Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition

"Students who believe the amount of effort they put into a task increases their achievement actually do better.“ Robert Marzano Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition Research shows that students may not realize the relationship between effort and achievement and that we must explicitly teach this to them.

ReinforcingEffort and Providing Recognition REINFORCING EFFORT Research demonstrates that people generally attribute success at any given task to one of four causes: • Ability - students might believe they do not possess the necessary ability to succeed at a task could cause them to sabotage their own success. 2. Luck - belief is luck has disadvantages. . . what if your luck runs out? 3. Other People - belief that other people are the cause of success, has drawbacks, when an individual finds himself alone. 4. Effort – belief in effort is the most useful attribution. If you believe effort is the most important factor in achievement, you have a motivational tool that can apply to any situation.

ReinforcingEffort and Providing Recognition REINFORCING EFFORT Belief on the part of students that do not possess the necessary ability to succeed at a task might cause them to sabotage their own success. GENERALIZATIONS 1. Not all students realize the importance of believing in effort. Teachers should explain and exemplify the “effort belief” to students. 2. Students can learn to change the beliefs to an emphasis on effort. Teachers demonstrating that added effort will pay off in terms of enhanced achievement actually increases student achievement.

ReinforcingEffort and Providing Recognition REINFORCING EFFORT Students might not be aware of the importance of believing in effort, but they can be taught. Reinforcing effort can help teach students one of the most valuable lessons they can learn – the harder you try, the more successful you are. TEACHING ABOUT EFFORT Explicitly teach students the importance of effort • Tell students personal stories of success by continuing to try • Share examples of success from lives of well-known people when they did not give up • Share stories of effort that are familiar to students (The Little Engine That Could) • Read stories from headlines of perseverance (e.g. Olympic athletes) • Ask students to periodically keep track of their effort in relationship to achievement

ReinforcingEffort and Providing RecognitionKeeping Track of Effort and Achievement

All students acquiring a new language will pass through these five stages.

ReinforcingEffort and Providing RecognitionKeeping Track of Effort and Achievement

ReinforcingEffort and Providing Recognition PROVIDING RECOGNITION Rewards for accomplishment can improve achievement when the rewards are directly linked to successful attainment of an understood performance standard (Cameron & Pierce, 1994; Wiersma, 1992). GENERALIZATIONS 1. Rewards do not necessarily have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation. Research indicates that rewards have a negative effect of intrinsic motivation “only when intrinsic motivation is operationalized as task behavior during a free time measure.” (Wiersma, 1992). 2. Reward is most effective when it is contingent on the attainment of some standard of performance. Providing rewards for the successful attainment of specific performance goals, enhances intrinsic motivation. 3. Abstract symbolic recognition is more effective than tangible rewards. Abstract rewards – particularly praise- when given for accomplishing specific performance goals, can be a powerful motivator for students.

ReinforcingEffort and Providing Recognition PROVIDING RECOGNITION Providing recognition for attainment of specific goals not only enhances achievement, but it stimulates motivation. CLASSROOM PRACTICE IN PROVIDING RECOGNITION 1. Personalizing Recognition - When recognizing the accomplishment of a performance standard, it is best to make this recognition as personal to the students as possible. 2. Pause, Prompt, and Praise -When students are working on a demanding task and having difficulty, the teacher asks the students to “pause”. The teacher and student discuss why the student is having difficulty. The teacher “prompts” the student with specific suggestions. If the student’s performance improves, then “praise” is given. 3. Concrete Symbols of Recognition - Stickers, awards, coupons and treats are tokens that do not necessarily diminish the intrinsic motivation if the tokens are given for accomplishing specific performance goals.

ReinforcingEffort and Providing Recognition Adapting Personalized Recognition to Stages of Language Acquisition Preproduction - Students experience an important milestone when they move from being nonverbal to speaking in English. Early Production - Students should be recognized for speaking in complete sentences. Speech Emergence- Students deserve recognition for using expressions that are more linguistically complex. Intermediate and Advanced Fluency - Students should be recognized for their growing repertoire of academic language.

PROVIDING RECOGNITION Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition

Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition