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 D to the blog (especially since it's summer term and many of us aren't working with students). We’re also trying to make the blog more user-friendly and easier to read. 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?
21 comments:
After reading this chapter, I have a much better appreciation of the importance of providing effective recognition and reinforcing effort.
In first grade I teach several content based thematic units. I envision using both formal and informal, simplified effort rubrics with students as an end of the unit self-reflection. This would be very beneficial for even our youngest students, so that they may begin to see the connection between effort and achievement.
In the past, I mostly used “teachable moments” to emphasize the importance of effort. It really makes perfect sense to include periodic mini lessons throughout the school year incorporating shared read alouds and personal examples to illustrate the power of effort.
I realize that even after 16 years of teaching, I really need to provide much more “effective” recognition. What stood out to me was the study that found first grade teachers praised only about 11% of students’ correct responses. Even though these results were derived from only one study, it really made me think about how systematically I recognize my own students.
I’ve always believed that praise is more effective than tangible rewards, but it is reaffirming to read the research that supports this. It is also good to hear that rewards do not necessarily have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation, especially when they are contingent on specific performance goals. I know I will from now on pay special attention to how, when, and for what reason I provide rewards and praise to my students.
(add to above post)
Theresa Muller
Assignment #4
Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
While I use our PBIS strategies daily, and remind students of the school expectations, I haven’t focused directly on effort. I do touch on effort but have taken it too much for granted they know it or would pick up on it indirectly. This chapter brought it back to me that students (most especially MY students), often need very direct connections, especially at the outset. I too am going to read aloud stories about effort paying off for individuals. Also, I can specifically point out where a character in a book tries really hard to accomplish something. For a chapter read aloud, I am thinking of Bud, Not Buddy when he keeps looking for his grandfather, would be a great book. I also want to develop some rubrics around effort. Specifically I can see doing this with Read Naturally. An effort rubric around RN might include sections for reading with a parent every night (homework completion), meeting/exceeding personal fluency goals for a passage or doing an extra activity related to the passage, such as looking an animal up on the internet, finding more facts about it, etc. Going over the rubric and the results will help me to introduce the process of self-reflection more with my students, a direction I have been wanting to move in. This chapter also reinforced (haha!) something I think I do a lot of, but have not given a lot of thought to – verbal recognition. I recall a professor suggesting we put 10 beans in our pockets and remove one every time we give a positive comment. This serves to also remind you that you should make 10 positive comments to every negative one. I can definitely improve in that area! With the number of students with autism I have had over the past 5 or so years, my focus has moved to more token recognition (with a penny or sticker chart). The students are given pennies for task completion and I need to re-think this, adding in “specific performance goals” (pg.57) to make the process more intrinsic. Most often they get computer time when they earn 10 pennies. I am going to take it a step further and have them earn a printed coupon for “10 minutes of computer time” with their 10 pennies, encouraging them to save up coupons for more consecutive time. I love the “personal best” honor roll idea. I always feel odd that my students, on a very modified program, get grades and can be on the honor roll. An A in my room is just not equivalent to an A in mainstream classrooms, now more than ever. That must sound strange for me to say but I think the personal best idea is much, much better, especially for my students. It is grounded in reality and I can’t wait to give it a try. I will be sharing this with the resource teachers at my school, to see if they would like to do something with it school-wide.
Robin Rose
Assignment #4
Marzano Class
Erinn Carrillo
Assignment # 4
Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
This chapter really made me think about how I reinforce effort and provide recognition for my students and for my own children. I had to stop and think about what I am doing well and what would be beneficial for the children to make progress in their learning.
As an adult who sees the connection between success and effort, it can be difficult when a child does not take this to heart. It is something that I feel I could better explain to my students and my own children. I know that by explaining the struggles one has had to make a gain in learning is not simple. Kids need to hear stories and examples to help them to know that their level of effort correlates with their level of achievement. I think this would be a really great way for the staff at my school to get kids to see the correlation of effort and achievement. I want for each staff member to share a personal story about effort and struggle to share with students. I want to have a school-wide plan to share these things with students. I would also like to see a way to let kids share their struggles and successes.
