Positive Reinforcements for Middle School Students

Often, I have a difficult student that results in me and my team creating a behavior plan for that student.  More often than not we work towards using positive incentives for students to earn with the behavior chart rather than consequences or taking things away.  But, with middle school students, sometimes it is hard to find age-appropriate rewards.

Get the Parents Involved

I try to get the parents involved with the behavior plans.  Sometimes the most appropriate rewards for the students involve things that are more appropriate to happen at home.  I have had students whose parents determined that the best reward was some screen time after dinner or a special family activity, or even a food reward (at home since we can’t give the kids food at school).

Getting the parents involved also helps because they can follow up with the students at home about how the behavior plan is working.  Having the parents and teachers on the same team with expectations and rules does help reinforce the good behaviors.

Computer Time

When determining what reward is appropriate you also need to determine how quickly the student needs to earn the reward.  Some students need constant and immediate feedback.  I had a student who twice a day could earn 5 minutes of free time on a computer.  We determined that his missing 5 minutes of instruction because he was having a good day, was better than the hours of instruction he would miss when his behaviors were not matching classroom expectations.

For some students, you can give them weekly rewards, daily rewards, or if it is really an urgent issue they can receive rewards more frequently than that.  But, computer time is always a popular one with my students.  And on the school Chromebooks, there are not any inappropriate things that the student can get into that we have to worry about.

You could allow the student to play an age-appropriate game, or just watch a video.

Social Activities

Some students are motivated by getting the opportunity to spend time with friends.  Maybe you reward them with letting them pick their own seat for a day.  Make sure that if you do this though, it is a student that will make a good decision. You don’t want to offer this to a student who will create a bigger issue.  Another option is to give them some free time to socialize with their friends.  Or, if you have a cafeteria with assigned seating, their reward could be getting to pick their own seat for a day.

Use something of the teachers

Other easy ideas are to let the student sit in your chair, use a fun pen, or be able to teach part of the lesson.  I have had students whose favorite thing was to teach something and they would do anything to get that opportunity.

Homework Pass

This one can be tricky if you are not the primary teacher in the classroom.  But, many of my students are extremely motivated by a homework pass.  But, this is something that I struggle with because my co-teachers need to be in agreement to accept the homework pass.  Often I am faced with contention when I want to use this reward so if you are going to do this, make sure that all teachers on the team, or all teachers that are involved, understand why this is the best option and hopefully agree with you that it is worth it.

Music

Occasionally, I will offer the reward of being able to listen to music while they work.  Sometimes this is done in my room where I play music for everyone to hear.  Or, sometimes I do this when the students are in the computer lab.  They can play their own music on the computer and listen with headphones.

The one drawback that I have with this reward is that my school has a strict no cell phone policy.  So, it only works in certain rooms where the students can listen to their own music.

What are some things that you use with your students?

Also, Check out:

Five Things to Remember for Strong Parent Communication

Accommodations for Students Who Struggle with Executive Function