"To get what we've never had we must do what we've never done."

Read and Reflect

An idea that really struck me while reading the subsection "Teaching about Effort" was the idea of having each student complete an effort rubric after a test/quiz/project. I really liked this idea because I think that when students are able to see the relationship between effort and achievement (provided that they are honest with themselves while filling out the rubric) they will realize how important putting forth 100% effort is, as well as how effort affects achievement. I think this would serve as a tremendous motivator for most students.

I have not had the opportunity to implement this in my classroom as of yet because most of my classroom settings are Co-teach or Instructional support. I plan to experiment with this rubric with my Instructional Support class in the near future. I'm excited to see how it turns out! I will be using the effort rubric from the book (pg. 52) to start my experiment with. I may change bits and pieces as time progresses. I'll keep everyone updated as to how this is working out for us!

Sorry I don't have any fun pictures :-P


When reading the text, another idea that struck me was the "Guidelines for Effective Praise" (pg. 56). The table really outlines effective/ineffective praise quite well. I think most of us (or at least myself) are guilty of only praising particular students, or students who are over-achievers anyway! This will also be something that I plan to work on- praise everyone on their good work or achievements.

I don't typically believe in giving physical awards/rewards because I feel that children are going to grow to expect something physical every time they meet some expectation. Rather, I feel that they will benefit more with a "self-esteem boost".