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?
8 comments:
C. Practice: I don't think I would use a ruberic in kindergarten or first grade with this. I would definitely start talking to the kids or reading books about ability and effort. I would use examples of "pretend" students. I would use literature as well to discuss and bring to their attention.
D. Final Strategy Reflection: I remember reading about Kohns' research and thinkging some of this seems right, but another part of me was thinking it wasn't. When I reflect on my learning and teachers/parents/coaches/employers that used rewards or reinforcements, they were all mostly motivating for me. They were especially motivating for me when it was contingent on the attainment of some standard of performance. As I was going through school, I was not intrinsically motivated to learn about specific topics/interests. Often times it was some sort of motivation that helped me get through the work or topic. I also think you can reward to much and it can lose the effect. It has to be done when it is deserved and it has to be done when it is contingent of the attainment of some performance standard.
I plan on keeping in mind the three principles outlined in the chapter. 1. Rewards do not necessarily have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation. 2. Reward is most effective when it is contingent on the attainment of some standard of performance. 3. Abstract symbolic recognition is more effective than tangible rewards. I know I appreciated real concrete and specific praise over any other type tangible reward. When I was given real generic praise, I never felt it was meaningful. I always felt praise was real when it was specific and it was not over used.
C: Practice: The District where I teach practices "Positive Behavior Supports" (PBS)beginning in elementary and continues through high school. Individual students are rewarded for their personal academic and behavior progress. Students are rewarded with tickets throughout the quarter. Students enter drawings by the number of tickets deposited in a container. During the end-of-quarter the school celebrates with an assembly and draws student names who win prizes. This give students with more tickets/positive behavior to win a prize. A Resource Room student won a $100 gift card and was so excited! Shortly, thereafter, he had a descriptive writing assignment and chose to write about how his positive behavior was rewarded.
D: Final Strategy/Reflection: I do not believe an "Effort and Achievement Rubric" would work in my class, but I will give it a try. I have learned in this lesson to privately ask students to reflect/identify what he/she learned from a lesson/experience. In middle/high school resource room, students yearn to look-good in front of their peers (sometimes for negative reasons).
Verbally praising students for valid reasons during class is beneficial because it helps to build student self-confidence.
This lesson reiterates the strategy that rewards are most effective when contingent on the attainment of particular rewards/praises when given for accomplishing specific performance goals.
I agree with Heidi that when praise is given too much or too generalized, it looses its effectiveness.
C. Practice: As a substitute teacher, I try to keep to whatever program a teacher has implemented for the classroom. Providing students with examples of others who have made great strides because of effort is a great start, but I would also emphasize the strategy of students using a rubric to self-evaluate their effort and achievement on a particular assignment. I could see using this strategy on their assignment log. Students would be able to directly connect their effort to their achievement. If I were using this strategy in a high school French class, I would have the students evaluate their effort and achievement during an entire unit of study. To build some vocabulary, the rubric scale could be written in French and as a class we could discuss what each number indicated. Students would create a log of assignments completed in the unit and give themselves the appropriate scores for effort and achievement. This strategy would build an intrinsic connection for the students. Hopefully, students would make the connection that effort produces results. It would be interesting to see what the results would be if I taught two sections of the same level of French and used this strategy with one group and not the other.
D. Final Strategy Reflection: Everyone wants to be recognized for doing well and making an effort. This chapter helped me analyze how I respond to students. Even the most well behaved kids seem to be on edge when I substitute arrives. I would like to recognize students more throughout the day who are exhibiting behavior expectations. I have tried to recognize students in my sub notes to the teacher, but I should make more of an effort to verbally tell the students that I appreciate what they are doing and why. I would like to employ the Pause, Prompt and Praise technique with those students who are at a point of frustration with their work. It is easy to target the students who are off task, but if they see other students respond to positive feedback, perhaps they too will strive to do better. This strategy may be the key to success for students who make the connection of making an effort and reaching goals as well as being motivated to do their best throughout life.
Jennie Greenstein:
C. Practice:
I don’t think the use of rubrics would be age appropriate for 1st graders. However, this does make me think of behavior plans that I currently have active in my classroom today with a specific student. She sees where she’s headed through out the day so it helps her to stop and be reflective of her behavior. Sort of like a rubric. I do believe in having students self-reflect on their behavior. During their literacy block they put their thumb over their hearts and rate how well they did during a given activity. Thumbs up, sideways, or thumbs down depending on how they did. I’m also all for self-reflection assignments. I recently gave students a sheet to fill out at the end of the week. On the sheet I asked students to rate how their behavior was, what they enjoyed learning about, what they struggled with, what they felt good about doing, and how I could have better assisted them. It was really interesting to read their responses!
D. Final Strategy Reflection:
Just this year my school started the implementation of PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention System). Similar to what one of you posted on the blog. This has “Star cards” given out to students who are exemplifying Safe, Totally Responsible, Always Kind, and Respective behaviors. I think it’s very helpful for students to see the concrete example of their positive behavior when they receive a star card. When they see others around them earning them I think they are motivated to try harder too.
