Rewards vs. no rewards

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Home : 2004 : October : 24

Rewards vs. no rewards
By Alison

I think that rewards for certain kids can work really, really well. For example, kids who may be severely behaviorally challenged or kids who need some sort of "reward" to get them moving. I have one student who has so
many issues (won't get into it) and in order to get him to really focus on the task at hand, to do the best he can with it, even if it's not all that great in general (but is HIS best), he needs to have a little bit of extrinsic motivation. When he completes a task in a reasonable amount of time without straying off task, talking to everyone around him, whining complaining that he "can't"

he earns a sticker on his little chart. He has started, all by himself, calling them "fast stickers." When he fills a row, he gets 2 jellybeans (because jellybeans are his favorite). When he finishes an entire chart, he gets a little bag of jellybeans. Nothing huge, but, he feels special, and it works for him.

But, with regards to what KM was saying, rewards are not really beneficial when you're using them to get kids to do what they SHOULD BE doing anyways, specifically, "typical" kids who really, in my opinion, have no reason to be receiving rewards.

However, I do think that using rewards versus not using them is a personal choice that every teacher must make for him/herself. We all run our own classrooms and know what's comfortable and what's not for us, and what works for us and what doesn't.