Any other 5th grade teachers here?

Actually, I'd love to hear from any upper-grade teachers. 4th or 5th I think would do it.

I have an extremely immature class this year. All of the behavior plans I have in my bag of tricks have failed so far, because they all go on the premise of "if you work hard, you'll be rewarded, but not right away". For instance, we don't have recess on PE days, so I give them the chance to early tallies during the week. However many tallies we have by Tuesday, we go out for that amount of minutes.

That worked really well on Monday, when they decided they wanted to earn the tallies. Not so well today, when they decided that next Tuesday is too far away and they're not willing to work for it.

I am actually considering bringing back the system I used in Kindergarten..the good ol' stoplight. You get a warning, if you ignore the warning you go to the yellow space, if you ignore again, you go to the red space, and there are consequences attached to each. That's how immature these kids are...I feel they need something this basic so that the consequences and rewards are tangible.

Does anyone have any ideas for me? I'm willing to try anything...I have NEVER in my years of teaching come across a group of kids who had more difficulty doing what's expected...INCLUDING my Kindergarteners!

Re: Any other 5th grade teachers here?

Here is what I have done with some classes over the years that really needed help with staying on track:

I make a scoreboard on the front board with a box for each row, table, pod (however I have the room arranged.) All day long, I add tally points to their boxes whenever I spot a kid doing the right thing. You'd be surprised how fast 5th graders will snap into line when they see someone else getting points for their table.

On Fridays, I do a prize for the top few tables. Usually, it's letting them eat lunch upstairs along with a trip to the prize bin. I let them put the tv or radio on and hang out. It definitely encourages positive peer pressure because kids will get irritated at tablemates who are goofing off while other tables get points- so you don't have to correct behavior yourself as much- their peers will tell them to knock it off!

HTH!

Re: Any other 5th grade teachers here?

I have a chart w/ their names and cards: green - good to go, yellow - warning, orange -5 min of recess, red - note or call home.

If they are on green at the end of the day they get a ticket, which they put their name on. Every friday i hold a raffle and draw names. Those kids get to pick from my prize bucket (pencils, stickers, erasers, etc.)

It more or less works for most of my 5th graders.

ETA: it also doubles as a lesson on probability

Message edited 9/24/2009 7:02:53 AM.

Re: Any other 5th grade teachers here?

Thanks to both of you

I am totally over this class. I had a rough one last year, but I had them more or less in line by the end of the 1st month.

And, I'm willing to admit this much, I do resent having to "baby" this group so much, because they are old enough that it shouldn't be necessary.

I'm definitely going to start something new on Monday...not sure what, but I've got to do something. I used to use lunch in the classroom as an incentive last year, but my new (wonderful ) principal does not allow the kids to eat in the room. It's a miracle I got her to agree to let them have snack during the day.

Re: Any other 5th grade teachers here?

my husband works in the south bronx (he teaches 5th grade) and he uses the table tally system.
he told the kids whichever table gets the most tallies by friday gets to win a prize ( time at the computer, spent time with the turtle, art, lunch with the teacher etc...-) he said it worked for most of the days.. of course there were some off days but for the most part it was pretty good

HTH!

Re: Any other 5th grade teachers here?

Re: Any other 5th grade teachers here?

Re: Any other 5th grade teachers here?

Re: Any other 5th grade teachers here?

I've had years where I've needed to use multiple rewards systems to keep the class focused.

I like to use play money for individual rewards. The can spend their money buying jobs for the week. I will also sell little rewards like pencils and erasers when I can get a good deal at the dollar store.

For tables, I give will give out letters when they work well together. When they spell "superstars" they get a small treat. It doesn't matter how long it takes for them to get the word, that way they can celebrate when other tables are superstars also. I found it works just as well as a competitive tally chart because when one table sees that another table has earned a letter then they all get focused.

For my afterschool group, I used to use incentive charts and they would get a piece of candy when they had five stickers.

I hope this helps!

Re: Any other 5th grade teachers here?

Posted by MrsRivera

Posted by Athee

my husband works in the south bronx (he teaches 5th grade) and he uses the table tally system.
he told the kids whichever table gets the most tallies by friday gets to win a prize ( time at the computer, spent time with the turtle, art, lunch with the teacher etc...-) he said it worked for most of the days.. of course there were some off days but for the most part it was pretty good

HTH!

Thanks for the suggestion!

I think I will move some desks around and try this. Right now, I'm a little cramped, so I have the kids in tables of varying sizes. Maybe I'll redo the seats so I can do the table tallies instead.

My aunt (former teacher) also suggested "letting the inmates run the asylum" She suggested having a team captain for a month, and letting the team captain keep the tablemates in order. She had a pretty elaborate system and it sounds interesting! We'll see how it goes!