Although your course packet asks you to post to the blog for parts A, B, C, and D…we are asking that you only post part Dto the blog as we’re 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.
• 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?
10 comments:
I believe it is really important that students see the connection between effort and academic achievement. I liked the suggestions in the book of sharing a personal experience about a time when your effort paid off, or teaching about a person who pursued their dream with lots of effort and dedication. I would like to make sure I make the link between effort and academic achievement very apparent to my students by taking the time to talk about it. I also really liked the different Effort and Achievement Rubrics. I was thinking that in the spring when my school does student led conferences I could teach students how to evaluate their effort and achievement on a rubric and then have them complete several of these at the conference with their parents.
Before reading this chapter I didn’t know that verbal recognition is more effective than tangible rewards. I was trying to figure out why this is since often kids are so excited by a simple sticker or penny candy. I guess it goes back to students being less intrinsically motivated if they are given something tangible instead of praise. I also learned that if a student is given an award it should be given after they attain a certain performance standard instead of for just completing an assignment. This is so students will be motivated to do well instead of simply trying to get something done.
I give a lot of verbal recognition in my classroom and always try to make it as individualized as possible. I think giving praise to students strengthens the bond between teacher and student and it also further motivates students. I rarely give tangible rewards to students, but when I do, I want to make sure that I link it to their performance on something instead of for simply completing a task. Recognizing effort and giving recognition is important for the culture of the classroom and to provide joy in learning.
Week 4 Randy Ball
This is a task, a task of showing praise and making my students feel good about the effort they put in and to make that effort a strong one. I have been thinking of this for a long time; how can I turn around the kids that are failing or showing lackadaisical effort in my class. This concept of how to pries and get good strong efforts in their studies has been a work in progress. I am working with a couple students and got them back involved by positive reinforcement and pries. One of the students came up a C from an F, by positively talking about their work and the fact they come to class even on time. On the other hand I had use time replacement on some others which is not a positive, thus far has turned disruption and talking without production to strong work in class.
Hi Molly,
Thanks for your thoughtful response. Yes, you touched on several important points from this section.
I think your idea of having students complete the rubrics for conferences is a good one.
Randy, so much of teaching is an art that requires balance and a variety of approaches. What works for one student or class may not work for another and things that worked one year, may be completely opposite the next. Your goal and effort of turning students attitudes around and improving their grades is above all else one of the most important factors in the success of your students. Keep up the good work! It's hard, but so important! :D
Teaching at a Title school has so many benefits and rewards in meeting the needs of the unique students that I teach, but these rewards do not come without challenges. It is not secret why I love teaching second grade, they have been in school long enough to have some solid skills, but they have not yet developed a sour attitude. This chapter reminded me that I have students at a critical crux and I need to be sure that I am conveying to my students the message that hard work pays off.
Coming from a rough background myself, I have emulated by whole life that if you work hard enough, nothing can keep you down. Even when things don’t go your way, you have to dust yourself off, get up and go again. I took from this chapter that I should share my own stories with my students and hopefully this will help motivate them to always work to their potential in all that they do.
I loved the examples given in the chapter about using graphs to show how effort given usually matches results. I struggle with how to use this in my own teaching practice because primary students do not earn percentages or grades on daily tasks.
The information in the chapter on intrinsic motivation was good for me to explore. Given the age that I teach I think it is really important that I work to instill this type of feeling in my students because there may be less chance for them to develop this feeling as they continue to mature in their educational experience. I often have discussions with fellow teachers about rewarding students for their effort. I like to compare it to bonuses in the different jobs. If you work hard, you will be rewarded even as an adult.
This week I tried the practice of pause, prompt, praise. After reading the practice description, I decided that this was a great, simple way to help students who are shutting down during different tasks. I have one student in particular that has some struggles during math. He is capable of the work if he applies himself, but I think the biggest block for him is that sometimes the whole page of problems seems overwhelming. He also happens to be a sensitive little guy, so when he doesn’t perform up to expectations, he gets easily discouraged. I have tried many times to use praise to help bolster his attitude during this time, but telling him that he is capable and bright has not produced my desired results. This week when he would shut down I asked him to stop working, we discussed why he was frustrated (his response was always that he couldn’t’ do it), and then I suggested that he attack the problems that seemed easiest to start, then finish as many of the rest as he could before math time was over. I made sure to get back to him and praise him on the very specific results of his work. By the end of the week, he was implementing this new strategy on his own. Pause, Prompt, Praise worked well for me in this situation.
This chapter made me feel more at peace with my decision to support this practice by showing the results of intrinsic motivation only being negatively effected when students are rewarded for effort during free choice activities. It also showed me that I need to be very careful that if offering any type of praise or reward, it is given correctly, carefully and tied to successful completion of a well-done task.
Absolutely share your personal stories with your students. Giving them a concrete, tangible example provides them with a role model and gives your credibility when you say that you know how they feel or what they are going through.
Thanks for sharing your example about the little boy. It was wonderful to read.
This chapter reinforced in my mind the value of teaching effort along with achievement. It challenged me to look at the why behind what I say and do to reinforce behavior and academic achievement in the classroom. I need to make sure that rewards are based on accomplishing a standard of performance and not just based on a random feeling or completion of a task.
