Incentives help motivate people—both adults and kids alike. At
Partnership with Children, we use A LOT of incentives to help promote positive
behavior in our students. Good
attendance is rewarded with pizza parties and notes sent home to the students’
families. Getting forms and paperwork
back in a timely manner is rewarded with small prizes and gift cards, and so
on.
This week I started our “Road to Success” program in our Bookstore
Group. Ryan is still acting out in group,
and I though rather than focusing on pointing out his poor behavior, I would
reward all the students for good behavior.
We created a bulletin board on one wall of the classroom dedicated to
the Road to Success. Each student’s name
is listed and points are awarded for good behaviors. Paying attention in group—points! Cooperating
and helping other students—more points! Points
are recorded on the Road to Success wall so students can see their progress as
well as the progress of their classmates.
It becomes a bit of a competition—who can behave better? The better a student behaves, the more points
they can earn.
After their bookstore “work shift” they’re then able to trade in
these points for cool prizes. Students
go wild over special erasers, pencil cases and bright colored notebooks. The idea is enforce positive behavior rather
than dwelling on negative behavior. The
Road to Success encourages all the students in the group to learn positive social
and behavior skills, which will hopefully reinforce the skills in Ryan. If everyone else getting points and prizes,
he certainly doesn’t want to be left out.
