Category: rewards

alfie kohn, being a teacher, being me, punishment, rewards, Student-centered

Why Have You Not Given Up Rewards Yet?

Pernille Ripp
I used to be the queen of the awesome board, the gold  stickers, and definitely the special lunches and privileges.  I thought my kids loved it, and sure some did, but after a huge hallelujah moment, I realized the harm I was doing to my classroom and I ended all individual rewards.  So have you stopped handing out rewards in your classroom?  If not here are some reasons why you should consider it.

  1. Students don’t actually need rewards to work.  Sure they work in the short-run but guess what after a while you have to up the ante and keep going up because it just isn’t going to be very effective for long.  And yes, students will take rewards if you offer them, but they will actually also work without the perpetual carrot dangling in front of their noses.    And you won’t believe me until you actually try it.   
  2. Rewards tend to go to the same kids over and over and over.  We say that it is really up to the students to get the rewards but at the same time we can probably all list the kids that would have a hard time earning one.  So then who are we fooling?
  3. Rewards split the students.  If you ever want to create a class of have and have not’s in your classroom just hand out rewards; the students will quickly figure out who the “smart” kids are and who are not.  Or worse, who the teachers like and who they don’t.
  4. Rewards devalue the learning.  By attaching a reward to a learning task, you are telling a student that the task is not worth doing if it weren’t for the reward.  That is not how learning should be.  Learning should be fun, exciting, and curiosity driven, not mechanical and focused on the end point.  When a reward becomes the end point, then that is the focus.
  5. You keep giving rewards; the students won’t work without it.  With rewards you create a culture of “what’s in it for me?” and the learning just isn’t enough.  And yet the learning and experience should be enough for the child, provided it is meaningful and purposeful.  So set them up from the beginning to earn rewards and soon there will be hardly any extra work or deeper digging into concepts.  If the child knows that they “just” have to do whatever to get a reward, or an A for that matter, then that is what they will do.  The learning stops wherever you dictate it to.
  6. The students will argue with you.  My first year students would get upset over which sticker I gave them because in their minds certain stickers were worth more.  A sticker!  Now equate that to extra recess, or books, or special lunches and think of the conflict it creates.  You want to make sure your struggling learners keep feeling more disenfranchised; keep up the rewards.
  7. Rewards become the measure of success. If you don’t reward a child then they don’t think they have succeeded.  No more handing them back a project with great feedback; if that sticker or some recognition isn’t attached then it just isn’t enough.  I had students collect stickers and notes to showcase to the other students, it became a competition of who could gather more.  It wasn’t about what they had learned or how great a project was, it was only about that note.
  8. Students lose their voice in the learning process.  When a teacher is the only one deciding on success shown through rewards, the classroom does not belong to the students.  That teacher is therefore the ultimate power within the room and the kids know it.  If you want to create a student-centered classroom, you cannot have such a vast difference in learning authority.  To build the kids confidence they have to have a voice.
  9. But they all  get rewarded….  Some schools run weekly recognitions of students for whatever reason, or some classrooms do.  And while this may seem innocent enough, after all, there is nothing tangible tied to it, it still causes jealousy and anxiety.  If a program calls for recognizing every single student for the same things, then why are we recognizing in a public way in the first place.  Wouldn’t it be easier just to state the expectations and then tell the kids that we are happy they are all living up to it?  There is no need to create weekly recognition if we are doing our jobs right as educators; making our students feel valued and respected as part of the learning community.
  10. Rewards create more work for the teacher.  I was so worried that everyone had been on my “Awesome board” that I kept track = more paperwork.  I also had to make sure that I was eating lunch with all of my students = more paperwork.  I also had to make sure I could justify to parents why one child got a certain privilege and another didn’t = more paperwork.  Do you see where I am going?  Rewards and trying to keep it “fair and balanced” creates more work for us without providing any long-term benefits. 

So you may assume that my classroom is one stripped of rewards and recognition, yet it isn’t.  My students have parties, except they get them after the fact, when we have something to celebrate.  I don’t punish them if they are being rowdy, uncooperative or downright disrespectful,  but we have circles where we discuss our behavior and how we perhaps need to adjust it.  I have high expectations for my students to “represent” as much as they have for me.  We strive to create a learning environment where we all feel comfortable messing up and trying again, because we know that the learning journey is the focus and not just the end result.  So I recognize and I reward but I do it through the learning and the conversations.  I don’t have a classroom where students expect things to do their jobs, I have a classroom of kids eager to learn, on some days more than others, but who are always willing to be a part of what we consider our second home; our classroom.  All without the use of rewards.

alfie kohn, classroom expectations, rewards

My Barren Wasteland – A Room Without Rewards

Pernille Ripp

A barren wasteland with no smiling allowed.  A silent classroom with a teacher standing sternly at the front slapping a ruler against their palm waiting for the next kid that dares to actually have a good time.  These are all images people tend to get when I say I do not believe in rewards.

