will look like. To get third graders to think about effort and success is not an easy thing. Some really understand and others completely do not.
D. This week we started our OAKS math test. After day one of watching kids mindlessly click away, I sat them down at the carpet and told a story about an experience I had with taking the CSET. I tied in all the aspects I wanted them to take with them to the second day of the math test. For those students who had the ability, but were not putting in full effort, this seemed to help quite a bit. At the very least, they were slowing down and working some problems on the scratch paper.
As for providing positive recognition, I struggle with this. I feel that students should do well because it makes them feel good inside, not because they will get a piece of candy or a prize. I feel the most effective recognition is a private chat out in the hall. I like to take a quick minute to have the student's good work with me and point out specifically what was so great about the work. It takes some record-keeping on my part so I don't leave anyone out, but it is worth it.
Marisa H.
Part C. Practice
I really enjoyed this chapter and found it to be very interesting and helpful, as a teacher and as a parent! I have often struggled with finding the appropriate rewards/consequence system in the classroom. In my experience, tangible rewards work most often with students who really don’t need motivation, and they often don’t work with students who need the motivation the most! This is definitely a problem!!! I am all about compromise, therefore I really like the idea of using a rubric in the classroom to intrinsically motivate students, which could be followed up later with some sort of verbal praise or tangible reward. I have not used rubrics with my Kindergarten class this year, but I do remember using a rubric when I taught a 2nd/3rd grade blend two years back. Students were working on preparing animal reports. Students went through the process of writing a report by researching, taking notes, writing a rough draft, writing a final copy, and presenting their work to the class and a group of parents. This was an awesome project, and most students seemed motivated because they were able to choose their own animal and work on their project by collaborating with others. Before the project began, I introduced a rubric to students, showing them the expectations for their final project. We went over each point on the rubric and throughout the project we revisited the rubric so that students knew what was expected of them. After our animal reports were finished, students filled out their own rubric and evaluated their written project, as well as their end-of-project presentation. This rubric did highlight some points about effort and motivation, but was mostly designed to guide students through the structure of their project. After reading chapter four, when I use a rubric again in the classroom, I would like the rubric to be more about the student’s effort and achievement throughout the task at hand. I would like to try this tool as a motivator, rather than “who gets a star today on the start chart for good behavior”! I know that in my own experience, what motivates me the most comes from within, and not from others giving me things or telling me how I should do something. I think an effort and achievement rubric is something extremely valuable, that I will now incorporate into my classroom .
Part D. Reflection
This chapter really has me thinking about how I can continue, and enhance, the use of effort and achievement rubrics in my current classroom. After reading this chapter, I feel that as a teacher, I don’t praise students enough!! Don’t get me wrong, my students have goals they work towards daily and I have little “prizes” and stickers that make the rounds in my classroom, but after reading this chapter I will be offering verbal praise in abundance! I think this is such a valuable tool! I don’t think that I use this tool enough. One thing that I do think I do well in the classroom is motivate students by providing opportunities for them to share their work. I wonder what the statistics on motivation would be if sharing was tested as a motivator. Each day after we read or write, I schedule in time for students to share a story they have read, or a writing piece they have composed. They LOVE this! Students give compliments after their classmate has shared and I really find that this is also a very powerful motivator in the classroom!
C: Practice
In our school we have a behavior system known as PBIS, positive behavior support). When we started this system three years ago, I was the head of the committee who developed it. This chapter reminded me of all the wonderful things our school put into place as we begun this system. This chapter did remind me that students do not always understand that “hard work pays off,” or as the book stated, not all students realize the importance of believing in effort. Since we began state testing and we are always explaining to the kids that positive talk and believing in yourself, can actually help you do better at a task like testing, I decided to use this chapter and tell some personal stories of how effort and believing actually works. I talk with the students about the current film The Blind Side and how it would have been easy for someone in that situation to give up, but because of effort and perseverance, Michael went on to become a professional football player. I used other examples, as well as examples from my own personal life, to get them to see how effort and believing in yourself does pay off. As we were testing, I could actually see students talking to themselves with a positive outlook and actually believing that they had put in the effort therefore they could be successful.
D: Final Strategy Reflection
After reading this chapter, it really helped to remind me of the importance of positive reinforcement through praise. Although my students are 12 and beginning their teenage years, it is so powerful to see what a small praise in front of their peers does for their confidence and overall work ethic. One thing I really found interesting from the chapter was the idea of developing an effort and achievement chart. We are currently in the beginning/middle stages of a major scientific inquiry/science fair project and creating a chart like this for the students to keep track of and be accountable for their effort as well as their achievement go end in a better outcome of projects.
Great comments: Nancy, Kim, Christy, Marisa, and Ashley. Nancy – especially for bigger assignments, rubrics are so important for students to set goals and understand what the expectation for achievement is for a given assignment. This issue of external motivation/reward has been a big shady area for me. I’ve always strived to build an internal motivation system….and the expectation that you try hard because you’re supposed to ….not to earn a piece of candy (for example). Kim – great example with Read Naturally….and now that I think of it, many fluency programs (Quick Reads, …) are really based this idea of reinforcing effort and providing reinforcement. I loved two of your ideas…first the idea of personal goals including specific levels of achievement (measureable), and the second your idea of an all-class conversation of achievement awards received. Christy – as you can see from what I wrote above, I struggle with the same issues in regards to positive recognition. We’re also moving into that wonderful testing time here in Connecticut, and I think it’s the perfect time to have an effort conversation with our students. Marisa – I think you are right on in the thought that in a positive and supportive environment, sharing could be a perfect motivator. I think your Kindergarteners would definitely benefit from using a rubric based on effort and achievement…good luck giving it a try :) Ashley – as I mentioned to Christy, we are also heading into testing season. I love the way you put the spin on the positive talk and believing in themselves….I’m going to share your thoughts in our faculty meeting with staff this week.
Thanks again everyone!!!
C. Practice
Our school is just beginning to use PBS. After a presentation from our PBS team about a possible reward system we might use Mary suggested we read this chapter. I'm so glad I did. I realized that I had gotten away from explicitly teaching effort and so I tried to use an effort and achievement rubric like the one shown in figure 4.2. I took an assignment the class had recently done for homework and had them chart their effort and achievement. We spent a couple of days prior to that talking about what effort is and how we recognize it. Unfortunately I tried this so late in the year that I don't think it will have much impact. I also really like the idea of using effort rewards in the classroom and think I will try that next year.
D. Reflection
This chapter reminded me of the importance of providing recognition and praise for specific goals. Although I know I shouldn't praise for simple tasks I also know I've fallen in the habit of doing that. I also think I can see how that has negatively effected my students. I think I'll continue the use of the effort and achievement chart next year, but I'll start right at the beginning of the year and include it with my responsive classroom activities. We'll talk about people who have shown effort and then we'll create charts so that everyone has a common understanding of what effort looks and sounds like. Then we'll create the effort and achievement rubric together. This will be a great item to share at parent/teacher conferences! I know my students will not understand the relationship between effort and achievement right away, but I think it will help them over time and will also work in well with our PBS goals.
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