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a) When the parent or school community puts too great an emphasis on a student making their day, this will cause otherwise responsible students to lie. It is more important to focus on the "process" of making one's day rather than the "product."
b) Students may be testing the system to see if all adults are communicating.
c) The staff has not established a communication system to identify those students who are having difficulty recording points correctly.
Although many schools initially struggle with the handful of students who misuse the system, these schools recognize the importance of developing a greater level of communication between staff. Many schools have contracted individually with these students who are then required to have each teacher sign their points. This continues for a period of time until the students learn to handle their points responsibly.
A school would achieve its greatest level of return by first exploring the rationale for students to misreport and then to attempt to close that window as opposed to seeking smaller blocks of reporting.
Communication of one's success does not take away the emphasis of intrinsic motivation. In the beginnings of the program, students carried home a slip indicating whether or not they made their day. Every child carried home this communication. Because of budget cuts (paper) and logistics, this practice fell out of favor. If as a school or particular grade levels your school would like to develop a communication that indicates successful days, it would be philosophically in sync. If so, I would recommend an organized approach rather than teacher by teacher. Parents might wonder why one 1st grade teacher is sending something home, while another isn't. If your school develops something and finds it successful, please let us know and we can share it with others.
Your teachers are right on track. Teachers may always go back to students when they have received additional information about a point period when a student knew they didn't earn full points, but "forgot" to take care of it. In fact it is important that students understand that all the staff is communicating with each other in reference to this, which will lessen the number of students who attempt to circumvent the system. If a student has not earned a significant number of points, it is always beneficial to alert a teacher quickly to the possibility of a student not making their day. If it were me, I would always double-check the yellow copies that I pick up after school with the students' points for the pertinent period. If I see that a student did not address this in points, I would take it up with them the next day privately. "Susie, in reference to common period points yesterday I have a concern, it seems that you did not take responsibility for running in the hall." "I forgot." "You had 43 points for that period, I'll offer 40 points because you were running and you didn't take responsibility for it." Susie accepts or doesn't accept the new point value. If she doesn't accept it - then it's averaged just as it would be for any point period.
Students never lose points. Sometimes, they don't earn all of their points. It's important to remind students of the language to help them internalize the concept of earning, earning, earning - not earning, then earning...
As far as the library books, philosophically, it is the same as the homework. During the school day, we work hard to level the playing field for all students. Once they are at home their circumstances are not the same, therefore, it is not fair to hold them equally accountable. Therefore, we can not use MYD to address either homework or library books. If...a student takes responsibility for either homework or books not returned, I believe that they are saying they had the opportunity/ability to meet this expectation, but chose not to meet it.
I'm assuming if a book is not returned that students are not allowed to check out another one. That would be a logical and fair consequence. If you have students who have difficulty complying with this expectation, I would encourage you to work with the parent(s) and child by developing an individual contract (outside of MYD) that would help remediate this.
The teacher's use of concerns should be able to address this issue. If the student continues to have difficulty determining a realistic point value, then the assumption is made that the student is not sure how to evaluate their efforts in meeting expectations. Therefore, the teacher lets the student know that they will be doing their points for them for the next day or so in order to provide modeling of this process. After a couple of periods of modeling points, the student is asked, "If you were doing your points this period, how would you evaluate your efforts?" This gives the teacher an opportunity to determine if the student is beginning to develop this skill. After no more than two days, the teacher should turn this responsibility back to the student. The teacher will continue to monitor and support as needed.
We recommend that teachers add their name to the point chart - at the top - because it provides an opportunity for them to model self-evaluation of doing what's expected the best one can. There are many teachers who have not made their day. It's a good way to show students that we all make mistakes and we can come back the next day and try again. Typically, their spouse signs the slip, sometimes the principal and occasionally their dog or cat signs with a paw print. The students are always very interested in this and appreciate that the teacher can have rough days, too. Students may have concerns for teachers when they feel that their learning has been interfered with. For example, "You interfered with my learning because you said we would have a test and you didn't give it to us." Who better to help us become better teachers than our students?
Taking credit for what they've done can be very challenging for some students. Think about how hard it is for some of us as adults to recognize the positive in ourselves and pubicly take credit for it. We have several years throughout elementary school to help children learn this, so be patient.
We would try 3 strategies - in the following order - and try each one for at least a couple of weeks before trying the next one.
