dinner and a movie

Seven or eight years ago, I bought and read (most of) Punished by Rewards, by Alfie Kohn.  The book itself gets some really mixed reviews; I chose to take it as a chance to think about how extrinsic rewards work (or do not work) in my classroom.

Some parts of teaching elementary band are tricky.  In our district, we do not give grades for this class, which is good and bad.  Good, because I feel very free to be completely honest with my feedback to my students.  I can respectfully state that some thing “needs to be improved” (the “NI” on the progress report) and not worry too much about an angry parent phone call, because it does not matter on the child’s report card.  Bad, because we do not matter on the child’s report card.  Even when a child does exceptionally well and spends hours each week practicing, they are not rewarded with a good grade.

I feel that I have to work a little differently, to assess and reward my students.  Over the years, I have tried a bunch of things.  As a new teacher, I started off with a little economy, where I had a “store” where students could buy things with money that I ”paid” them.  They received $1/minute for practice time.  I paid them in photocopied Monopoly money (you have to copy on different colors, or someone will be tempted to use their own Monopoly money to clear out your store).  I adopted that idea, from another band teacher but quickly abandoned it.  It took too much time and energy to implement and I really disliked the attitudes that went along with the system.  At that same school, I joined the elementary chorus teacher in having a Munching Party after our concerts.  All of the band and chorus students brought a bag of a snack food item, we covered the cafeteria tables with paper and they spent an hour (at the end of the day, on a Friday!) digging into their snacks.  The snacks had nothing to do with music and they weren’t healthy, but we did it anyway and it went over well.

By my 5th year of teaching, I tried to streamline my reward system, and relied on a sticker chart on the wall.  Students earned a sticker when they practiced their goal amount and when they *”passed” a song.  After eight stickers, they earned a prize.  After a few years, I took down the charts.  I did not like how students were comparing each other and I did not feel like it was helping to achieve many goals.  In that district, band and orchestra were extra-curricular activities, held before school.  After their concert, I had a donut morning for them, where I brought in a few gallons of milk and many donuts.  Again, that reward had nothing to do with music and it was not healthy.  I told myself that if those poor kids had to get up so early for rehearsal every week, it was nice to give them breakfast a couple times. 

Now, after 10 years of teaching, I have my reward system where I think I like it.  I still give stickers and my students earn prizes, but I really try to minimize it.  I write a lot of comments on their practice charts and try to make that be the focus of what I do.  My prizes are not fancy; I have a lot of erasers, pencils and bookmarks (all with music and musicians on them).  I also have some certificates for conducting the band (this entitles you to conduct the song of your choice at your next band class).  In the spring, we have a Watermelon Party after our concert.  I bring in a couple watermelons, slice them and we go outside.  It is healthy and the students enjoy being outside. 

 Today, we had Dinner and a Movie.  I projected the video of our winter concert onto the wall of my classroom and spread out a bunch of blankets on the floor.  The band members brought their lunch to my room and we ate and watched the show.  It was so much fun!

* I do not like to spend a lot of time on band music during lessons, I would rather work in the lesson books.  When a student feels that she can play a band song with two-or-less mistakes, they can play it for me (at their lesson) and I will “pass” them on it.  I do not need to hear it again.  If a student tries and does not pass, I use it as a chance to mark their music and help them through their mistakes.  They can try again at their next lesson.  This works very well for me.