Goal 1: I will practice my spelling words 30 minutes a week How Did I Do? I did 20 minutes of practice
Goal 2: I will use my spelling strategy How Did I Do? I did it!
Goal 3: I will use my self-monitoring graph to help me practice more How Did I Do? I did 16 more practices
Can I Do Anything Better? Next week I will try to do all 30 minutes of practice
reinforcement at an appropriate level of difficulty. Harris and Graham (1996) suggest that standards should be stringent because stringent standards produce better results.
Note that stringent is a relative term. What is stringent for one student might be lenient for another. If students set overly lenient standards, teachers may prompt them to make the standards more stringent or allow initial lenient standards and then work toward making standards more challenging. In contrast, some students may suggest standards that are much too difficult. This is a problem because if the standards are too high, the student will not receive any reinforcement. The teacher should take pains to set stan-dards that ensure the student will earn at least some reinforcement. Otherwise, the intervention will not be effective.
Step 2: Selecting the Reinforcer
One of the best ways to do this is to use a reinforcement menu (Maag, 2004). Note that this will involve determining both the reinforcer itself and the amount of behavior needed to earn it (e.g., for every 10 spelling practices you get 1 minute of free time). It is important that the amount of reinforcement that can be earned be explicitly defined and stated.
Step 3: Determining How Students Will Evaluate Their Work
For self-reinforcement to succeed, students must be able to accurately self-evaluate their work. For example, students may self-correct or bring the work to the teacher to check, and then determine the amount of reinforcement earned. It is best if explicit, objective criteria for evaluation are determined in advance. When evaluation criteria are subjective, students may be too hard or too easy on themselves. In cases where explicit, objective criteria may be difficult to define (e.g., overall quality of a writing assignment), teachers and students should collaborate on evaluations.
FIGURE 6.8. Example of a reinforcement menu for self-reinforcement.
Lynn’s Spelling Rewards
Daily Rewards
Good match 2 minutes of computer time
For every 10 correct practices 1 minute of computer time
100 practices in one session 10 extra minutes of computer time
Weekly Reward
Spelling test score of 70–75 1 sticker
76–79 2 stickers
80–90 A soft drink
91 or more Lunch with Mr. Fuchs!
Step 4: Self-Award Reinforcement
If the student met the criterion she or he may be awarded the reinforcer. In theory (Bandura, 1997) the student should control access to the reinforcer and administer it. In practice, teachers may be uncomfortable with this. A good middle ground is for stu-dents to show the teacher the work and the amount of reinforcement they believe they should self-award. One good way to involve the teacher is to award students extra rein-forcement for accurately determining how much they have earned. For example if a student accurately counted up the number of practices and determined the correct amount of reinforcement he or she would receive a bonus. Note that self-reinforcement does not mean that the teacher should refrain from or reduce other forms of reinforce-ment. Teachers should continue to provide social reinforcement (e.g., a wink, a “Good job,” a pat on the back, etc.). Over time, teachers should encourage children to move from tangible or activity reinforcers to self-praise (Harris & Graham, 1996).
Here is how you might teach a student to use self-reinforcement.
“Hi, Lynn, I wanted to talk with you today about your spelling. I know you don’t like spelling much and that you don’t really like to practice it. On the last report card your average was only 64% and your mom was really upset.
Well, guess what! We’re going to treat spelling just like a real job! When you do a real job you get paid, don’t you? Of course they don’t pay you for noth-ing, do they? Right, you have to work for your pay and do a good job. Well, from now on we are going to pay you for doing your spelling. Let’s figure out how we could pay you. We’ll make a list of some rewards you could earn.”
At this point the teacher and student confer about the possible rewards.
“OK, Lynn, you seem to like extra computer time so let’s make that the every-day award. Now let’s decide how many practices you should do to earn extra computer time.”
Now the teacher and student negotiate the number of practices necessary to earn rewards. Note that it’s a good idea to track the amount of the behavior that the student would normally produce (i.e., in this case how many practices the student normally would do daily). You can use this as a baseline for setting reinforcement levels. Also note that reinforcement levels can and should change when performance improves.
“Well, Lynn, I think we decided what you can earn. Let’s write it down so we can remember it, then later I will make a card for you. You’ll keep the card in your spelling folder. It will help you remember what you can earn. Now let me show you how your job will work. Every day you will have 10 minutes to practice your spelling. You can use the spelling strategy we always use to help you. When 10 minutes are up, I want you to count the number of practices you did and write the number on the top of the sheet. Then, I want you decide how much computer time you earned and write it on the top of the sheet.
After you’ve done that, come to me. I’ll check it. If you counted correctly and figured out what you earned right, I will give you a bonus! You’ll get two extra minutes of computer time. Now, on Friday you take your spelling test.
We’ll do pretty much the same thing. You’ll check your test just like always.
Put your percent correct at the top. Then figure out the reward and write it at the top. I’ll check it just like we do every day. Now let’s go over how we do this.”
Walk the student through the steps once and model the process. Then ask Lynn to tell you in her own words how she will do it.