Recently I wrote a post detailing how I reward my students through time rather than extrinsic motivators.  One comment I received asked me whether I believed in whole classroom rewards or not, which is a question I often get.  The answer is no.  I don’t believe in the idea of rewards and agree with Alfie Kohn when he states that “Rewards and punishment  are ways of manipulating behavior that destroy the potential for real learning.”

I believe that rewards twist the focus of the classroom and provides students with a false reason to want to engage.  I believe that rewards always end up benefiting the same students and some are always left out.  I know some will say that classroom rewards are the answer to that inequity, but ask yourself; how often have you taken away classroom points or not given marbles based on the actions of one kid or just a couple?  I know I used to even though it did not reflect the behavior of the whole classroom.  So you still produce an inequity because the other kids certainly know who it is that makes them lose points and believe me that plays into social situations sooner or later.

The bottom line for me is when we perpetually stick a carrot in front of students faces whether it be through points, letters, or marbles, we are teaching them that they should not do anything without a reward.  So while in the short term it may work to have kids get points to earn something as a classroom, in the long run it is not shaping their behavior to want to behave simply for the greater good.  I need kids that want to be in my classroom and I expect kids to take responsibility for their behaviors.  So I do not make kids “earn” anything in the reward sense, and I do not single out kids.  Instead we celebrate class-wide whenever an occasion arises.   Celebrations are given not earned and they can be based on whether we have achieved something or it is a certain time of year.  Often students and I discuss how we should celebrate something and it is never ever taken away from them.    I never use it is a way to manipulate their behavior or to point out anything.  We simply celebrate, and there is always a lot to celebrate!

So while classroom rewards may seem harmless, think of what it projects.  Think of what message it really is sending the students.  Are we trying to tell them that we do not expect them to behave without some sort of reward?  Are we trying to tell them that society will always reward them extrinsically whenever they do what is expected of them, because if we are, those kids will be mightily disappointed in adult life.

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alfie kohn, education reform, rewards

GIve Me Back that Gold Star or How Do You Reward Your Students When You Don’t Believe in Rewards

Pernille Ripp
Image taken from here

It used to be when a student did something exceptional, I would place a cute sticker on their worksheet, homework, or test.  I had a drawer just meant for stickers and I lovingly picked new ones for each year in the office catalogs.  I also had Bravo certificates and even great stamps that quickly but distinctly told them exactly how I felt.   Who doesn’t feel great after getting a stamp with a big thumb on it telling you “Thumbs Up!?”  Sometimes, when I had a little more time,  I would even write “Fantastic” next to that sticker just so that they knew I really meant it.

If the class was having a great day I couldn’t wait to dole out those kid points (if I remembered) so that they could earn another party. Never mind the fact that they knew they would earn it eventually because odds were they would have many more great days than bad days. I thought my kids knew that I thought they were great. I thought my kids understood why they were great.   In fact, I even had an “Awesome Wall” where all the A+ work would go up. Of course, I hoped that all kids would eventually have their work prominently displayed, but truthfully some just never did.

So this year I threw it all away. Well, I kept the stickers but they are for my daughter and husband – he loves motivational stickers on his honey-do lists.   The awesome wall got replaced with a world map, the kid/teacher points disappeared. And I felt so empty; after all, how would my kids know when they did a great job? Wouldn’t they miss the stickers and the fantastics? Ummm no. In fact, no kid ever asked me for a sticker this year. No kid ever asked me to explain their fantastic remark because I didn’t write them often.  Truthfully I found out that kids really didn’t need those extrinsic rewards, that learning still happened, that the kids still stayed motivated, of course some days more than others because guess what, they are kids.

So in throwing out all of my rewards, I found out about the biggest reward of all; time.  This simple concept that I know we have precious little of in a classroom is a hot commodity to everyone.  Now when my kids deserve recognition (which they do every day) I give them time.  Whether it is to take the time to speak to them about their work, or to write feedback.  Whether it is to give them time to work or just time to speak to one another.  How about time for a sledding party?  Or time for 5 minutes of meditation after that awesome assembly?  How about the time to just be a classroom, to just hang out and celebrate all the amazing things happening in our room, in our school, in our world?

