This year I attempted created an economy in my classroom with incentives and deterrents to motivate students to want to achieve.
At the beginning of the year I used the ViTaL spreadsheet to track students work and progress towards learning specific skills. I broke activities down according to learning activity, intentions and curriculum levels and when it was completed I recorded it with a green box. An orange box signalled to the student that it was in progress but they had some minor errors to fix. I left the students anonymous and used their KAMAR IDs in the left most column as shown in the image below.
This motivated some students, some wanted to get as many green boxes as they could. However, I noticed some students completely ignored it and didn't even know their KAMAR ID. Giving students the same activities also made them focus on completion, which meant copying from each other and sharing work rather than focussing on their own skills and learning.
By Term 3 I implemented a points system where students accumulate points by completing their activities and then could trade their points in for rewards such as lollies and lunch vouchers. We also did a shared lunch at the end of the term where students used their points to "buy" food. To track this, I used a similar format of the ViTaL spreadsheet but adapted it so students could see their progress in terms of points and the tasks they could complete.
I aimed to give the students more choices in the types of activities they were completing to promote self-management and student engagement. I based my system on the NCEA rank score calculations with 0-4 points allocation determined by the level of completion of the task. The students were then given a "Progress Score" and a leaderboard with the top students created a sense of competition. This worked extraordinarily well in regards to student motivation (which also helped my own motivation), most wanted to improve their score.
For next year, I am aiming to continue to adapt the ViTaL framework for tracking with my class systems. By using this in conjunction with my Google site, I am trying to personalise student's learning more by enabling students to complete activities according to their level and learning goals so they are rewarded not by meeting the standard they "should" be at but by working to improve their own skills and thinking. Students can gain just as much points by showing class values including participation, persistence, and helping others as they do for work completion.
This has made me reflect on what motivates me and what we as a society reward and incentivise. As a teacher, I am definitely encouraged when my students show an improvement not just in their work but in their attitudes and effort. I have achieved when my students have made progress in their learning and development. As an individualistic society, we possibly attribute too much of a person's success to their own efforts though there are so many other factors at play. A big one is the support and encouragement of the people around us. We are not really true meritocracy. Rewarding values and behaviours, in and out of a classroom, can do more for students' attitudes, society and humanity as a whole.
