I am telling students that they can earn extra time at recess if they're ahead on the smiley side. What do I do with the students who haven't turned in homework? They miss recess. So, what will be the buy-in for them?

Any suggestions?

Empower,

If it is a "large" number of students that are not turning in homework you might rethink this move.
There are ways to make the scoreboard useful for dealing with individuals but it is usually used to reinforce class behavior as a whole.
I'd suggest going to the free ebooks for the scoreboard or industrial scoreboard for some ideas!

Good Luck!
~Jason

Jason has a great suggestion in steering you to the free ebooks for more info on the scoreboard. One suggestion might be to use the scoreboard smileys has a reward for less homework. If they are ahead on smileys maybe they could have 5 problems assigned for homework verses the 10 that you had planned to assign. The ones that aren't doing homework still may not do homework, but at least they aren't getting extra recess and just maybe, if there is less homework to do they will do it. Either way it is a plus for those who do their homework. Another possibility is that if the smileys win maybe they could win time to do homework at school (the last 5 minutes of the day). There are so many ways to make the scoreboard work for you. Just experiment trying some different things. One 5th grade class in my building wanted to work to win the chance to use colored chalk on the board in the classroom when doing board games in class (this was the students request).

Good luck,
Susan