Strategy 1: Sometime during each period, notice what the student is doing well, seems to be proud of, or has learned. Coach them with something along the lines of, "I noticed that you are really working hard on your writing. You are remembering to do a nice job on proper spacing. When I call your name for points, why don't you mention that as something you've done well." You can fade this support by gradually turning it over to the child.
Example: "What are you going to tell us at points about what you've done that you're proud of, something you've learned or what you've worked on this period?" Just babystep them through this process.
Strategy 2: Assume that the student doesn't understand how to do points so do points for them for a day or two.
Example: "It seems like you're having a hard time doing points this new way. I'll model them for you to help you learn." After a day or so, ask the student at points, "If you were doing your points, what would you ask for and why?" If the student is able to take credit for what they've done, then say "It seems that you're starting to understand how we are doing points now. At the next point period, you can do points for yourself." The student may go through this cycle a few times before they are able to consistently take credit for what they've done to earn points.
Strategy 3: The student asks for points without saying what they did to earn points, only what they did that did not meet expectations. At concerns, when their name is called you would raise your hand, "Earl, the expectation for points is to state what you did TO earn points along with what you did to not earn points." Student response. Either you accept or don't accept the response. If needed, you offer a different point value. The student accepts or rejects the offered point value. If student accepts, your offered point value is written down. If the student rejects your offered point value, the two are averaged for the final point value.
When a teacher contracts points by class per "offense", we are reverting back to group punishment. It is more appropriate to discuss with individual students specific point values when the behavior is a repeat behavior. Assigning a value to points based only on the behavior negates the concern we have for individual students and individual student needs (frequency of behavior, duration of behavior, and ability level of the student). If a student repeats a behavior i.e. talking out and continuously determines that 44 is an appropriate point value, then it would be appropriate for the teacher to address it during concerns. "This behavior is continuing and one point does not seem to be helping. Which would help you more? More time on steps or fewer points?" Thus, the student will determine which consequence would be more helpful to them in changing their behavior. Individual contracting initially may appear more cumbersome, but the long-term benefits are significant in helping students change behaviors independently. The student maintains ownership in individual contracting and, secondly, it helps parents understand that the student chose what they felt would be the most helpful for them.
Points are ambiguous by design. The frequency and significance of each event are to be assessed by each student based on their personal assessment. There are no automatic points or blanket point deductions. The process is an earning process, not a losing process. Students, over time, develop an inner sense of point values. The process of points is of greater importance than the number of points.
Let's take "clogging up the slide" behavior. If the staff determines that "clogging" is "worth" 2 points, then the student who clogs the slide for 30 seconds does not earn the same amount of points as the student who clogs the slide for 5 minutes. Would this be fair? More importantly, it takes the self-evaluation of one's behavior and its effect on those around out of the equation. The students lose an important opportunity to learn how to be aware of and perceive the impact of their behavior on others' safety or learning. They would no longer be required to process this information. Initially, this method is not as easy, but the long-term results are well worth the wait. This continual teaching process develops high level social skills in students that makes for a wonderful teaching environment.
In
order for students to choose steps their behavior must interfere
with the learning, safety, or well-being of others. For example,
if a student fails to follow directions but does not interfere
with someone else’s learning or safety, he/she is not choosing
Steps. The student simply does not earn points, because he/she
is not doing what is expected.
*Choosing
steps is a fair and reasonable CONSEQUENCE, not a PUNISHMENT.
The behavior that results in Steps should not be judged as
right or wrong, good or bad, just interfering. Steps should
replace public reprimands, power struggles, detentions, etc.
The
purpose of Steps is to provide the least restrictive environment
where a student can succeed and be allowed a time to reflect
on the behavior that results in Step 1. When a student interferes
with the rights of others, they are given a brief (less than
5 minutes) opportunity to consider the behavior and then rejoin
the activity. A neutral area within the learning environment
is provided for the student to reflect on his/her behavior.
(Not unlike an actor who takes some time to study his lines
in order to return to the "take.") When allowing
the student to choose Steps, the adult delivers the information
privately and non-judgmentally. The dignity of each student
is a vital aspect.
Students
may choose to escalate through a series of steps that may ultimately
involve a parent conference.
Students
may also request steps when they feel the need to be in a neutral,
unencumbered setting.
No,
this is a celebration that your child took responsibility today
when he/she had difficulty following school expectations. Your
child has identified some behaviors that kept him/her from
their best learning. Consequences at home are not expected.
What would be most helpful for your child is that you take
the time to discuss these items with your child and, together,
develop a plan that will help them reach their potential. Thank
you.
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