Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program
Third Edition
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Do Not Be Parsimonious with Praise, Rewards and Awards. Rather, be generous and build good self-concepts. Be sure to include each of your students in your largesse!
Many teachers tend to be for too parsimonious with points, stamps, praise, certificates and other little rewards for their students. Many of us have been brought up in families and cultures that believed praise, loving acts and rewards caused young people (and older ones too) to become "soft" and "sit on their laurels" and no longer bother to earn more praise, etc. Withholding praise and positive reinforcements is punishment and it cannot be "whitewashed" as anything else. This is a puritan ethic which no research has ever found to be true! On the contrary, it makes students (and adults) of all ages feel unloved, unworthy and unappreciated and creates a neurosis wherein work either becomes an unhappy life-long burden or not worth the effort to even try. On the other hand constant positive reinforcement and its visual symbols causes students to have a very good self-concept which in turn empowers them to be successful and happy. The best time to start with love, praise and positive reinforcements is at birth.
The following methods of motivating groups of students or single students may be used to advantage during many of the various Activity lessons in the Bannatyne Program.
Bannatyne Program Certificates of Excellence (Print out from Disc One)
Whenever a student does a task or Activity in the Bannatyne Program very well, the Teacher should fill out a Bannatyne Program Certificate of Excellence and, after asking that student to stand up in front of the class, hand the student the Certificate of Excellence with a little ceremony stating what the Certificate is for.
So, in a large class, hand out Certificates of Excellence several times a day and make sure that by the end of a month ALL the students in the class or group have received roughly the same number of Certificates. The less able and less talented students need them the most! In smaller groups and with single students one Certificate of Excellence per week is a minimum. One reading disability child in the Learning Center had one bedroom wall half covered with Certificates of Excellence and his mother told me he would lie in bed looking at them with great pride and joy.
Also award a Certificate of Excellence for the completion of each Workbook, although some Teachers give them for the completion of each Color Section in the Ships and Planets Workbooks.
Bannatyne Program Certificate of Completion (Print out from Disc One)
Always be sure to hand each student a final Bannatyne Program Certificate of Completion for the whole Bannatyne Program after the Neptune Workbook 13 is completed. It should not to be given for partial completion of the Bannatyne Program.
A Group Motivation Technique--Team Competition
Split up the overall group (usually into groups of equal achievement levels) into two, three or four teams depending on its overall size. No more than six students to a team is recommended as this allows every student to have several turns, and the teams are small enough to have a "I know who's in my team" identity. Work across the teams in turn (they may have team names) with the stimulus questions, and ask a question of a student in each team. Run it like a TV panel game. Award a point for every correct answer and record them on the board under the team names. Give bonus points for quiet team behavior. (A hint: If one team is noisy do not comment negatively or directly but always immediately award a "Bonus Behavior Point'' with due ceremony to the quietest team and the noisy one will quiet down.) Do not "put down" students giving incorrect answers nor allow other students to deride them. Teams not deriding students get an extra two Bonus Behavior Points at the end of the activity.
PRAISE, POINTS AND REINFORCERS
Key Aspects of Positive Reinforcement
1. Praise students for even the smallest success or achievement. This is most important for less competent students if they are to build that all-important positive self-concept which inspires the desire to learn.
2. Mark or check the correct items in any activity, NOT the wrong ones. Total the correct items to assess the points awarded. The best way to handle incorrect items is simply to insert the correct word or grapheme in ink above or alongside the incorrect one.
3. Do NOT subtract points that have already been awarded because this is damaging to a student's self concept. Also, do NOT use the traditional policy of determining a maximum possible achievement score and then taking away from it the number of incorrect items or points because this is also injurious to students' progress and academic confidence. Try to count up the number of "correct items" (say, 24) and insert that number somewhere on the page rather than, for example, writing 30 - 6 = 24. This applies to all school work, not just the Bannatyne Program. It shows positively what is being learned, or has been learned.
4. Be generous with the awarding of points. It is simply not true that a steady flow of points causes students "to sit back and take it easy." On the contrary the pleasure of success by students which is acknowledged by the teacher through praise and points causes a glow of self-esteem which makes him or her strive again and again for its satisfaction. This is true of all human endeavor--millionaires cannot wait to make their second million! Workers cannot wait to receive their next pay-check, and a bonus is always welcome! Winners in any race strive to win the next race and the next!
5. The presentation of the activities should be light and conversational, not academic or "heavy." There is no correlation between the amount of learning by students and "solid, heavy" instruction during lessons. The best teachers are the warm, bubbly, enthusiastic ones who also know how to set limits. Of course the content of the lessons and their ordered programming is also very important, but in the Bannatyne Program all the task analysis and programming of activities has been done for you, so you can relax and happily teach the provided content.
The less competent students in the class have an urgent need for this satisfaction and self-esteem if they are to progress at a reasonable rate. Too often in our educational system we limit our positive reinforcement to a few highly competent, verbally bright students. So award less competent students plenty of points--especially for "trying" and "improvement." Always assess a student on his or her own improvement standards, NOT on the class average or what the clever students do.
6. Use humor, color and competition as additional motivators to reinforcement points and praise. Many school rooms are much too glum in atmosphere.
7. Use all kinds of stars, stamps (happy face, etc.) and seals to put on the work of students. Do not reserve these only for the competent students, or just younger students. Especially, stamp or star any improvement in the work of less competent students. This idea of rewarding improvement (even a modest one) just as often as outright ''majority correct" achievement is extremely important. A disadvantaged or disabled student who had one correct yesterday but who gets two correct today has made a tremendous academic improvement and should be magnanimously rewarded with a large bonus.
8. Give praise and award all points as soon as possible after the activities are completed. It is a well-known principle that immediate reinforcement of work is far more powerful in its effect than is delayed reinforcement. A teacher's busy full schedule makes this difficult but it may be possible for an aide to supervise the next lesson while you correct the completed activity and then award points to each student in his presence. Or the aide, with training, can assess and award the points. If you do not have an aide perhaps the students can participate in a quiet "self-employed" activity or variety of activities. If you have a free or open period during the morning (while the students are at physical education perhaps) schedule the reading, writing, spelling and language activities before it, so that the marking can take place during your open time. However, always award the points to all the students personally when the class reassembles as it is this knowing about the points that is so powerful. Do not just hand out the books or papers silently, but rather make it a little ceremony of praise. At the worst never delay reinforcements for more than 24 hours.
9. Always award the requisite number of points to every student. The basic principle is to reward, NOT to punish or withhold rewards.
The Bannatyne Reading Program is a superb, proven reading program. The Bannatyne Reading Program is unlike any other reading programs currently available. This means you will find many features which are only in the Bannatyne Reading Program. Numerous kinds of motivation are seamlessly built into the Bannatyne Reading Program. In some Commonwealth countries the program may be referred to as: Bannatyne Programme, or Bannatyne Reading Programme.
Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program -- Copyright © 2003 Alexander Bannatyne, PhD
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