100: Reinforcing Effort & Providing Recognition

What research has to say about reinforcing effort:

• Not all students realize the impact of effort.
• Students can change their beliefs on the importance of effort.

Classroom Practices

• Explicit practices
  • Teachers share stories of how effort carried the day when success did not seem imminent
  • Share examples (videos) from famous people who triumphed through effort
  • Share examples of effort from famous stories
  • Students recall times when they prevailed through effort
• Use rubrics to track effort and achievement:

• Ask students to see correlation between effort and achievement variables
  • Ask students to reflect on what they learned about effort
  • Graph effort and achievement data
    • Achievement vs Effort
    • Achievement vs Time
    • Effort vs Time
  • Have students use graphs to notice patterns in their effort and achievement

What Research has to say about Providing Recognition:

• Rewards do not necessarily have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation
  • Worst effect – giving praise for easy tasks can undermine achievement
• Reward is most effective when it is contingent on reaching known performance standards
• Abstract symbolic recognition is more effective than tangible rewards
  • Tangible awards = physical prizes, candy
  • Verbal praise is effective
  • Abstract rewards = recognition for reaching a performance standards
  • Tangible awards are still effective when tied to performance standards

Classroom practices related to Recognition:

• Personal Best Honor Roll – students who met individual target goals made this honor roll regardless of whether or not they qualified for absolute grade-based honor roll
• Pause, prompt and praise
  • Pause students in work
  • Prompt – have supportive conversation on how to improve work
  • Praise – After some time and evidence of improvement, congratulate student on their new found success
• Symbolic signs of recognition
  • Stickers, stamps, ..
  • Make sure these tokens are given for meeting performance standards to create positive or no impact on intrinsic motivation

 

Preparation Steps

• Gather stories (articles, videos) about people who triumphed through effort
• Gather goal setting and tracking tools such as the Effort & Achievement Rubric (see above)
• Design lessons on the importance of effort and its connection to external results (achievements) and internal results (brain development)

Early Implementation Steps

• Implement lessons about importance of effort – incorporate model stories, discussions, and opportunities for students to tie lessons to their own lives
• Use Effort & Achievement Rubric and a Task chart to record effort and achievement scores daily over a period of time
• Create summary graphs of effort and achievement shorts:  achievement vs effort, achievement vs time, effort vs time
• Have students identify and reflect upon patterns in summary charts

Advanced Implementation Steps

• Ask students what strategies and practices do they want to incorporate into their daily habits and routines as a result of achievement / effort tracking
• Experiment with different ways for recognizing student effort
• Use student feedback to identify most effective ways for recognizing student work – incorporate these into classroom routines

 

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