Our English in Mind Tip Exchange competition in 2014 revealed some interesting trends in motivating teenage learners. In a previous post, many of the tips our teachers offered focussed on the teacher’s role as an inspiration for students.
This time, we’ll be looking at rewards and punishments – an idea that’s come up in many of your tips.
The activities which are rewarded by our teachers tend to be the same across the world – speaking English, doing your homework, participating in class – but the rewards for keeping to these rules vary widely. Daniel Silva, a teacher in Brazil, gets his students to sign a “pizza contract”. At the end of each class, he and the students review whether they’ve successfully followed the rules. If they have, they cross off a slice from a picture of a pizza projected onto the class whiteboard. If the students have successfully crossed off every slice of pizza by the end of the semester, then they all share a pizza after the final lesson.
Paulina Cruz Sanchez from Mexico bases her reward system on the Harry Potter stories. Students are assigned to house groups – like Slytherin and Hufflepuff – and compete in competitions to earn medals for themselves and a trophy for their house team. Smaller rewards also include tokens allowing learners to jump to the front of the queue when the teacher checks their work at the end of class – quite a motivation for a student who can’t wait to be outside the classroom once the lesson’s over! Another teacher, Ediane Pinheiro from Brazil, offers her students toy bank notes which can be exchanged for items from the class store, including books and DVDs.
Other teachers use punishments instead of – or alongside – rewards, but they take care to do this in a fun way, or as part of a game. Students taught by Daria from Russia have to choose a series of forfeits at the start of each semester for those who break the rules. These forfeits usually involve singing a song by a popular singer, or doing a dance in front of the whole class. These are activities that might be a little embarrassing for the student concerned – or else they wouldn’t be effective deterrents – but which are harmless and fun for everyone. Daria also notes also that the other students provide a supportive atmosphere while the forfeit takes place.
Zoriana Diak, from Ukraine, makes a game of keeping to the rules. At the start of each lesson, she writes on the board a word or collocation from the previous session. As soon as that word comes up in class, her students know that every time they use their native language, a letter from that phrase will be rubbed off the board. If all the letters are rubbed out before the lesson ends, then there’s extra homework for everyone.
What do you think of these ideas for motivating teenage students? Is rewarding students for good behaviour with pizza or tokens an inventive way to motivate learners, or is it just a form of bribery? Is it fair to give the entire class extra work if one or two students use their native language in class?
You can also watch highlights of the entries to our Tip Exchange here.