I also have a child who really struggles with reading and his achievement is less than I would hope or expect. I want to provide him with some specific examples and ways to see how his effort level can improve his achievement. I want him to improve his reading skills with intrinsic motivation.
@Robin I to, want to develop a simplified effort rubric for my short ELL groups and possibly another rubric for kids to rate their effort during class or with homework assignments. They can ask themselves the following questions: Did I work hard, listen, ask clarifying questions, etc. I also like the idea of a way to be sure to recognize children with positive comments.
Recognition: Verbal recognition is more effective than tangible rewards. I need to be more systematic and specific about my praise of students. Using very specific comments to children: I really like how you solved that problem by drawing the picture.
A personal best approach is a great way to look at achievement. I want students to ask themselves questions and be meta-cognitive about their learning. What did I learn? How did my DRA scores improve over time? Did I beat my record in multiplication tables? Did I meet a standard for science?
I am going to remember: 10 positive comments to 1 negative comment. This is a mantra I need to remember in teaching and in parenting!
Assignment 4: Effort & Recognition – Paula Stepankowsky
This chapter was interesting to read because there are so many opinions – and conflicting information – on the topics of effort and recognition, something the authors themselves acknowledge.
Just like others who have posted, after reading the chapter and seeing the supporting research, I have a better idea of how to refine my own efforts to motivate and recognize my students. I am relieved to know I haven’t been doing anything the authors would consider “wrong,” but I do need to be more systematic to be more effective and improve student results.
On the effort front, I try to promote effort every day, often through the Quote of the Day, a motivational quote with which I begin each class. But I really like the suggestion of adding a rubric to some of the things I am doing in language arts. This is self-assessment they can write in their English notebooks and also on a 3x5 card, perhaps as an exit slip. This is something I will definitely teach and use in the fall.
Recognition is certainly a hot topic inside and outside the classroom, but the takeaway message from this chapter about providing recognition is that to be most effective, it must be linked to achievement of a clearly outlined goal.
As usual, the authors offer concrete examples of how to use this in the classroom. I particularly like the guidance to make recognition as personal to the student as possible. Because I teach Language Arts, writing essays is a frequent task for the students. I try to write individual notes based on each students’ performance on each essay, so I have the opportunity to recognize both orally and in writing when a student is working hard. I also like the “Personal Best” idea for students. At our school at graduation, we honor students who have shown the most improved performance, but there is no reason I couldn’t do that in each class for each year or even in each trimester.
The pause/prompt/praise strategy is one I can incorporate when I am having a “writing day” in class, in which all the students are working on essays and I circulate offering individual help. One of the concrete recognition strategies I use is something I call “Book Bites.” At the beginning of the year, students are given a sheet upon which to record the books they read on their own. When they finish a book and do a bit of analysis on their sheet, I spell out the name of the book on alphabet cookies. But after reading this chapter, I see that I could use short quizzes to reinforce grammar and also offer little prizes. Middle School students aren’t too old to like that sort of thing.
I will be starting my third year of teaching, and it is amazing how much there is to learn about every aspect of teaching.
Assignment #4: Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
Marika Conrad
I really looked forward to reading this chapter because it speaks to the importance of relationships in the classroom. When students respect you and know you care about them, only then do reinforcing effort and providing recognition show their true power. Students need to know you care before you can expect them to learn. I agree that not all students realize how important effort can be to success in the classroom. It’s a mantra I try to help my students understand by sharing with them that only things that really matter to me are that they try their best and that we work as a team.
It was assuring to me to know that tangible rewards can motivate students too, as our 5th grade team uses quarters and a checkbook system with our students as just one of our motivational tools. Sometimes I give out quarters for behavior or actions that promote success and sometimes I just reward with praise. I try to be consistent with reinforcing effort providing recognition, but I mix it up between praise, quarters, and our school High Fives (part of our school PBS program). Many years ago, I remember being told to be careful about giving praise too much, especially with generic and vague statements. Some ways I can improve how I reinforce behavior is to make sure every statement I give out is specific and targeted to support students. Instead of “great job,” I can say, “Great effort trying every problem and showing your work.” The more specific we are in our praise, the more authentic and meaningful our praise is at supporting students in choosing that same behavior or action in the future. I really try and take the time to do this when I write comments on graded papers instead of just writing, “Great!”