So don’t feel like giving up rewards will steer your classroom management off course, I believe it will actually heighten it.  I believe that when you push the superficial things out of the way, deeper connections arise and the students become more willing to share, more connected, more motivated.  Finally, by getting rid of rewards I also gave myself the biggest one of all; the chance to connect deeper with my students.  The chance to speak to them more.  The chance to have them all be equals and not labeled and ranked according to grades or homework.  The chance to finally all be “Fantastic.”

alfie kohn, classroom expectations, punishment, rewards, students

Peter, Sit Up and Listen – Or Why Using Student Names in Punishment only Backfires

Pernille Ripp
Joe, you need to pay attention.  Sit up, Peter!  Lisa, what happened there?  All day and every day, we use our students names when they are off task, when they are fiddling, sleeping, or simply not performing to the high standard we have set for them.  We make snap decisions, judge them, and punish them as we continue on with our lesson.  We don’t always have the time to dig deep so we assume we know why they are fiddling, we assume we know why they are not paying attention, and so we correct, coerce, call out their names until they are with us again.  


Their names.  Something that is so intricately linked with who they are as a budding person.  Their names so linked with their identities.  And yet we use them to our advantage, simply to remain in control of the classroom.  One more tool to make sure all eyes are on me!


This week I asked my students to finish the sentence: “Being a good teacher means…” and what Nathan wrote really hit home: “Don’t yell out the kids name that does something wrong.”  At first, I scoffed at this notion, after all, what else are we supposed to do as teachers when our students are off task?  Calling out their names is one of the most efficient ways to re-direct them because that is really all we are doing, right? Wrong, calling out a student’s name in front of the whole class means that the whole class knows that the student is not doing what they ought to.  Calling out a name means that what one student is doing (or not doing) becomes the focus of the entire class.  Yes, you achieve your goal of attention redirection, but you also publicly humiliate that child.  It is time to stop with the name calling.


So what can one do instead, because we all know, there are times when even the most attentive student gets off-track


Well, I first re-evaluate myself, after all if they are spacing out, what am I doing to cause it? After all; if I was actually doing something interesting they might be well interested.  


If I find that I am indeed offering up something interesting, I wonder if they need a body break?  Even the most exciting topic becomes mundane after I have spoken about it for more than 10 minutes in my good “preacher” voice.


If this doesn’t seem to be the root of the problem, then perhaps, a gentle tap on the shoulder or a silent hand signal can help the student re-direct?  Often, I can do this from across the room, catching only the eye of the student in question and helping them re-focus.


When this fails, and sometimes it does, particularly if the student is quite engaged with the drawing or thing they seem to be doing, then I either walk in their direction and whisper in their ear, or I simply stop speaking.  Silence is one of the greatest tools a teacher has in their toolbox for attention; after all, students are not used to teachers being quiet!  


And sometimes all of this fails, and that is when I am reminded that my students live full lives that sometimes interfere with our school day.  This is when I take the time to stop and talk and ask if everything is alright, is there anything I need to know?  Sometimes they are just so excited about something happening that they cannot focus, other times it is lack of sleep, of food, or they are distracted by life situations.  Sometimes, they will just tell you they are having an off day.  That is alright too, after all, we all have off days.


This isn’t a perfect system, nor is it intended to be.  It is rather one more step in learning how to be a better teacher, one that doesn’t cause embarrassment for their students, one that takes the time to figure out the real reason behind distractions and then works with the student rather than just dolling out punishment.


So once again, my students teach me how to be a better teacher.  I should not be using their names to call attention to unsavory behavior unless they are in a dangerous situation.  Nathan taught me that and for that I am thankful.  He had enough courage to tell his teacher the wrong of her ways, and lead me to deeper reflection.  When we ask our students questions, we may not like the answer, but there is always a great reason for that answer.  A reason that should not be taken lightly, but rather explored, reflected upon and then acted upon.
alfie kohn, being a teacher, blogging, rewards

I am a Hypocrite

Pernille Ripp
Today I had one of those great thought moments that can only happen during deep professional and personal reflection.  George Couros, a principal I admire, did some thinking out-loud on my latest blog post, a follow up to another post on behavior.  Part of his comment is shown below:


I am going to challenge you a bit on this post, but not necessarily on its content. I noticed that you listed some stats on how many hits you have had, retweets, etc.. I also noticed that you listed that “Alfie Kohn” commented on it (like it was some kind of award that he did that). You have also written how you were disappointed that you did not get an edublog award: (http://mrspripp.blogspot.com/2010/12/im-loser.html)

With the listing of these stats (kind of like marks) and discussion of awards, are you somehow showing that you have a part of you driven by the same thing that you are saying we should take away from students in the classroom?

