What I do

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Home : 2004 : September : 30

What I do
By Sabrina

I like having my kids in groups because I do a lot of cooperative learning. However, I have had a lot of very talkative classes. The way I handle group talking is I let each team pick a name and we keep team points. If
the team is on task and quiet I reward them with some points. I usually make sure and point out the quiet teams when others are talking. I sometimes take points away from teams if they are talking without permission. We start out every week with 100 points. I usually go in increments of 10. At the end of the week I reward the team with the most points with some tickets that they can

use in our classroom store.

My board is magnetic so I use magnetic numbers for team points. I assign a team captain each week and they are in charge of changing the team's points when I award them. I have also written it myself on the whiteboard. When the team's see other teams getting points it usually quiets them right up.

When we are cleaning up I usually say "I am looking for quiet clean teams to earn some points." Just saying that usually keeps them really quiet during those transition times.