I am not permitted to give students candy (or any kind of edible rewards) in my current district. I have also been in schools where this policy is strict to the point where it becomes a caricature. But students often want extrinsic motivation to complete assignments or activities that they see as trivial. So, I give out bonus points.
I know that there is a division in the educational community about giving extra credit. Some teachers feel that students should not need to get extra credit. Others feel that their students may need it to pass or succeed in a specific grading system. I am not in either of those camps, necessarily. I wish that I didn't feel the need to use "bonus points" as a reward. Unfortunately, I feel stuck.
I need ideas. I need some rewards for students who work the best with a reward system. I can't give out candy. I don't want to keep giving out bonus points. HELP!
I just found this excerpt from a book I've been reading on another teacher's blog. With regard to my feelings on extra credit, it could go one of two ways- either it justifies my awarding of bonus points by implying that the awarding of the bonus point gives the student positive feedback (they gave a decent, well-thought-out response) and it gives the parents/college admissions officer a grade boost. The other possibility is that it only reinforces to the student that grades are the only thing that is important. Let me know what you think:
"Grades are for parents and college. Feedback is for student learning." -Rick Smith
I'm of the currency mindset, and as long as what the student is getting is less than the value of not doing the work, I'm totally in favor of it. If you want more punditizing on the subject, you can check out my post, "What's your currency" at
ReplyDeletehttp://challenge-of-teaching-math.blogspot.com/2011/02/whats-your-currency.html
But you really just want some suggestions on alternatives to candy or food, so here are some suggestions that I've found to work:
-Puffy stickers
-Smelly stickers (you know, "Scratch-n-Sniff")
High school and middle school students really like them to a beyond making sense extent.
The one challenge I see here is that you've got a bunch of students addicted to extra credit and you're probably going to get some withdrawal pains, i.e. complaints, when you cut them off. Perhaps it makes sense to give your students some advance warning, letting them know that starting on Monday you won't be awarding extra credit anymore, rather than cutting them off cold turkey tomorrow.
(I just realized that your post is from two months ago, so this is probably a moot point by now. Curious as to what you decided to do and how it went.)
Paul Hawking
Blog:
The Challenge of Teaching Math
Latest post:
My grad project on underachieving gifted students
http://challenge-of-teaching-math.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-grad-project-on-underachieving.html