What motivation will I use with my upper elementary students?
To encourage my students to follow directions, I am going to use a ticket system. Each student will earn and collect tickets for following the rules and procedures. Somewhere on a wall, I will have a chart indicating how many tickets are necessary to receive certain privileges. As long as they have enough tickets, they will be able to exchange them for a privilege. The chart will contain the following information:
20 tickets – “Pick a Partner for an Activity” pass (valid all day)
45 tickets – “Lunch with the Teacher” pass
75 tickets – Homework pass (all subjects, valid for one day)
90 tickets – new toy from a a treasure box
150 tickets collectively as a class – extra 15 minutes of recess
200 tickets collectively as a class -barefoot day
250 tickets collectively as a class – watch an educational movie
Aside from the rewards, I am going to use a chart that I saw in Lee Canter’s “Classroom Management” book on page 215. I modified it to suit my incentive system for the students. It would look approximately like this:
First Disruption – Warning, doesn’t cost any tickets;
Second Disruption – Second warning, costs 3 tickets;
Third Disruption – Fill out a think sheet and conference with the teacher, costs 4 tickets;
Fourth Disruption – Call parents or send home a think sheet for parents to sign, costs 5 tickets;
Fifth Disruption – Call parents, costs 8 tickets;
Severe Clause – Send to the principal’s office and call parents, costs 8 tickets.
What motivation system will I use with lower elementary students?
For the lower elementary students, I will be using the “Traffic Light” motivation. Each student will have a clothes pin with their name written on it. Every day is going to start with the clothes pins attached to the green side of the traffic light. If a student’s pin stays on green by the end of the day, he/she will get a reward as well as earn the right to line first for dismissal. In addition to that, if a student’s clothes pin doesn’t move from green part of the “Traffic Light” for the whole week, this student will receive a “Star Student” title as well as sit in a special “Star Student” chair.
Important! Motivation for upper and lower grades may be changed, reviewed and revised at all times.