The Extraordinary Educators Podcast

Innovative Incentives: Boosting Student Motivation with Sandra Brown

• Sari Laberis • Season 6 • Episode 5

Share episode

What if a simple incentive could radically transform your students' motivation? Join us this week on The Extraordinary Educators Podcast as we sit down with Sandra Brown, a passionate school-based teacher leader from Philadelphia. Sandra's journey is nothing short of inspiring, as she shares how introducing small trophies, medals, and even homemade spaghetti dramatically increased student engagement with their i-Ready lessons. Listen in to discover her innovative strategies and practical tips for monitoring progress and tailoring rewards to meet individual student needs.

But Sandra's story is just the beginning. This episode also dives into broader strategies for educators looking to implement effective motivational techniques in their own classrooms and schools. Connect with us on social media to share your experiences, gain more inspiration, and even suggest topics or volunteer to be a guest on future episodes. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and remember to stay extraordinary on your educational journey.

Read Sandra's blog: CurriculumAssociates.com/blog/how-to-empower-students
Follow us on Twitter: @CurriculumAssoc
Follow us on Instagram: @MyiReady
Have feedback, questions, or want to be a guest? Email ExtraordinaryEducators@cainc.com to connect with us!

Sari Laberis:

Welcome back to the Extraordinary Educators podcast. It's Sari, and this week I'm really excited to share a conversation I had with Sandra Brown, who is the school-based teacher leader at Lamberton in Philly. So Sandra was noticing that her students were not very motivated to complete their i-Ready lessons and they were either not spending time on tasks or getting distracted, and so she created an incentive system to really motivate them and really meet them where they are. So I'm really excited for you to hear this conversation, because she breaks it down in a very simplified way that is replicable, that you could bring back to your school or your classroom. So here's my conversation with Sandra. Welcome, Sandra, it is so great to have you with us today. Yes, thank you for inviting me. Thank you, of course. So I have heard great things about a particular incentive system that you have going on at your school, so I would love to just hear about it. What are the components of it, how do you get started and anything else you want to share with our listeners.

Sandra Brown:

Okay, so I got started when I was in the classroom and the kids were not really excited about doing the i-Ready and they thought, oh, we got another thing to do. So I thought, ok, let's, let's see what they would look forward to. And so I ran across these trophies in the dollar store actually, and I was like we can get this and give it to them. Or the medals you know how you get those little medals. So I started using that as an incentive and so then I first I was like, ok, if you can get the person with the highest I never gave them a limit I said the person with the highest limit pass tests will get the trophy. And first you didn't think that they were excited about it because they were older kids, fifth and sixth graders but they were. They worked hard.

Sandra Brown:

And when I came in with the trophies and I put on there, I had someone put a tape and it says i-R eady Champion. That's all. It says. Nothing, major anything. But I guess if I could I would put it personalized and put their name on it. But I guess if I could I would put it personalized and put their name on it. But they were excited to get it and they worked hard, some of them really worked hard. And then at the end of the school year I told this is crazy, but I cook for the school and I love to cook. And the kids will come by and say you didn't cook me anything this round. And I said I tell you what, if you pass five lessons that's one lesson per day, five lessons for the week I'll bring you in some spaghetti and they were excited about it. So I usually check it. I give them the whole week and I check it on Monday.

Sandra Brown:

So that's what I do.

Sari Laberis:

Thank you so much for sharing. So is it just to clarify is it one trophy per class or per student?

Sandra Brown:

Per student. If there's a tie, then there will be two kids.

Sari Laberis:

And then they pass it along to the next person or they keep the one

Sandra Brown:

No it's a little -- they keep it.

Sandra Brown:

Ok yeah, they keep that trophy, that's theirs.

Sari Laberis:

That's awesome, and so what data are you using to determine who gets the trophy?

