Motivation

I have been extremely fortunate for the past few months to be able to work at an after school program. I have nineteen first and second graders (eleven boys and eight girls) and luckily I also have a co-teacher. Even though I do not assign homework to these particular students, I do expect them to behave properly and respect their peers. Since it is a fun after school program, one issue that I continuously run into is their desire or motivation to listen during bible lessons or behave during organized events throughout the day like snack, bible, chapel, or free play. How do you keep a child motivated and on task when there are not any tasks for them to really do besides listen to the teachers, pay attention at bible, and respect your peers? I know this is a question that I continuously ask myself and my co-teacher.
This past week, my co-teacher and I implemented an extrinsic reward system for the children. It is similar to the model that was used at the camp I worked at the previous summer. This summer, I worked at a church camp that worked with inner city children at the Boys and Girls Club of East Texas. We were trained on how to disciple, teach, and love correctly and we talked a lot about extrinsic motivation. At camp, we used methods like the 5 to 1 ratio which is where if you were disciplining or telling them what they could improve on, you would say five positive statements like "I really appreciate you standing in line correctly", "That you so much for not talking in the halls!", etc. and then saying at the end state what the child needs to work on for that particular day.
Another way that I have used this method in my class at the after school program is by praising all the kids who are sitting correctly in the class instead of calling out one child who is not sitting correctly. As the slides state:
 

self-development: seeing accomplishments (praise from teacher), specific praise helped you want to go deeper

 This definition of self-development helps the students as a whole begin to grasp what sitting correctly in the hallways, keeping their hands to themselves, being attentive in bible or chapel, or even sitting correctly in their chairs during snack actually look like. By using this form of extrinsic motivation, the children are able to say "okay, so Ms. Watson appreciates it when we are quiet in the hallways and usually says something if we are sitting down and patiently doing what we are told". Through this, the children are learning great skills while also being praised. 

This type of motivation does not only need to be used to an after school or camp setting. It can also be effective in other settings such as the classrooms when you are trying to get the children to pay attention to you while you are teaching and instead of calling a student out of getting others in trouble, you instead show kids what it should look like in the classroom by praising the students who are sitting quietly and listening. 

After seeing extrinsic motivation play out in my after school and camp settings and also seeing the positive effects of it through educational psychology, I now know that it is something I am going implement in my classroom.