I love to praise my students. That’s just part of my personality and the environment I create in my classroom. When I took a Love & Logic conference with Jim Fay one things I learned that really sticks out in my mind is to comment/praise the behavior, and not something personal with the child. I try very hard to do that. I also try not to say generic comments such as, “good job.”
I think it is constantly a struggle to create that intrinsic motivation in students. That is something that I strive to do better at. I don’t feel that praise reduces the effect on intrinsic motivation. There is a fine line to balance between too much praise. We don’t want students to become dependent on it either.
Growing up I definitely reacted to some kind of motivation to get through my work. I did not have much intrinsic motivation in me. I did well with concrete and clear rewards as well as stages along the way of what I needed to do. This wasn’t just academic but also carried over at home with chores etc. too.
I would love to hear any ideas people have on creating intrinsic motivation!
C. Like many of you, our school uses the Positive Behavior Incentive System. We give "pawsomes" to students who show responsibility, respect and safety. Although I have very mixed feelings about rewarding children with prizes, I do think it's important to validate students. I know students like to be rewarded extrinsically but I think a healthy balance between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards are important. I think the stronger the relationship you have with your students the easier it is to give them personal praise, because you know what their goals are. It is also crucial to keep praise directed towards effort versus just reaching the correct answer.
I often use the "pause, prompt, and praise" with students, especially during math. We begin our work as a whole class and I will continue whole class often or allow students to work independently or with a partner. As I see needed, I will pause the whole class or the group and/or student I am working with, give them a small prompt and then reinforce their ability to work towards the answer.
In trying to keep things simple my students and I use the universal thumbs up or thumbs down to communicate the understanding of a concept or just validating that they did a great job!
D.
After reading through this chapter I was reflecting on the difference between rewarding our students to put full effort towards their work, and putting pressure on students to perform in a cookie cutter way. Not all students operate the same; some rely on rewards while others could care less. I think the most important message is to build a strong enough relationship with each individual student so you are able to identify what he or she need in terms of validation and reassurance to make them the most successful version of themselves.
C. I recently used the strategy described in 'teaching about effort.' After we got back from Winter break, the kids seemed to have lost their motivation. When I need to be motivated, I often look for inspiration and so I found some very inspirational stories to share with the kids. I showed two videos in class. The first video is about an acquaintance of mine named George Velasquez. George is a ballroom dancer, he was the victim of a hit and run, he dances on one leg (his website is www.dancingoutofthedark.com if you are interested). Needless to say, the kids were glued to the screen and had lots of questions about George. The next day, I showed a second video about Rick & Dick Hoyt. Do you know the story? Rick and Dick have been on the news before and they travel the world sharing their story. Dick and his son Rick (who has cerebral-palsy and is non-verbal) compete in marathons and 'iron man' races all over the world. Dick pushes/pulls Rick in a wheelchair, on his bike, in a raft etc… (their website is www.teamhoyt.com) After we'd watched both videos, the kids shared their thoughts and feelings, some of them showed a renewed motivation and passion for school. We even came up with a new class motto: * Be kind * Work hard * No excuses. Cards were made for the students and I still see many students with the cards in their binders decorated as a friendly reminder to stay motivated and keep pushing even when things get tough.
Concerning rubrics, I have conflicting feelings about them. When I have created simple rubrics, the kids and myself have found them very useful. This year I felt compelled to try a more complex rubric because of the SIOP training I attended. It backfired completely, not only was it too complicated for the kids, the grading process for me was slowed down by at least five times!
D. What I loved about this Chapter was the confirmation that handing out 'treats' not only isn't good for the kids' health but does not help to motivate students academically. The idea that tokens should be attached to achievement with a verbal or written recognition makes so much sense. I feel great about the time I spent on getting the kids inspired but need to work on recognizing improvement and effort more. I don't think I never do it, but I definitely need to do it more. In my French class, I printed off some fake Euros with the kids pictures on them, last week I started passing them out to kids who were making an effort to speak French instead of English. They are getting into it. I am not sure how they'll get to use them yet, I am open to ideas. I am thinking they could 'buy' some little things the last week of school, I'll probably hit the dollar store. I would really like to figure out a way to do the same type of recognition in Science class. I have passed out stickers before, but rarely. In French class the achievement is straightforward, speaking in French = euros. In Science… I am not really sure what to attach 'tokens/stickers' to.
Hi Everyone!
Using books and literature is an excellent way to introduce and reinforce concepts with students.
I agree, as many of you have said, that you need to focus on the behavior and not the child when recognizing or rewarding students. Also, it has been a struggle for me, personally, to find a balance with the rewards of PBIS. Students do enjoy the prizes and being recognized, but our school leaned more toward a class recognition and attainable individual recognitions that everyone could be encouraged and cheered on for.
Michaela, thanks for sharing the links and information about George, Rick and Dick. I can see why it was so powerful and motivational for your students.
I agree that rubrics do not always work in every situation, and can become too cumbersome. I think the simpler the better. One idea is to have student s help you create the rubric so they have some buy-in.
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