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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6 comments:
C. I think it is really important for student's to work towards their own personal goal. I used personalized recognition in my classroom. We do workplaces (centers) during our math time, and the students fill out papers and keep them in a folder after completed. At the end, we have paper for the kids to grade themselves on how they did before the teacher does it. Then they make a goal to reach for during the next round of math workplaces. After they finish the next round, they look back and see if they reached the goal they set. I haven't publicly recognized them for this effort, but it is a great way for them to pay attention and work hard during this time.
D. I find this chapter interesting because currently we do PBS in our school and in most schools in our area. This is Positive Behavior Support; systems put in place to explicitly teach children rules, then reward them for following them. The rewards are often tokens, class compliments, individual rewards or so forth. All of these being outside motivation. This is known as a very successful program and is fully in place in our school. Although we are going to keep following this program and the kids seem to react positively to it, I do think I could change a few things. Sometimes, the rewards are given out for just following the rules or doing something correct that should be done. I think I would like to target specific achievements kids are doing before handing out a token. Also, I could let them know ahead of time what the standards are to earn the "token" before they begin an activity. PBS isn't going away, but changing out effort tokens are given out could change.
Chapter 4 - Kristi Richards
C. I have been working with a group of 12 kindergartners in an extended kindergarten program. I have them for about 45 minutes. This is the first year that we’ve offered this program and the first time I’ve worked with kindergarten students. They are a hoot! Part of our block of time is spent on writing. I think many of our emergent readers need the opportunity to encode through writing experiences before they apply these skills to their reading.
Many of the students have just recently acquired some letter sound/symbol knowledge, and they are hesitant to try writing. As with many beginning writers, they become comfortable with certain patterns, such as “I like” sentences. I had started rewarding some of the students who experimented beyond this pattern with special pencils. Yet, it wasn’t motivating my more reluctant writers.
After some thought, I realized that I had set up my time as a mini writer’s workshop, but I wasn’t allowing time for the reflection/sharing piece. I recently added time for students to share their writing with their peers at the end of our writing block. At this time, we’re able to recognize the student’s work and celebrate what skills they are attempting. It has been amazing how this tiny addition has facilitated more motivation and ownership of their writing.
D. I enjoyed reading about this topic. As I have worked with intermediate, reluctant readers for the first time in my Title I position, I have often noted how much effort and motivation impacts their success. Primary students are very wiggly and there is more management involved, but it is easier to tap into their eagerness and enthusiasm.
I recently worked with a group of fourth/fifth graders in an after school boost group. They were a group of students who were several years below grade level in reading, and they had negative feelings about reading. Finding books that they were willing to even attempt to read was the first obstacle to overcome. I developed an incentive program where they earned ice cream and various toppings based on their amount of work and participation. This system worked for a few of the students, but it wasn’t successful overall.
I am intrigued by the idea of creating an effort/achievement rubric for my next boost group. I believe that students are more likely to meet their potential when they have more ownership over their learning. Though the rubric in the book is helpful, I know that I’ll need to adjust it for my group so that it’s more accessible to them. I haven’t decided the best way to implement this tool, but I’m eager to try it.
The idea of the "effort and achievement chart" (fig. 4.3)appealed to me. In my math class, I have had students indicate how difficult they found the assignment (as a means of finding out how easily they were grasping concepts) but I haven't connected it to effort on their part, and I think that could be useful for both of us.
The authors made no mention of a small but significant flaw that jumped to my mind - the student who puts forth little effort but is able to achieve highly. It seems to me that such a system could reinforce certain slacker habits - particularly of TAG students who don't need to work as hard to achieve the objectives, setting them up for a rude awakening the first time they meet genuine challenges (Here I write from personal experience in high school.)
However, it is nearly impossible to devise a system to satisfy every student in every situation, and the risk of reinforcing slacker habits of a minority of students doesn't seem like a sufficient reason not to try the effort/achievement self-evauluation.
A better reason to be wary of trying something comes in the area of concrete symbols of recognition. As far as providing recognition in the classroom, I have tended to deliberately shy away from this practice, at least on a public scale. I attribute this tendency to the instruction I received as a student teacher. One of the professors at my university made a compelling case against making students "highly visible" with star charts or public praise.
Her reasons were numerous and supported by evidence. One of her lasting examples was a scenario of the student from a culture that is far more modest than the typical competitive, mainstream American culture, who would find public recognition deathly embarassing and might underachieve in the future to avoid such recognition. Another example is found in Louis Sachar's "There's A Boy In The Girl's Bathroom," where the underachieving protagonist Bradley Chalkers fixates on his lack of stars on the star chart.
The alternative that was suggested to me, and it's one I use, is to quietly congratulate students individually as I return their assessments and projects to them, giving them recognition without making a spectacle of it.
In the end, I think it comes down to knowing your students, their personalities, and their needs. Public recognition might be an effective method for some classes, while others might cringe at it.
Thanks Katy, Kristi, and Sam for your comments! I always feel like I struggle with this internal vs. external reward business….but don’t we all want praise and recognition for a job well done? And would we stop working so hard if we felt underappreciated? Each of you shared some great ways that you have (or will) reinforce effort and provide recognition in the future. Sam’s comment about needing to know your students…and which type of recognition would be the most beneficial, I think is a very important point!
Sarah Barnett
C. In this chapter I am most struck by the idea of recognizing and reinforcing effort. As pointed out in the beginning of the chapter, effort is really the only component of success which is completely within our own control. It reminds me of The Tortoise and the Hare. The tortoise won the race because of effort, while the hare just relied on natural ability and lost. Since reading this chapter, I have worked to "reward" effort more than just achievement alone. I did a mini lesson with the whole class about effort, emphasizing that it sometimes takes time and patience, but that it is the key to being a "good reader," etc. I am finding that reinforcement of good effort encourages more effort in my students, overall. During guided reading, some students tend to slap the book closed after one less-than-fluent reading and announce "I'm done!" Positive reinforcement of multiple readings is really helping. "Wow! I can tell you have practiced reading this book -- you sound like a TV announcer!" Not only does that child beam with pride and immediately resume reading, but other children within ear shot reopen their books and begin practicing as well. Practice makes perfect -- sometimes it takes an awful lot of practice, but that's OK.
D. I do like the idea of using the Effort and Achievment Rubric and Chart (figures 4.2 and 4.3). I think I could use this in reading and writing, areas in which we have long term (year-long) goals. I appreciate the blog comment that pointed out the problem with successful slackers. Then there are the students who try, try, try, but still do not succeed. For them, I really try to emphasize endurance. Teaching children to exert effort is like teaching hungry people to fish, so I feel committed to really making that a priority with my students. I don't think of it as an issue of intrinsic vs. external rewards. Effort comes from within, which is what makes it within the control of each student to use. My job is to teach them to use effort, and that involves encouragement, reinforcement, and recognition. Success will be their reward.
Thanks Sarah. Great comparison to use the Tortoise and the Hare when talking about effort with your kids! I loved comment, “success will be their reward.” This is the bottom line we want for our students!....sometimes I feel that I work with teachers….that just don’t put in that “effort”…or I think of it as passion, for teaching. We want kids to have a passion for learning….and put in the effort it takes1
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