Last week I started a series about reviewing for upcoming assessments, especially the big state ones. The first review that I shared was one of my favorites, called STAAR 2000. Missed the post? See it here.
While I frequently use the STAAR 2000 review as a standalone review for the Texas state assessment, called the STAAR test, I recently added an individual accountability piece to encourage a group of students with whom I had worked with during the previous school year. These students had been performing pretty well because they had already been with me for an entire school year. Since our theme for the year was related to being SuperKids, I thought I would add an additional challenge to the class review with individual rewards. See the picture below.
Here’s how it works:
1. Create the incentive chart. Use the one above as a guide or create your own. (Notice that I only included 15 boxes. This was around the number of days we had to prepare for the state test.)
2. Choose review questions. I typically assign 5 – 6 questions each day covering a wide-array of skills.
3. Give students 15-20 minutes of class time to complete the work. (I use the time at the very beginning of the day before announcements and pledges.)
4. Review the answers. (I require students to show their work and use the RACE or JUSTIFY model to analyze each problem.)
5. Students that answer all of the questions correctly color one square on their board.
6. Prizes are awarded immediately.
Not only were the students motivated to earn the prizes, especially the week of no homework, this system encouraged the students to try their best on every problem instead of being lax on one or two. It was a great addition to the class STAAR 2000 program!
