Homework Rewards

Getting a student to do their homework seems to be an ongoing battle for parents and teachers alike. As a mom, I know I am constantly battling with my son to do his. I have even stood over him, watched him complete it.. only for him not to turn it in. GRRR!

As a teacher, I know I will face this challenge with my students. I need to find something that is both challenging and meaningful. Something that they will want to do and yet still help them learn the necessary skills.

While randomly browsing teacher blogs and websites, I stumbled across Mrs. Raude's 4th Grade Gifted Rock Stars. Mrs. Raude is a nationally certified teacher and has created a very informational website for parents and students. She is also my teacher feature this week!

There is a lot of great ideas to be found here. She rewards those students who have completed and turned in all assignments on time for the month with a celebration lunch. I thought this was a great idea and so headed over to Vistaprint to create a way for me to track this.

The way this works in Mrs. Raude's class is that parents volunteer to purchase and/or deliver items for the luncheon each month. I decided a pizza party would be the simplest and easiest. The card has a space for 5 punches... they represent 4 weeks of homework and the monthly reading calendar (future blog post).

After a few more classes into my master's degree, I have learned that we are to focus on internal rather than external rewards AND there are now laws regarding the nutritional content of things teachers provide to their students. For this reason, I will need to check with my district and principal to see if this is usable in my area. 

I am now searching for more ideas on how to motivate my students to complete their homework.