Another way I can improve how I reinforce effort in the classroom is to use the effort and achievement rubrics for projects and longer daily assignments, especially math problem-solving. I think it would be valuable for students to see the link between their effort and achievement on tasks. I think I could also do a better job of sharing stories of people who have overcome obstacles to succeed. I know just sharing stories about the authors I heard speak at the Authors! Authors! Authors! class this year were motivating to my students (being rejected by publishers 36 times, editing the same story 23 times) all to pursue a career as a writer. I think it’s motivating for students to hear that you can have a rough childhood and not have a lot of money; but that if you work hard, you can be successful and achieve your dreams.
I know my students in Read Naturally this year had personalized goals to achieve and that they got rewarded for meeting those student specific goals. There is no reason I can’t do that with the students I progress monitor in my classroom this year. I can also make custom goals for students based on other assessments, such as the DAZE, QRIs, math facts, and unit assessments in math (as we pretest and post assess each unit). For the OAKS assessment, I wrote each student’s name and SSID # on a note card so that the students had their codes for testing. Under a sticky note on the same card, I wrote each student’s target scores (provided by the state) and recorded the scores students received on the tests when they finished them. That way, when it came time for the 2nd round of testing, students could see if they’d met their target scores or not. I noticed that having this information in front of students motivated them to slow down and do their best. I felt that my students had put a better effort into the assessments as a result of having a score to shoot for!
The most important points I took away from this chapter were to keep recognition specific, student-based, and that verbal recognition can go a long way!
Thanks all (Theresa, Robin, Erinn, Paula, and Marika) for sharing your comments about reinforcing effort and providing feedback. It’s was especially interesting due to the fact that you all work in varied grade levels and with different groups of children, yet each of you were able to find specific strategies to help you fine tune your reinforcing and feedback to for your students. There has always seemed to be conflicting research on what the appropriate amount is, so I also found this to be a truly supportive and practice chapter.
Ashley Madison
Assignment # 4
Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
This is a really funny one for me because in the last couple of years, my school has shifted to standards based grades, with the only recognition for effort (on report cards) existing in the comments. Grades go home every three weeks, but teachers are only required to make comments on the final nine-week grades. It is tricky because students often feel failure based on the letters that appear on their progress reports. Yes, there are other ways to recognize effort, but the culture that surrounds letter grades makes the progress report grades a big deal. It puts a lot of emphasis on ability, so those kids who put forth their best effort and always go home with C’s get a little frustrated.
The other thing my school has adapted is PBIS (Positive Behavior and Intervention Support). At the heart of this program is specific praise, so I’ve got this down. It is great and really works. I am sure that the creators of PBIS used some of the research mentioned in this chapter. Awards for abiding by our school-wide expectations range from tickets to iPods. It is a really effective tool for management and classroom culture, but what is doesn’t always do is send a message home to parents. We have all kinds of acknowledgement for achievement on state tests, too. These recognitions happen in the classroom as well as across the school. In my classroom, maybe I can create writing-specific tokens for specific skills. What would be ideal would be to find an effective way to better communicate with parents a student’s successes in his or her effort.
“Success comes from effort!” This is on a homemade poster in my class, and I sincerely believe it. I made that poster with my TAG students in mind. Many of them expect school to be easy and do not feel they should have to put much effort into their work. But just being smart isn’t enough. I like the idea of teaching explicitly about effort through storytelling- an idea I will definitely use. I also like the effort/ achievement rubrics. So often, when I am grading students on effort on our report cards, I am making my best guess, but I’m not completely sure. They might disagree with the effort grades I give them. The effort/achievement rubric will help the students see the connection for themselves. Very powerful.
