One must be careful how and when teachers reward their students. Chartered Psychologist and teacher, Marc Smith, gives his 5 golden rules for rewarding students:
• Reward schemes based on the accumulation of points that can be exchanged for prizes are costly, unsustainable and ineffective in the long term. Those schools that do choose this kinds of schemes will probably face much bigger problems when the scheme is withdrawn.
• Rewards of any kind given immediately after a task is completed motivate pupils better than those given later (and remember that rewards can be in the form of praise).
• Rewards must be justifiable and based on effort as well as achievement (this will encourage a growth mindset in your students).
• Words can help to ‘nudge’ pupils in the right direction and can have the opposite effect if used negatively.
• Rewards must be fair and not just given to the ‘perfect’ pupils (children have an uncanny sense of what is fair and unfair and they’ll see right through any form of bias).
Click on the link to read Do Kids Need A Classroom Pet (The Four-Legged Variety)?
Click on the link to read Why Spelling is Important
Click on the link to read Tips for Engaging the Struggling Learner
Click on the link to read the Phonics debate.
Topical Teaching 