Level 1: The Scoreboard

The Scoreboard, described in the “First Steps” menu, is your initial and primary motivator.  For K-4th graders, use Smilies and Frownies as your categories; for older students we’ve found Teacher vs. Students works wonderfully well.

Because you'll be using the Scoreboard all year, here are a variety of Scoreboard strategies ... but don't employ them too often!  It's a long time until spring.

     Ping-Pong: Named by our WBT kindergarten pro, Andrea Schindler, you either reward for a positive behavior and then quickly follow up with a negative point or vice versa.  You ping-pong the Scoreboard, point on one side, point on the other.  Say, "That back row is doing great!  Give me a Mighty Oh Yeah!"  (And make a mark on the positive side.)  Continue, "But unfortunately, some of my students are not using vigorous gestures!  Oh no!  Mighty Groan!"  (And make a mark on the negative side.)  Obviously, you can go the other way, negative point first and then positive point.

     Marker Move:  Your marker is in a tray at the bottom of your blackboard.  Say, "You kids are doing really well.  I'm going to move my marker a little closer to the positive side of the Scoreboard.  Give me a 'ooooooh, goody!'"  Also, when kids aren't doing quite so well, you move your marker slightly further away from where it would need to be to make a positive mark.

     Boombox:   You go in with a boombox and place it in the front of the room, far from where it would be hooked up.  Each positive mark on the Scoreboard gets a "Mighty Oh Yeah" and you move the boombox closer to where it could be plugged in.  Eventually, you plug the boombox in ...but, oh no!  You see some negative behavior and the box must be unplugged! Eventually, the kids get to hear 30 seconds of music (maybe the second day of this routine.)  Let them beg to play "boombox" again for several days and get your most popular kids to suggest music (that you preview at home to be sure it is PG.)  Be sure when the boombox reward is won, you keep the music period short ... it's a long year ... by the spring they should have worked hard to earn three minutes of music at the end of the day.

     Fake:  Say, "Wow, you kids are doing really well.  Where is my marker ..." Then pick up the marker and move it toward the board, ready to make a positive mark.  Then, say, "But not quite well enough to get a positive mark!"  And put the marker down underneath the Scoreboard ... done correctly, your kids will say "awwww" and be eager to get a real positive mark.

     Doubler:  For late in the year, say "Today, we're going for double points!"  Then, whenever there is negative behavior, make two marks and get a double Mighty Groan.  Whenever there is positive points, make two marks and get a double Mighty Oh Yeah.  When you have some positive and some negative behavior, make a quick mark positive and a quick mark negative.  As you can tell, the score will end up to be about the same, but it feels much more exciting.

     Pirates:  Say, "today we're going to play Pirates.  I'm the Captain, you're the Crew."  Label the Scoreboard appropriately.  Say, "When the Crew scores a point, shout 'Yo, ho! ho!'"  When the Captain scores are point, hold your hand out in a hook and say, "Arrrrgggg!"  Obviously you can change the labels in other ways, Queen vs. Subjects, Farmer vs Turkey (yum, yum, gobble, gobble!),  etc. 

     Drum roll:  Right before you make a positive mark,  say, "Drum roll!"  The kids pat their hands very fast on their desk, saying "ahhhhh!" louder and louder as you approach the board.  You make the mark, point at them and they explode, "OH, YEAH!"  Jay Vanderfin, one of Whole Brain Teaching's Co-Founders, throws in the "In your face!"  Kids get to say this to their instructor instead of the Might Oh Yeah!

     Beat the Clock:  Go in with a kitchen timer, pick the rule you want to work on, then say, "Okay, I'm going to set the timer.  Let's see how long we can go without .... (insert negative behavior, like talking without raising a hand to speak)."  When the negative behavior occurs, stop the timer and write down the "class record" on the board.  Then say, "Okay, let's try again.  If we beat that record, everyone will get a Smilie!  Tell your neighbor how desperately you want to win a Smilie!"  The goal is for students to go for 20 minutes without the negative behavior.  When this goal is achieved, and it's possible even in kindergarten, every time they hit the 20 minute mark, give them all a Smilie.

     WARNING:  Don't keep switching up the games above.  Use one occasionally ... and see how long you can keep engagement by using the variation.  Then, eventually, go to another.  Too much variety in how you're using the Scoreboard will make your class less, not more, focused on the goal of positive, learning behavior.

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But what is the reward that your students, of any age, are working for?  For kindergartners, all they’ll need for a while is seeing they’ve earned more Smilies than Frownies.  As you move up in grades, try more or less free time (in one minute increments), more or less homework (in one page or problem increments), one question more or less on the big Friday test, or, best of all, more or less game time.  If you'd like a simple, but powerful reward, let students earn how many balls they take out to recess. Perhaps, you'll even have a "special" ball that they only get when they've won three positive marks.  Our favorite academic game for all levels is "Mind Soccer," an intensely fun, review anything game available under "Free Downloads" on this site.