I need to make a more conscious effort to explain to the children why their effort matters. I do a lot to teach character in the classroom and read lots of books that teach value lessons (never giving up, doing your best, etc.). We also examine the lives of people in history like Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, and Abraham Lincoln and see how they overcame different struggles. My students know that they should do their best, but I’m not sure they always connect it to themselves. They are often more motivated to get a job done than taking their time to produce quality work. I think I need to teach this more explicitly throughout the year, help them connect it to themselves, share more about how my efforts have paid off, and provide them with consistent recognition and feedback.
Another thing I could do would be to incorporate more reflections that involve both effort and achievement. By December when most children are writing, I could set up a rubric in Kindergarten language where the children could rate themselves. I could also create some kind of poster that would show the differences in quality of work as a visual. For example, when drawing a picture I could show the progression from a simple pencil sketch to an elaborate, colorful picture. I could make another poster that shows a similar progression with writing or handwriting. At the beginning of the year and throughout the year I could refer to this and check in with the children to see how much effort they are putting into various assignments.
Raquel,
Your idea for the visual posters in the room to have up for you and the students to refer to is a great idea. I think for 5 and 6 year olds seeing concrete examples helps them to internalize the concepts.
How might I change how I reinforce students’ effort in my classroom?
In regards to reinforcing students’ efforts in my classroom, I think the most valuable thing I can do is to help students see the link between their achievement and the effort they put forth. Sometimes when students perform well on a specific task or assessment, I will recognize their success and ask let them know that I noticed how hard they worked to achieve such results. Sometimes I ask students if they know why they were so successful; their answers usually don’t relate to their efforts. I hope to help more students see effort as a crucial part of their learning and successes. I have also been thinking a lot recently about being more explicit in sharing students’ achievements with them in the form of charts or graphs. I use these as tools for my own records, but I rarely use these visual representations of achievement in my conversations with students. I think it may be a powerful way to focus on effort while also providing recognition in a way that they might better be able to see (non-linguistic representations!!)
What is something you now understand better about reinforcing effort or providing recognition?
I was pleased to read that “rewards do not necessarily have a negative impact on intrinsic motivation” because I’ve always felt that this type of motivation has its place in the classroom. It seems that this is a pretty controversial issue though, and you never know when you’ll be met with opposition. As parents, we’ve always told our kids that being students is their job. Just like I will work harder knowing that I will get a paycheck, we’ve found that rewards are often an incentive for our kids to work hard. Would I go to work if I didn’t receive a paycheck? Probably not! That being said, we reward our kids extrinsically for very specific, standards-based achievements only…never just for completing a task.
How might you change how you provide recognition in your classroom?
After reading the text, I am reminded about the importance of providing recognition that is specific and relative to a standard. It’s easy to recognize students on more of a superficial level, but real meaningful recognition must go deeper. Moving forward, I’d like to work with my students, individually, to set some goals relevant to their individual needs, and use the progress towards meeting those goals as the basis for providing recognition. I’ll likely continue with some of the other manners in which I recognize students (sticker charts, the occasional Jolly Rancher, etc), but I’ll be sure to attach more meaning and specificity to those extrinsic rewards.
• How might I change how I reinforce students’ effort in my classroom?
I think it is obvious to most teachers that recognizing students’ effort is important. But, how a teacher goes about recognizing student effort can pose a challenge. Currently in my classroom I’m working on some strategies to get students to recognize their own effort and how that translates to their success. In particular, I use the Accelerated Math program to fulfill the practice portion of my math curriculum. I want students to take ownership of tracking how many practice problems they get done in class and at home so they can then see how much quicker they can master objectives if they increase this number. Currently I’m having them track the number of problems done in class, then how many problems they do at home, and we are compiling that data. Next, I want them to see if they can increase this number of problems completed, but still maintain accuracy. In turn, they should notice that the number of objectives they master per week should increase.
• What is something you now understand better about reinforcing effort or providing recognition?
What I better understand now, after exploring chapter 4 of Classroom Instruction that Works by Marzano, is that recognition and the reinforcement of effort should not be arbitrary. This, in fact, can lead to negative results if students do not understand what they are being recognized for or what is being reinforced. As stated in chapter 4, effective praise should be timely, it should specify the reasons for accomplishment, and focuses on the specific criteria reached, and it should motivate students to be aware of their own “task-related” effort – among other guidelines.
• How might you change how you provide recognition in your classroom?
I am very interested and developing ways to reinforce student effort, but more importantly, I want students to take ownership over reinforcing their effort – I think this will have the greatest impact. So, I plan to really focus on student effort this spring and work on some strategies that will target recognition of student effort; and develop easy to use, and effect systems for students to be able to recognize their own efforts that will lead to further success.
Young students do have a hard time seeing the relationship between their effort and achievement. I think your students will really like seeing the charts of their performance!
Allowing students to take ownership of tracking their effort is exactly the direction we want to be heading. You mentioned this, but I think it is worth repeating, the system that we create needs to be easy to use. Complex, elaborate charts and graphs or systems are rarely maintained.
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