Reflecting on Effort and Recognition

Please answer the following:
How will you use some of the strategies about effort and recognition in the first weeks of school?

Choose one of the following questions to discuss also.


1. This chapter discusses the potential influence of reinforcing students' effort and providing recognition for their accomplishments. Think back to your own personal experiences and try to identify situations in which your learning was positively influenced when someone reinforced your effort or recognized your accomplishments in some significant way. You might also remember situations that would have been improved if someone had reinforced your effort or had given you recognition.

2. Now try to remember examples of situations that you positively influenced because you did reinforce students' effort or provide recognition.

3. Explain some of the reasons that, despite teachers' attempts to emphasize effort, many students still hold on to the belief that their successes and failures are due to their ability, or lack thereof, or to other outside forces.

4. This chapter recommends the use of rubrics to help students see the relationship between their effort and their achievement. Try to identify a specific long-term, challenging assignment that might be enhanced by using these rubrics.

5. Although verbal recognition seems to be most effective, providing concrete tokens (e.g., stickers, candy, toys) can also be effective. What advice would you give to a new teacher about using tokens as rewards?

Summarizing Reflection Questions

Please respond to this question by elaborating on what we discussed in the large group.
How will you use what we have learned about summarizing in the first few weeks of school this year?

Then, respond to at least 1 of these questions:

1. As you consider this information, think back on your own learning experiences from elementary school through your present learning situations and evaluate your ability to summarize and take notes. Identify your strengths and weaknesses and try to conclude what effect your ability to engage in these processes has had on your learning.

2. To what extent were you taught how to summarize and take notes? If you had no instruction, consider how explicit instruction might have influenced your learning.

3. The summary frames provided in this chapter are often new to teachers, and they react with concern with the time it might take to teach students to use these frames. Try to explain why you think it might be worth taking class time to help students become proficient at using these frames or any frames that provide students with general organizational structures.

4. This chapter describes "summarizing" as a process of deleting, substituting, and keeping information. Although these three aspects of the process are easy to understand and model, students often find it difficult to summarize effectively. Describe some reasons you think that summarizing is such a challenge for students.

Welcome to the Classroom Instruction that Works Blog!

Welcome! I am so glad you are here. I am very excited about this "blogging" approach to staff development for teachers. This blog is intended for teachers who are participating in the Classroom Instruction that Works Professional Learning Group, but is open to other teachers who would like to participate in this online format.