Measure of Success

I designed ‘Measure of Success’ as way of rewarding students. Within my school we have a policy to give out 3 achievement points per lesson and it is often hard to decide who to give these achievement points to. Often when students gain the achievement points they are not entirely sure what they are getting them for, or teachers forget to reward them. So, last year I started handing out stars when students gained achievement points during the lesson and at the end I would collect the stars back in and enter the names in Sims.

Such a simple idea had a huge impact with the student’s behaviour for learning within my classroom. Students are aiming to get the stars. It is rare I have to use the behavioural traffic light in my classroom since introducing the star system. I use the behavioural traffic light as a quick visual system, which I have found helps to negate negative behaviours within my classroom. (I will explain how this works for those interested at the end of the post).

I’ve digressed back to the rewards system.  I soon found a problem with the stars though as I wanted to give too many stars out or student may display positive behaviours to learning but maybe not significant enough to get a full star. This meant some students weren't being recognised for their small achievements. To overcome this problem I have started using ‘Measure for Success’ Stars and jugs within my classroom. This means students can build upon their success from previous lessons, until they reach the full achievement point. 
How is this related to numeracy?

I weight the rewards using my own judgement accordingly. A student’s response may mean I tell them to colour ¼ of their star in, or it may mean they can shade 200ml of their measuring jug. Students stick these on the inside front cover, or back of their book and can easily track their successes throughout the year. This now reinforces positive behaviours from all students and presentation within their books as well as developing basic mathematical concepts. Over the weekend while writing this post I have decided in the segment they shade I am going to ask them to make a brief note of the reason they shaded the section, tracking their positive behaviours to learning.

 

Download Measure of Success Resources

Dealing with negative behaviours using the behavioural traffic light

We all have the students who cause issues within our lessons and can often persistently cause low level disruption. If this is the case I write students names on the behavioural traffic light with either a whiteboard pen or I use post it notes. It is quick and effective. If a student’s negative behaviour persist after a warning they get their name placed on green, this is their final warning, they are ‘good to go’ if their negative behaviour stops now. However if it continues they move up to amber, with this they receive a behaviour point and a 10 minute detention, this often results in them moving seats or being spoken to outside. If their negative behaviour persists after this they move to red and a 20 minute detention, this is extremely rare now. Negative behaviours after this point from the students would mean HOD, year team or SLT involvement. 

Miss B