Tried it Tuesday

I am back into the swing! I am hooking up this week with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried it Tuesday.

I want to share something that I have been doing in class for a while now. It is not glamorous, but it is effective.

Each morning I have a warm-up. My students do the warm-up to get their mind in focus. Since I teach gifted students, many of them are avid readers. So much so that they will read when they are supposed to being doing something else – like school work or listening to the teacher.

Over time, I noticed students were not finishing all of the warm-up and waiting until I went over it to finish it. I would catch some students reading. So I started to star their papers. If they were finished and everything looked good from a glance, they would earn a star. Then, the students who received a star would earn a point for their table. I keep track of table points each day. Of course, the table points were used for other things too, but now I included finishing work.

Now, I not only do it for warm-up time. I do it during all the subjects. During social studies or science, I will star classwork when the students finish. And the students know – their table earns a point.

I know it seems so simple, but I wanted to share this technique because it has increased engaging production in my classroom! If you are someone who struggles with students staying on task, maybe this will work for you.

Thanks for dropping by!