I was at the London Festival of Education in November and realised that I am too negative in my lessons - sanctioning but never rewarding. My question is about rewards. My assessor has given me a target of putting in place a rewards system that I can explain to the pupils. I am stuck as to how to introduce a system. I have a green smiley face on my board but I need to work out when to put names on there and how many ticks they need for a merit. And I need to be able to explain this to my classes.
What you said
SM BSc
One way might be a stamp based on what you want to use it for - answering questions correctly, excellent work or whatever you fancy. That would give you an idea of how many you could end up giving in a lesson. Then make the rule something like five stamps equals a merit. This way even the kids who don’t get a merit still get a stamp. Unless you’ve been told you must follow the school’s system you could use your own.
Whacko!
When I was teaching, I would award, very sparingly, a public high five for outstanding work. There and then, while walking around the room looking at work.
The expert view
You seem to lack confidence in your own judgement. Although it is perfectly normal to be uncertain, children can sense it quite easily. One of the problems with the smileyfrowny face strategy on the board is that it takes up a lot of time. Partially ditch it. Keep a note of pupils’ names in your planner and do it when you are ready and have time. Make sure you have class rules that are clear and easy. Give merits for the best pupils in that lesson, for whatever reason you like. There is nothing wrong with varying the emphasis in each lesson as long as you let them know. And it is fine to give out merits for the three hardest workers, or best behaved, or kindest, most improved, and so on. It’s your classroom. Your call.
Tom Bennett is author of The Behaviour Guru and Not Quite a Teacher. Read more from Tom on his TES blog, or follow him on Twitter at @tesBehaviour. His latest book, Teacher, is out now, published by Continuum
Post your questions at www.tes.co.ukbehaviour.