It was interesting to read the research on providing recognition. The table comparing effective praise to ineffective praise would be one to clip and hang in my desk area- an easy way to keep myself on track
In my school, we use PBS for behavior, so students do receive tangible rewards for their positive behavior. While it is nice to recognize them for doing the right thing, it does take on an air of bribery sometimes. Should students be rewarded for just doing what they should be doing anyway- being decent citizens? As far as giving recognition in the classroom related to schoolwork, I do consistently recognize students for their achievements. I don’t think I give them mindless praise for easy tasks, but I will be more aware of the following things:
- be sure recognition is given contingently,
- be sure all students get recognition when deserved.
Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition: Chapter 4
I thought my students intuitively knew that more effort contributed to more success, but I am finding this is not true. As with many skills, I realize I need to explicitly teach this correlation. I enjoyed reading everyone’s comments and I realize I sometimes give verbal praise that is too general. I will use more targeted praise and remember to give at least 5 positives to 1 redirect. (There have been many days when this wasn’t the case) I will eventually try the 10/1 positive to negative, but that will take some practice. As a school, we do recognize and reward students who achieve specified reading and math goals, so that is good, but it is difficult for my children with special needs to reach these goals. I will recognize and reward everyone based on their “personal goals.” I thought the rubrics to measure effort would be too difficult for 3rd graders, but after reading other responses, I realize of course I could develop one to fit this age group. I could make a simple graph to measure improvement on math facts and tie in the effort piece. I will also read stories about people who worked hard to achieve their goals, and begin discussions about this. I would like to have a weekly “Effort” award, but I am not sure how to make this a specific goal.
I now understand that tangible rewards are not bad and don’t necessarily have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation, but it must be contingent upon a specific performance goal. Praise, when given for a specified goal is very effective and easy, so I will remember to use this as much as possible. I learned that abstract/symbolic recognition is more effective than tangible, so I will keep this in the forefront of my mind. (I gave too many rewards for expected behavior) which was counterproductive.
In the future, I will be very thoughtful about how and why I provide recognition and rewards and spend more time teaching my students how important effort is for success.
I think I have a better appreciation for the use of the practices of “reinforcing effort” and “providing recognition” in my teaching practice.
I found it eye-opening on the research that there are many students are unable or don’t recognize the relationship of effort on a task and the effect it has on success of that specific task. I think I have always taken for granted that this was just commonly understood at many different levels and at many different age groups. I really liked the example they gave of the high school general math class and using the Winter Olympics as an event for them to come to an understanding of how sustained effort led to the accomplishments of these athletes.
I think I would like to do something similar to try and engrain in my students the idea of putting in the effort and how much that can play a role in their success not just academically but in anything they try to pursue in life. This is a philosophical ideal I hope my students come away with.
As far as how I would change how I reinforce my students’ effort in my classroom, I would try and have them to identify an example of a person of their choosing that they felt went through adversity but through sustained effort was able to accomplish remarkable things. I believe I would also have them discuss the person they chose and share in small groups and discuss why they chose the person they did.
I think the greatest revelation I had in how I better understand “reinforcing effort” is being very cognizant of how you use the practices discussed in reinforcing effort. After reading this I see the value and importance of instilling intrinsic motivation for my students. For me, I believe this as crucial in setting up success in my classroom. However, with the research and data that was presented, it seems like the line between increasing versus decreasing motivation in my students can be crossed very quickly. I have seen many teachers and even me on occasion use bribes to get students to perform certain tasks or have used praise for accomplishing things which did not require much effort. I would be more apprehensive now in utilizing practices like these and resort more to techniques like using verbal praise.
