I love using the scoreboard with my 7th graders because they need something in front of them to see how they are doing behavior-wise. I started out with the reward being 5 minutes of free time at the end of the period, but two of my classes are so rowdy, loud, and disruptive that I had to switch to more HW/less HW. The problem with that is that we aren't really supposed to be assigning homework in English Language Arts b/c the kids get so much in Math and our principal doesn't want to overwhelm them. They hate earning homework, even though most of them don't do it anyway. One of my really sweet, well-behaved kids wrote me a note Friday, asking if only the "bad" kids could earn the homework from now on. I hate class-wide punishments, but free time was not enough to motivate these kids.

Should I just stick with the HW? I'm afraid that I'm going to get observed soon and my principal will have a fit about me assigning HW as a punishment.

Hi there!

I used HW last year. I stuck to the +3/-3 rule. I also respected the principle of making them lose the first two weeks so they saw I really meant what I said.

The first couple of days I had students who didn't bring the HW, but if this happened (if not all the children brought the homework), we would start the class with a frowny face and talking about the 4th rule (Make smart choices).

Of course, the homework has to be something achievable (especially if there's one frowny face as a difference). I used to send them something like making a picture (only in pencil, not even colors) of something they had learned in the lesson; or I asked them to write down the rule they had broken the most...

I insist in the fact of giving little punishment as well as little prizes. Paraphrasing Biffle: the smallest the prize is, the most valued it is.

I wouldn't recomend you to use 5 minutes prizes/punishments. That's way too much, especially at the beginning.

I hope this can help you.

Best!