Behavior Management


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.