As far as changing how I would provide recognition in my classroom, I found the section on “Concrete Symbols of Recognition” and the example of Darryl fascinating. This example was very similar to one I faced with a student of mine this spring. She was a senior who was highly intelligent and driven. However she had a very bad case of senioritis and I noticed a significant change in her attitude during the spring term. She was just done with school. My dealings with her became difficult in a number of ways from missing class, participation in class, doing assignments, and disrespectful behavior. She was a specific example but I had a number of seniors that were displaying these types of behaviors as well. I would say that I had some success in trying to address these issues but the underlying intrinsic motivation for this individual was not what it was compared to the beginning of the year. If I had to do this over again, I think I would attempt to use the techniques discussed in “Concrete Symbols of Recognition.” Perhaps it would have provided some levity to the situation for me and the students. I am hoping that I would be able implement this practice next year in trying to address and similar situations I might encounter.
David H Lee
Assignment Four: Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
Thanks Ashley, Amy, Marti, and David for adding your thoughts on reinforcing effort and providing recognition. Your comments were all very interesting to read and reflect on. Several of you mentioned the PBIS training. My school is piloting this program next year, I’m hoping that it is successful; I’ve heard some positive comments from different schools and districts which are using it. As with everything (and I’m sure many of you feel the same), I just hope that this is something that the district continues to invest in and support, not something that is going to go by the wayside within 3 years.
I loved this chapter because I have always been passionate about reinforcing effort and providing recognition so that students can excel and want to try. I remember needing this direction as a student and needing to know that my teacher cared and wanted to take the time. My sixth grade teacher is the first teacher who recognized my effort as a student and truly helped me realize that through my efforts I could achieve my goals. I remember she was the teacher that gave me the inspiration and desire to teach. Like Marika said, it is important that the student respects the teacher and knows that the teacher cares about them so they can learn. Sadly, I have gone through some negative experiences as a student with teachers who I felt didn’t care and provide positive recognition and I also have some experiences as a student teacher witnessing a teacher who did not use these skills in her classroom. I am able to look back now and appreciate my negative and positive experiences because they have truly helped me become the teacher I am today.
Like Erinn said these tools of reinforcing effort and providing recognition can also be used at home with our children. If we start at home teaching them the importance of effort then they will understand how important it is when they are in school. I also tend to bribe my kids at times and this chapter helped me recognize where I need to improve as far as giving them recognition so they are motivated and able to attain their goals. I also have learned as a parent that I have to be careful how I word things and not to compare. Comparing your children can be very damaging.
I really loved the strategy, “Pause, Prompt, and Praise.” As a parent I could use this with my children who get frustrated easily. I also love this because when I am subbing, I feel like I spend a lot of time helping students with projects and work they are in the middle of and instead of just doing it for them or telling them how this guides them through their frustration and encourages them to keep trying on their own.
Sara Malvar
Assignment #4
Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
I have to admit, I was looking forward to this chapter because I hope each year to build the intrinsic motivation in each of my students. Our school has been participating in the PBiS program for a number of years and I have been struggling with some of the behaviorist strategies we are asked to use. Especially the ones where students get a tangible reward for behaviors that are expected. Students should be able to do the right thing without the expectation of a tangible reward.
The focus on the reinforcement based on effort made lots of sense to me. I probably need to look closer at what I am reinforcing and make a stronger effort to notice the effort levels of my students. I am definitely going to use the ideas of personal stories, other people’s success stories based on effort and desire, and having students recognize and share their stories about when they have achieved something difficult based on their effort. I had never really considered that many are unaware of the positive correlation between the two. Once I have kids noticing examples of effort leading to achievement, it will be much easier to instill upon them that they are capable of the same success. I liked the idea of the use of a simple rubric to help them decide on their individual effort level. I will also try using some sort of effort log to help show the students that their effort level will determine their growth. The first area I plan on using this strategy is in their reading fluency. I am considering a focus on fluency because it is easily measured and will provide timely feedback so they can see how some extra time and practice can really pay off. If this is successful, I will expand the strategy to other disciplines.