Sandra Brown:

I look at their pass rate and I see how many lessons they have taken and how many they've passed, because in the past they were just taking it and they would be on the computer for to maintain those minutes and I'm like you've been on here for an hour and you didn't pass any lessons. Come on, what's going on? So then I had to kind of give them some incentive because it's just not being there, because you know what they do they go to another site, right, and then listening to something else, and so the time is running and they're not passing any tests.

Sari Laberis:

Very cool. And so how do you think? I mean, you've mentioned that they were motivated, but how did it change their behavior during I-Ready or their motivation for completing their lessons or any other changes you?

Sandra Brown:

saw it was the motivation to complete the lessons and also that helped because our principal he was a think outside the box kind of guy, so he had them doing their student-led conferences. So from their student-led conferences they need to be able to maintain that i-Ready score. So if they keep passing then their score is going to be higher.

Sari Laberis:

And how did you roll this out to students and families? Did you do it during a whole school moment or during class time,

Sandra Brown:

Actually I just did it in a class. I didn't roll it out to parents or anything like that, maybe because it was a fifth and sixth grade class. They were self-motivated, either those who wanted to do it, they they cared, because then they wanted to change the incentive. They wanted to well, if I don't get the trophy, can you buy me lunch? They still want something for their efforts, but they think that you know, I don't want the trophy, but can I get lunch? You know?

Sari Laberis:

Do you have any advice or tips? You know, it could be one or two things If the teacher or leader is listening and wants to start implementing a system like this at their school or in their class.

Sandra Brown:

I think what they should do is initially they should monitor your life, look and see who's doing what, and after you start looking and you see who's excited about it and who's not, and then you kind of pull them in, like talk to them about what is it that they want to do, and get them at least interested or listening. And then I think the first time you may want to just go ahead and give it out to anybody who passed lessons you know what I mean and then kind of taper it back. So therefore, those who are not usually do that well on tests, they could basically like say OK, I did pass one Right, and so then you can move it up If you pass any. I think you should start with if you pass your lessons.

Sari Laberis:

Yep Starting small and making sure every student has a chance for success, right, so they can get that award. That's awesome.

Sandra Brown:

Well, any other last closing thoughts that you have about the system or implementing a new system, I think also when they're doing the i-Ready, that teachers need to look and see where, not just sit at their desk and grade papers or anything like that. I think they need to move around the room and see where the kids are stuck, because a lot of times they're frustrated because they're stuck and so they'll just shut down. So you can kind of do many lessons as you facilitate. You know you're going around and you say hey, I see that you've been on this page for a minute and they may tell you oh, because I don't understand that we didn't go to that. And you have to explain to them that the more difficult it is, that means you're moving up. So then they'll look forward to hey, if it's challenging, that means I must be, my score is moving up. If it's challenging, that means I must be, my score is moving up. If it's too easy, that means I'm not going anywhere.

Sandra Brown:

What I did was I walked around and the little girl. She said I don't understand, we didn't do this before. And I said that means you must be on a higher level than your grade. Let me do a little mini lesson for you. Not give them the answer, but a mini lesson so they can go ahead and apply it.

Sari Laberis:

Right. So really actively monitoring and being transparent with students about why they're seeing the content they're seeing, so ensuring they understand Correct. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time and for sharing this with us. I'm sure lots of folks listening are excited to bring it back or something similar to their school. So thank you again for your time and expertise. You're welcome. Thank you, get inspired by following us on social media and please tag us in your posts on X at Curriculum Asoce and on Instagram at my Eye Ready. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest, or if you want to be a guest, email extraordinaryeducators at cainccom. Please subscribe where you listen to podcasts and if you'd like to help more educators, just like you, join the conversation and please leave a review. Remember, be you be true, be extraordinary. The Extraordinary Educators podcast is produced by Curriculum Associates. Editing by Shane Lowe, social media by Atsiti Hanan, guest booking by Sari Labaris and production by Haley Browning. This podcast is copyrighted materials and intellectual property of Curriculum Associates.