Pitler, Hubbell, and Kuhn give some great ideas on how to reinforce effort and the importance of "teaching students about the relationship between effort and achievement" (2012). I really love the idea of using a spreadsheet to help students make a connection between effort and achievement.
Pitler, et al., also mentions providing students with recognition. While they caution the use of praise, recognition under the certain circumstances may prove to make more of a positive impact. For example, promoting goal mastery. Our fifth and sixth grade classes provide recognition for students who are reading and earning Accelerated Reader Points. This comes in the form of their name on the wall in the hallway under the appropriate point level achieved. I did some research on how I might incorporate technology in this recognition system and found www.classbadges.com. The great thing about this website is that I can create badges for anything I choose. I think I will start with just A.R. points and go from there. I don't want to do too much and not be able to follow through with it. Here is a short video introducing class badges.
Dr. Orey mentioned that programmed instruction is another instructional strategy that is used quite often today with the use of online tutorials. My school uses a wonderful program called SuccessMaker. Students are given a placement test to know where to start them in the program. Then the program guides them through tutorials based upon their needs. If a student watches a tutorial on adding fractions and then practices but answers incorrectly, the program then reteaches and gives the student prompts step by step on how to solve the problem. This is much like the resources that were shared this week. It does not immediately default to the correct answer, but rather prompts and guides to scaffold learning. Here is a introductory video for SuccessMaker.
There are countless other examples of ways that the behaviorist theory is influencing instructional strategies. However, like many other instances in education, what is essential is that teachers look to their own students' needs to drive their instructional strategies and content.
Resources
ClassBadges. (2012, October 8). Introducing ClassBadges. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30sMTPO5cAs
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Behaviorist learning theory [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Pearson North America. (2008, July 3). SuccessMaker for measurable success in grade K8. [Video file] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wphG4ry0OFc
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Amber,
ReplyDeleteI typed a response, and it disappeared. If you get two, I apologize. Let's try this again...
Thank you so much for including the video along with the classroom badges information. I tend to write names of websites/programs on a post-it when I hear about them and forget to look into it. Which reminds me, I'm supposed to check out "diigo". Anyways, I was hesitant to look into classroom badges, thinking it was geared more toward an elementary classroom, but the video showed a high school teacher using it!
As I was on the classroom badges website, I stumbled upon exitticket.org, which seems similarly amazing. This program connects to your idea about teachers recognizing student needs and using that to drive their instruction. Check it out if you get a chance. Understanding our students and how they learn gives us an advantage as teachers to help guide their learning.
SuccessMaker seems like a great program to help differentiate for your students in the classroom.
Keep up your hard work in the classroom!
Thanks again for helping connect me to these great new websites/programs!
I will definitely look into exitticket.org! We do "RSAs" (Recognizing Student Achievement) at the end of each math lesson, but they aren't always the best formative assessment for that day's lesson. Sometimes it is content that we've already been over. I'm interested in finding a way to find a better way. Thanks for the tip!
DeleteAmber
Amber,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the video about class badges. It sounds like a great way to motivate students and provide recognition for accomplishments. I like the idea of using technology as the platform for positive reinforcement. When reading about behaviorism, I also liked the idea of having student use a spread sheet to track their effort and their achievement. This is something I had never thought of before but would like to try. Great post!
Erin Eickman
I agree, Erin, I also liked the idea of students tracking their effort and achievement. There are couple of students that come to mind right now that would greatly benefit from identifying/realizing the effect their level of effort has on their achievement. Thanks for your comment!
DeleteAmber
Hi Amber,
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting about the Class Badges. I am always looking for new motivational management techniques with my kinders. A lot of them can relate from being a part of girl scouts or boy scouts. The scoresheets seem to work great for you and I may try to use something like that as my students mature for the end of the year. When students need to 'own it' for how they act and what they put in to their learning it helps to motivate them to be the best they can. I look forward to reading your future posts!
Rebecca DiCicco
Thank you for your comments. I've also started using ClassDojo for some behavior management. That has a good component to where the parents can login and see how their child did that day for positive and negative behaviors. I have not fully implemented it within my classroom yet, as I haven't quite grasped how to award the points without being by my computer all day. It does have a good app for the iPad or iPhone and I have downloaded that. I'm going to try to carry my phone with me and see if that helps with the distribution of points.
DeleteAmber