This chapter was quite informative about providing appropriate recognition and I believe I have a much more specific idea on what is appropriate. I found myself saying, “I do that,” in many instances. I tend to really personalize my feedback to the strengths of my students so they do not feel the canned “good job” response. I am specific about what I liked as well as what they could improve on. I spend a great deal of time on individual goal setting and posting these goals. When students achieve their goals, we make sure they are recognized and then we set new ones. Should students not achieve their goals, we discuss why and they frequently decide, on their own, that it was an effort issue and discuss how that could be rectified. My favorite caveat of this chapter is the “Personal Best” honor roll. Because students are all different ability levels, I downplay the competition between in students and play-up the growth of individuals. I think I need to provide more formal recognition for these accomplishments.
Assignment #4 (8/9/11) – Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
I will continue to teach the connection between effort and achievement. I might also show them videos of Itzhak Perlman, the violinist who had polio as a child, or Evelyn Glennie, the percussionist who lost her hearing at the age of 12. My two schools use PBIS, which I have loved for primary students but struggle with in intermediate. I have wondered about the idea of earning free music game time with those hard-to-motivate intermediate classes, but I always felt that getting rewarded for just doing their jobs felt cheap, and I believe as a student, I would feel cheap, too. Maybe you guys can weigh in on this? Other music teachers have told me it works very well. For every trimester, K-6 students are given an effort grade with four choices, each with a description. I take a quick ten minutes to have students grade themselves on three safety, three respect, and four responsibility questions. They tally up the answers and give themselves an effort music grade, and then we discuss which behavior to work on, usually talking during instruction. It was good to read that my rubric is supported by research! We watch informal flip-camera videos of in-class performances for instant feedback and discuss how much time we had to focus on behavior vs. working on music so they can see that effort is tied to achievement. What really flips their lid is watching another class in the same grade do the same thing better, then I explain that we didn’t have to take time for misbehavior or laziness!
I appreciate the explanation about rewarding task completion vs. rewarding a standard of performance goal. The myth that children come to school with basic attentiveness and respect for adults means that for some classes I have to adjust my expectations and reward task completion, and for other classes, I can focus on achievement. If I’m reading the book correctly, that’s ok. Frankly, that’s reality!
Since music is since a ‘group sport,’ it’s easy to let classes that are chronically unmotivated turn me sour, too. This year, when a group has a negative personality, I’m going to focus more on the quiet leaders who are doing the right thing but don’t have the courage to stand up to the negative kids. Some classes are hard to praise as a group, I guess. It’s complicated!
Amber Young, Assignment #4: Effort and Recognition
I would make a general comment about the PBIS discussion we've been having. One of my schools has used it for five years, and we've seen our referrals and trackers (mid-level discipline notices) go down, but at my other school, the data has gone down for a different reason. It has to do with that elusive variable, parent follow up. When my more successful school sends a tracker home, the parent follows through on a discussion about expectations, takes away a privilege, and returns the signed document most of the time. At my less successful school, I actually don't write trackers I should because the parent will either chew me out or go to my principal and trash me or the other students, and it's too much of a hassle (besides, the kid learns that blaming others removes responsibility). At the smaller school, the intermediate kids are very extrinsically motivated and and PBIS tickets still feel like bribes. They're still in the beginning stages of PBIS, and I wonder if they will ever see the benefits of being'good' kids. It will be interesting to see if the primary kids will respond intrinsically after another year of the program. I love the program, but we still can't control parents and their attitudes about school and effort. I love that PBIS has helped educators focus on tools to teach learning culture.
Thanks Sara, John and Amber for sharing your thoughts on reinforcement and recognition.
Sara - You're right...what the point in trying if it doesn't appear to matter, but I think more important is the fact that kids believe in themselves and that the teacher facilitates the belief that you ARE capable of reaching the goals. Very interesting to take these beliefs and hold them up to how you interact with your own family isn't it?
John - I think I may have mentioned that my school is piloting PBIS this coming year...??? I'm concerned with the exact same thing you mentioned about behaviors (that should be accomplished just because it's the right thing) being tangibly rewarded. I keep thinking I need to learn more. I think it's a great idea to develop some sort of effort log so that your students can see the direct relationship between effort and success.