Just some food for thought. I think that your posting discussing the importance of intrinsic motivation and not extrinsic motivators is contradicted by use of the stats of your blog hits and retweets.

Is there room for both to drive us? I know I have a twitter counter on my own blog posts and love recognition.

Part of my response to George was this:

George, what a great comment that really made me think early this morning. I think your questions prove avery valid point for me; we as adults struggle for the same recognition as our students do. However, the reason why I listed those stats etc with this particular post was because it showed that somehow this particular post really struck something in people, which I had no idea it would. I never expect anyone to read my blog so the fact that that many people took the time to share or read shows that this a debate that many others are either thinking about or engaged in.

So all day I wondered; was I indeed a hypocrite (not that George implied it, I label myself that way)?  Had I published those statistics and name dropped because I too craved recognition and reward from my peers?  Could I possible be wanting the same thing that I despise so much in my own classroom?  The answer is not easy to come up with.  On one hand, I really do not seek out recognition but rather reflection, however, on the other hand, do I obsessively look at my blog counts to see if I matter?  Is that what it really comes down to?  

Perhaps when we look at our blog visits or comments received, we are really looking for some sort of validation that there are others like us out there.  That we are not alone in this educational ocean where the tide continuously shifts.  Perhaps, when a lot of people respond to a post we have found an island on which others seek refuge as well.  Perhaps, the need for recognition is so intrinsically ingrained in us that we can never truly escape it no matter how much we try.

I am not perfect, which thankfully no one has ever accused me of being.  I struggle publicly with many of my own teaching practices and choose to chronicle this struggle in order to give myself clarity from a distance.  I wish I could be 100% staunch anti-reward, but I am not, I still praise my students for great behavior, amazing work or just being all around fantastic kids.  Some would consider that a reward as well.  What I am opposed to, though, are the public reward ceremonies, the in-class recognition of only the best and brightest, rather than different categories where all children can be celebrated.  So perhaps I am a hypocrite, but at least I am a hypocrite who is willing to share their thoughts.



alfie kohn, being a teacher, punishment, rewards

After Publishing my Discipline Management System

Pernille Ripp
About 3 weeks ago, I chronicled how I had gone from a checks, sticks, and names discipline system to one based in logic, respect, and communication instead.  Little did I know that it would hit such a nerve with so many people.  So now with 33 comments,  81 re-tweets (even one by the very smart Alfie Kohn!), and more than 10,000 views, I think it is time to answer some of the questions that were posed.

  • Don’t you think it is just because of your great group of students that this works?  This has been a popular one, especially as I discuss it with colleagues who happen to know firsthand what an amazing group of 4th graders we do have.  My answer, well maybe, and yet, I do know that there are students in my room that would not have flourished as much if they had been subjected to last year’s rules. These would have been my frequent fliers, often spending recess with me or the principal.  Through communication, I have only had to keep a couple of students in on two occasions as we discussed behavior expectations and how to fix reoccurring problems.   I know that I have 23 incredible students, but I did last year as well and the year prior.  So really, since these are the students that I do have, it appears to be a mute point.
  • How did you come up with this system?  I didn’t.  In fact, many commentators pointed out that it sounded a lot like The Responsive Classroom, Love and Logic, or various other programs.  I did not read any of these programs, instead I went with my own commonsense and sense of right and wrong.  I wanted a respectful classroom, which also meant I had to give a lot of respect.  I also knew that this would not be a one time thing of discussion, but something to revisit throughout the year whenever we had time.
  • Why should I care, listen, use what you are using?  That’s the wonderful part about the world of blogging, you don’t have to!  All I am doing is chronicling my own decision to get rid of a punitive system to one guided by communication.  This approach works for me, but by all means, I want people to use whatever works for them.  I just want to let people know, particularly first year teachers that there are other methods than punishment to create a strong classroom.  I wish I had known more about that in college.
  • Will you use it next year? Absolutely!  As with many changes on my journey this year, I could not imagine going back to my old ways.  I do not know what my classroom will consist of next year, but I do know that I am going to have some very eager new 4th graders ready to learn so my job is to provide them with the very best experience possible.  That includes a room where they feel safe, respected, and listened to, not just by me, but by their peers as well.  There may be changes, but fundamentally my philosophy will only expand and gain momentum rather than completely change.

So keep them coming.  It is only through dialogue that we continue to push our boundaries and learn together.