Amber - I absolutely love the idea of sharing the stories of the two musicians who persevered and put in so much effort for their success. I think it's a wonderful idea to share these stories in your class. I agree with your concerns with PBIS as I mentioned to John above. What a super idea to have kids reflect on their effort by watching an informal video...and then being able to watch a successful class and understand the efforts and behaviors behind that success!
Assignment#4: Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
I found this chapter to be very informative and thought provoking. David Douglas School District adopted PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) about five years ago and I have used it as a means of recognition and behavioral support. At Gilbert Park we give students “Patriot Awards” for being safe, respectful, and responsible and these awards can win them privileges and prizes within the school. I use “Patriot Awards” frequently (as instructed) and have found them to be helpful with both academic and behavioral effort. However, after reading this chapter, I realize I would like to utilize the awards and other reinforcements somewhat differently.
I sometimes feel that I am over-acknowledging minimal academic effort and/or performance. Students in my class get Patriot Awards for focusing on their work and “work quality” (usually neatness) to keep them on-task and focused, but I haven’t tied it to a higher standard of performance or successful completion of the problems. I fear the result of neglecting this area may have had negative impact on some of the students’ intrinsic motivation, just as suggested in this chapter. I want students to take pride in their work, regardless of their academic level.
I feel a little bit stuck on the idea that “us[ing] the accomplishment of peers as the context for describing students present accomplishments,” (pg. 56) is ineffective praise, though I may be misunderstanding what this means. PBIS, and Patriot Awards specifically, are given publicly and under the pretense that recognizing students for accomplishments will make other students want similar recognition (so extrinsic!!!) If this sort of praise is ineffective (and can even have a negative effect), I will have to re-evaluate how to use Patriot Awards and the public way they are given.
One last consideration I will definitely utilize is explicitly teaching what effort is, how it can benefit the students, and provide more time and resources for self-monitoring. Though I want the students to ultimately be intrinsically motivated and strive to have this kind of atmosphere in my class, I often feel like I don’t give the students enough choices and power. Therefore, I sort of rule the roost more than I actually want to, which sometimes makes the students too reliant on praise (or Patriot Awards) as a motivator.
Assignment #4: Jennifer Flagel
#4
Reinforcing effort is something I try to do especially for my lower level students. These are the students who struggle with math and have a mind set that they cannot do it. Most often I find these attitudes and not the lower skills to contribute to students failing. New and old skills can be taught and taught again, however if a student isn’t going to try to learn because they think they can’t, there is little a teacher can do.
One big disconnect for students is that effort can lead to learning. One way I have found to help emphasize learning is by explaining how the brain works. When you learn something the brain builds pathways, and the more you use what you learn the stronger these pathways become. So the more you try and use new skills the faster your brain works.
One thing I really liked in this chapter was comparing effort and achievement. Often in my classroom the focus is achievement; the grade on the quiz, test or in the class. This tends to be the focus of many of my students. I liked the idea of tracking both effort and achievement with the rubrics provided. I thought that if students reflected on their effort, they might see how it improved their achievement.
As for the other part of this chapter, providing recognition, I don’t do much of this in my classroom. I am a strong believer that rewards can damage intrinsic learning. It was nice that the book was very specific about what type of praise worked best. It talked about how praise best when it is abstract and is given when a students has completed a learning target or standard. I did like the strategy the book talked about “pause, prompt, praise” and I feel that I do this to some extent. Overall, it seems like if you keep your praise to accomplishments you will be helping you students more then hurting them.
Thanks Jennifer and Lynn for adding your thoughts on reinforcing effort and providing recognition.
Jennifer – It’s amazing how many schools and/or districts are adopting PBIS. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this to you yet, but my school is piloting it next year. Our middle and high schools have been using it, we’ll be the first elementary. I have a lot of questions in this area as did many class participants, and I look forward to how this new training with PBIS will support what I (and you) believe to be a bit too extrinsic…???
Lynn – I absolutely love the idea of giving kids the rationale of how the brain works to provide explanation about how important their effort actually is. Best of luck this coming year as you (and your students) attempt to track effort and its impact on their achievement.
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